Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-02-20

brothers keeper" will do well to consider VIVA
harvest OF murdercrs. thieves, incendlaries, an'
harlots they are allowing to grow around them u
plague themselves and rain their offspring Mont
of us liveih to himself. The interests and desti
mics of humanity arc inte1linked. we must saw
the lost. or as they go down to wretchedness aho
ruin they may drag after them those that are near
cstand dearest to chr hearts.
LITTER FROM THE VEST
ST. JOSEPH, MICH. Feb. II, 1875.
To Tie Editor fAe Journal.
There are three things for which Eastern mer
leave home and come out West. One reason IS
they get sick of labor. Again, they think the
West is kind of heaven, where grain grows spon
taneously, railroads spring into existence in day
and where there is elbow room and unlimited
greenbacks for all. They think il won't do any
hurt to have few smart men in the West; every
young man who has emigrated fol- tae last fifty
years, has thought exactly so. They go, IN fact
with the idea OF astonishing the natives, and
eventually of returning and astonishing their
friends with the money and wisdom they have ac-
CURED.
Then great rany people Ego West" mercy to
see the country, visit their children ami relatives
who have "gone before, and prove by experience
the truth Of their pet des--viz that the West is
only half civilized, and that there IS "no place
like home, which they generally do to their own
great satisfaction and that Of the "oli folks at
home"
We started cut, as q great many others have
done, with our heart full Of modesty and pocket
full of recommendations az to character and gen.
eral ability. We thought that our talents, at the
least calculation were equal to a small farm and
piano for our youngest sister the first year.
The recommendations were produced with the
greatest confidence, but not great many times.
We were appalled, by the disrespectful manner
with which they were treated. They wanted to
know "What can you do" And we must ae-
knowledge that we averaged" very small
At the end of the first year we were yet more
modest. We had sadly come 10 the conclusion
that more smart men had come west than were
good for lis health. We were not living on a
farm of our own, aad in regard to the piano, we
wrote our sister that times were uncommonly
hard, and every body complaining, but the general
expectation was that something was going to turn
up. In that case the wish was father to the
thought. Has been so frequently since.
1t has long been the custom to look On the
West as kind of Purgatory, where preparation
is made fopf further existence Young men are
sent thither because they are smart and because
they are not smart the first that they may make
fortune, the last to get them out ofthe way; be-
cause they have too many relations on the old
place, and because they have NO relations at all.
The West is full of romance, and CT nearly
every mans emigration it might be truly said
thereby hangs tale Some of these tales are
highly interesting--some of them 50 much SO that
they are never told. Some have been crossed in
love, some have followed their lovers, and some
left them 10 get rid of them, the tic being rksome'
but too strong to break in any other way. There
are people who have failed in business, and people
who never had any business at all and Fever will
have. There is many man whose family and
poverty grew on him together, like the father of
Ginx' Baby, till he severed the ties at one blow,
and placed one, two, three thousand miles be-
tween himself and the dependent who he thought
cursed instead Of bles ed him.
Then there are ladies who have come hither, hunt
ing husbands who left hem years ago, who wrote
often at first, then seldom, ard finally net at all.
In our country there seem to be two kinds of d.
vorces-one by law. the other by time and SPACE.
On the prairies, and among the mountains and val
eys further west, men can be found with happy
families, who left equally happy families at home
in the East years ago. Imperfec: mail commuri
cationa, disappointment and perhaps dissipation,
severed the old home ties, and they have
begun again. No one knows their past, i. is not
the custom to inquire into it, of any one. If you
are q respectable man at present, your ntighbors
respect you; your early life no ore cares for.
New corners always wan. to inquire "where are
you from :" but IN time they learn, that, at first
acquaintance, this is not a safe question. Yankee
inquistiveness will not bring them out. some are
like the old gentleman we met on sbip-board who
displayed SO thorough kno Wedge OF Maine men
that we asked him if he was no. a fellow citizen.
To our regre, he answered no. and to our greater
regret lie did not say where he did come from
Sometime after, We we've talking a5out New
York, and We inquired if that was his native
place. lie said it wasn't. We were not exactly
satisfied, but thought it hardly eypedient TO take
up each State in turn, anxious though we were to
learn his origin. When you find man is a neigh
Dor of old John Suffer, and lived just across
American River from the mill where gold was
discovered, you naturally want 10 know all about
him. In this case it was of no USE and we still
regret that some people are not more communca
tive. P.S.GAIN.
LEGISLATIVE SUJfN1RY