The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-05-14
!. .iS~.&A AND cAr.urORNra.
AH antelIisent Eunierant
Heard From.

An Intelligent Emisrant
Heard From.
Capt. Wiliiam G. Barnes, former
ly of Lawrence, Kansas, now a resi-
dent of the beautiful aud highly
cultivated Santa Clara Valley in
California, wrote under date Of
April 4th letter to Mr.. Theodore
Thatcher OF Lawrence. In the fol-
lowing extract he compares the adj
vantages of Kansas with those of
California .
This country has its exceptional
seasons and failures as well as other
countries. Let Kansas take cour-
age there have been as signal fall
ures here as have yet occurred
there. True, they have never been
grasshoppered, and the chinch bug
is stranger in the land, but they
have their myriad armies of squir-
rele and birds, which frequently
ravage the crops of whole counties,
and then their earthquakes. Who
wants to be shaken out of bed at
the dead of night, and stand for
hours in his night clothes. shaking
with the dreadful apprehension of
being swallowed up by the gaping
earth. 1t might suit n second adj
ventist, who is supposed TO be al
ways ready to go to Heaven at IA
moments warning, but most people
are willing TO defer the trip indef-
nin'ly.
think that in some respects this
is j more pleasant country 10 live
in ian Kansas, but weighing all
cor siderations duly, must candid
ly say that the advantages of the
Pacific slope over Kansas arc SO
small, that it will not pay one who
is even moderately well fixed In the
latter, with favorable prospects be-
fore him, to pull up and come here.
This is certainly no country for a
poor laboring man. Chinese cheap
labor gives unskilled laborers very
poor chance indeed. l have seen
more destitute tramps hunting
work and something to eat, during
my short stay here, than l ever saw
in Kansas in ten years experience.
Skilled labor is in better demand,
and mechanics get good wages, but
work is not very abundant, and the
immense immigration of the pres
ent season, consisting as it does
mainly of day laborers and mechau-
les, will not have tendency to i'm
prove the situation.
Land in this valley is held at from
S150 to $500 per acre. All desira-
BILE real estate. in easy range of
market, is up beyond the range of
any except those with long purses,
and rents are cash in advance. My
advice is, therefore, to all who are
DESTROYS of escaping the disappOint-
ments of Kansas, to consider the
matter well. You sacrifice proper
ty and be at an expense and incon-
vel.ience of a journey over the con-
tinent, only to find yourselves in
worse circumstances at the outcome.
The Leavenworth Times publish
es the result of an interview with
q Mr.. w. Abrahams, who has been
OH q visit TO various California cit
les, which fully corraborates the
above lie says that although it is
not to be denied that this great
State is gifted in every possible
manner, and Astounding in vast
mineral wealth, it is painfully appar-
ent that it is overcrowded with for
tune-seellers of every description.
Hundreds and thousands of men are
lying around idle, willing and anN-
iOus to work, and whenever . con-
tract is to be let Or g situation adj
Vertised, scores rush and jump at
the chance to make even the scan
test living. There are more men
there than are needed, more than
can live, and poverty and ruin are
the inevitable results. Everything
is OVerdone, each branch of business
overcrowded, and although through
out the principal cities compare
lively few stores are found TO be
vacant, a great reaction must as a
matter of course, come upon scores
of business men, and thousands will
be involved in financial ruin. Rents
are enormously high in San Fran
cisco, common twO-story frame
store-r0oIn, twenty-four by sixty
feet, bringing $500 per month.
There are many business houses GO
ing up, but the majority of them are
two stories, wood, the fear of earth
quaE1es preventing the erection of
higher ones. In regard to fine resi-
dences, there are not SO many of
them as may be imagined, and they
are not, on the average, as elegant
or well appointed as those which
grace the streets and avenues of
LeavenWorth.
San Francisco is overrun at pres
ent, thousands arriving daily, and
yet there are hundreds coming
back. go.