The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1877-10-11
THE QUESTION OF HEALTH.

We, Minnesotians, scarcely appre-
ciate the magnificent boon we enjoy
in the healthfulness of our climate.
There is no blessing comparable to it..
What is life worth in diseased and
disordered system, or in climate that
sweeps away those that are dear to
us!
The other day colony of Philadel-
phians, under the inspiration of one
Doyle, went to settle in Texas, ex-
pecting to find a paradise. Here is
the account given by one of their
number:
II believe that if Doyle had come
along we would have lynched him. l
never heard man SO heartily cursed.
On the second day some Of us started
out prospecting. The land was moth
ing but prairie, land guess I dug fifty
!, places, and couldn't get decent soil
more than two inches deep anywhere.
1t was dry, sandy and worthless.
There was no water fit to drink and
the running stream was nothing but 4
gully without an outlet and had water
; n it only when the rain came. We
! all knew that we were swindled. l
determined to give tho country fair
!. trial anyhow, but would have been
better off if / had come home imme-
diately.
. The writer and some of his compan-
ions then hired one hundred acres
; and proceeded to plant it to corn and
9 Cotton. This is the result:
vs.It was February before we got
fairly under way, and we worked hard
!. every day from sunrise to sunset on
} the plantation and then had to attend
. to our little truck patches that sup
: piled us with vegetables. Beef was
- cheap-Only five cents a pound for sir
: loin steaks-and st. Louis flour was
- worth $1l a barrel. We were getting
- along pretty we'll, although, of course,
~ we were living off the money we
! brought with us until the first week
n in June. Then was taken down with
~ the swamp fever, which laid me in
le bed. was out OF. my head entirely. !
p had to have the doctor, and that wa;
expensive. He charged two dollars &
W mile for day and four dollars mile
r. for night visits. He lived four mile.
a. away, and his bill for three visits wa,
% eighteen dollars. My wife and chill
~ dren were next attacked by the feve.
IL and then Dan Kelly and his children
had to give.up. The poor children
would lie around, and wouldn't an
= swer you, if you spoke to them all day
They were stupid, just as if they haa
- taken opium. There were now Onl,
~ three men left to work the plantation
- and by the 4th of July, suppose tn
% day made us little homesick, w
g were all $50 thoroughly disheartene
that we concluded to let the crops 2
KS and come back home. Mr.. Benso
to tried to get us to stay, but Kelly knew
IN that II his wife was taken down tina
If his little eight months old child mus
=, die, and we made up our minds tina
- home we must go, crops or no crops
ed Kelly and Steel started first, on Jul
,se IL, and came back by water. Ny wit
nd and followed the next week. Sh
=, was so sick that had to take sleel
M ing car right through. The other
lat came back in couple of weeks, an
oy- right glad, sir, were we all to be bac
esl in old Philadelphia.
40. Eyes, sir, l would have stayed til
fall and tried Northwestern Texa.
VI where they say it is healthy, but
bic felt that we would all die before thu
sh- time and we would have made n
.ks money, not more than 800 apiece j
cash, for the years work out OF til
plantation. The landowners an
as lstore-keepers swallow up the profit
So "Many of the colOnists came hon
NJ, before we did, and all that had none
have come since. There were son
'ul sad sights out there. Mr.. Campbe
me broke up his house and went aion,
the He lost his wife and two children /
.es. the fever, The wife was 50 sick til;
49,; she couldn't 60 to see the childre
Dol buried. Leech buried his mother an
as one of his children and there may !
use more that didn't hear Of. don
,re- believe any Northern man can do Il
ow work in the part Of Texas we were i
! = They can't stand it. Even the old il
habitants and niggers get the fev'
nearly every spring and have the agt
ned thr0uOhs tho fall