Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1878-06-05

e Texas, or any other part of tn
: country, the most Of the puff" lie,
tiers are gotten up in the same mar
J. ner and for the same purpose, an
e that purpose--to induce people t
y remove to and settle In countr,
, infested with forty times the dan
. gers and pestilences that can b.
found in any part of Michigan. A
we have said before, we do make
, practice of publishing those Kan
sas letters, which are only calculat
ed to lead people astray as regard:
the true situation in that country
but for once we depart from oul
rules and give space for the inser-
ton of only a small portion of q
letter from Kansas, written by a
woman to her father in Michigan,
at the same time, by request, with
holding the names of the parties
concerned:
"As l have told you in nv previ-
ons letters, all the talk of big crops
and heavy returns for farming in
this State, amounts to talk and
noting else, and it is very poor
place for poor family to come to
live. When we do raise anything
here, we don't get any more to the
acre than we did in Michigan, and
We are compelled to sell it for some
times less than ha!f Michigan
There are thousands who die
here every year from what they call
getting acrlimated, and You already
know what the result has been with
us in that respect-four already
laid away TO sleep their last sleep,
and George 1.-THE husband,) been
suffering for the past two years with
rheumatism. and not able to do a
days worlttin the whole tine. What
little il raised | have to put in the
ground and harvest. We have dis
posed of article after article of our
household to get the actual neces-
saries of life, until we have nothing
left, and are compelled to live worse
than beggars. Our daily living
consists of the milk from one COW
and corn meal-the latter being
earned by little Jimmy, who is ut
work in the cotton field, and /
shudder for fear that / shall see
them bringing him home any min
ute, overcome with the heat. / say
we have the milk Of one cow-they |
call it q cow, but / had rather have
one Michigan COW than ten such as
they have here. = Oh, If
we could only get means enough to
bring us back to Michigan. ! know
that George would be willing to
work his finger nails of, and so
would /, to be able tn live in land
where people could live, once more.
And, father, If there is any money
that can be got anywhere in the
whole country, for the love of mer-
cv do send for us to come back to
Michigan, and you may promise
you like for us. and we
will. with the help of Almighty
God, try and fulfill the engage
ment."
The above is only portion Of
letter from Kansas, and it gives the
Of one family at least, and
the aspect is not an en-
couraging one, yet we believe there
are hundreds of others there who
have had and are having the same
experience. II is needless to say
that the father Of the lady who
wrote the above, although well adj
vanced in years, and having no
means, succeeded in obtaining suf-
ficient funds to bring back the
daughter and family, and now that
health is restored to the remaining
ones, they are all working hard to
pay back the money that was OBJ
taiued for their return trip.
The above is not the experience
of one person, but we are daily
coming In contact with just such
reports, and in our opinion, man
must be ont of his senses when he
will knowingly abandon such OPP ]
portuniries as are offered in this
and 20 off to that God-for-
saken country of Kansas, where !
good crops mean low PRICES, and .
poor crops mean starvation.
Let ms compare statistics with
Kansas, and see where We stand In !
this section, as regards products. !
For the yoar 1876, the average Z
yield Of wheat In Kansas was IA
bushels to the acre, and for the :
same year in Alpens county, the
average was over 20 bushels to the 4
.cr. and osh.r crops Ia like pro- b
portion. As regards prices the y