The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-08-22
THE WEST AND FAR WEST.
The West Moving on Productive
Capacity-Eow the Western coun-
try was Settled-Two More Rail
roads Wanted.
Correspondence of the Cltlzen.I

try was Settled-Two More Rail
roads Wanted.
Correspondence of the Citizen.
OMAHA, Aug. 9th, 1873.
This whole Western country is a
modern miracle, and you will ex-
cuse me if l use my pencil to show
how this miracle has been wrought.
Sixty years ago, as a little tow
: headed urchin, / travelled out
WEST with my fathers family, to
find new home just across the Del
aware in the beech and hemlock
wilds of Northwest Pennsylvania.
This region was considered 'the
West at that time. Gradually it
passed on beyond the Susquehan-
nah, over the Alleghanies, and
reached the broad savannas and
heavy forests of Ohio. As a trou-
bled ghost this fancied region still
"moved on like poor Joe at the
bidding of the London police, pass
ing over the prairies and through
the forests of far off Indiana and
Illinois, until it finally reached the
Father of Waters, and heard of a
boundless, unknown wilderness,
stretching out indefinitely towards
the great Pacific Ocean.
THE FAR WEST.
This unbounded, underlined and
apparently boundless region gradu-
ally took the name of the Far West;
and when young man il the East
ern States surrendered all the joys
of home to settle in these unknown
wllds, his friends took their last
leave of the adventurous youth,
blessed him in family prayers and
publicly at the meeting house."
the good mother filed his saddle
bags mot carpet bag) with a store
of home made shirts and stockings,
not forgetting Bible and some lit
tie sisterly and cousinly love tokens;
and the young hero started out on
his long and tedious, if not peril
Gus, journey towards the setting
sun.
1t is about this Far West region
that / wish to talk little, so If YOU
will take a school atlas and sit down
by me, we can have pleasant, and
maybe a profitable chat. Mind,
however, that more than one-half of
this wide expanse of territory then
belonged to a foreign country.
Texas, an empire of itself, won its
own independence, and afterwards
mingled it's clone STAR with the
thirty-eight which now emblazen
the National Flag. And then Uncle
Sam took about half million
square miles from the Greasers, to
pay for the trouble and expense of
whipping them into decency. So it
is, we have now west of the Missis-
sippl twenty-one great States and
Territories, averaging more than
one hundred thousand square miles
each, and extending upwards of
1000 miles east and west, and near
ly the same distance from north to
south. Leaving out Alaska, fit only
for bears, seals and saYages, those |
twenty one States and Territories
embrace a little more than two
thirds of the whole American
Union. They are thirty-fve times
larger than the SIX New England |
States, and nearly seven times larger
than the thirteen original States of
the Republic. The single State of
Texas could have all New England
with New York, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey and Delaware planted in the
centre Of its wide eXpanse, and still
have wide border of green prairie
to be cut into Rhode Islands on all /
sides.
PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY.
This immense district of coun
try, stretching through thirty five
degrees Of longitude and twenty
four degrees of latitude, embraces
almost every variety of soil, surface
and climate. From the Lake of the
Woods in the North to the mouth
of the Rio Grande in the South, al
most two thousand miles, you pass
from a semi-artic to a semi TROPICAL
climate, although it should be add.
ed that the peculiar situation of the
States and Territories on the north
ern border gives them temperate
cline, and they possess many mil
lion acres of land admirably adapt
ed to the production of wheat and
other staple products of the farm.
Out in the wilds of Dakota there
are farmer princes who have each
from five to ten thousand acres cul-
tivated in wheat, yielding twenty
and thirty bushels to the acre.
Think of Minnesota, just out of the
wilderness stage of existence, show
ing an annual product of 40,0o0,000
bushels of wheat, almost halt the
amount produced in the United
States in 1850. Think of a halt
dozen other States In the North
west, almost equally good for grain
or grazing. Then pass down to the
Southwest and find amongst the
wilds of New Mexico and Arizona
a shepherd king, who farms out
nearly 100000 sheep, that feed in
pastures two hundred
miles long by a hundred in width
Think of Texas, with its immense
yield of cotton, wheat, corn and cat
tie. Think of the incalculable min .
eral wealth of Arizona and New
Mexico, especially of the former,
which is just beginning to be de
veloped. Think of the almost one
hundred million of dollars a year,
dug from the mines of the West
and poured into the nations and
the worlds treasure houses. Think
not only of the immense farm and
mine products now furnished by
these twenty-one States and Ter
ritories, but of the incalculable
amount to which they would swell I
if even tolerable facilities for trans I
portation were enjoyed throughout
the Far West.
HOW THE FAR WEST WAS SETTLED. !
With the exception of the Mis-
souri, river and some other great !
of the Mississippi, the /,
first settlements in the Western ter
-itories could rely upon no means
Of transportation except the OK or
mule wagon, and immigrants had TO