The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-06-16
Young Yirginians.

In Texas / saw many young men from
Virginia, sons of the best families there
intelligent and of excellent character
generally. In conversation with one OF
them, told him that had recently been
looking about in his native State, and
that it seemed to me that all energetic
young Virginians were needed at home,
and that there was abundant opportun-
ity and reward for labor there; and /
asked if he liked the life in Texas better
than work in Virginia. He said he did
not, but that it was not yet the fashion
for young Virginians of good family to
engage IN hard, rough work near then
homes in the Old Dominion. cit would
net do for me to work by the month
there for such wages as are paid here,
it would be too much of an afiiiction for
my family, and I should lose caste with
my lady friends. II a man has no
money he can not begin in Virginia, be-
cause he would be classed with the poor
whites and the negroes, with whom his
work and circumstances would bring
him into competition. But he can come
out here and trough it, and if he has no
money he can work by the month at
herding, or driving team, till he gets a
start. suppose this is true, for /
heard the same thing often in various
places in Texas, and in Virginia and
Tennessee the parents of many of these
young men gave me the same reason for
the emigration of their sons to Texas.
Perhaps these reasons would be equally
potent with everybody, but at any rate /
could see that many young men IN the
Southwest work harder, and live In far
rougher and more uncomfortable ways,
than would be necessary in the older
States, and that they do not make so
much money as they might there. There
is apparently as much emigration from
Texas, too, as from any other Southern
State. The talk is everywhere Of "bet-
ter country than this, in Mexico and
New Mexico, and one soon receives the
impression. that nobody is settled, or is
at all certain of remaining very long,
even In Texas. / found in every part of
the South a decided and extensive
movement of the agricultural class, both
white and colored, toward the South
west and West. In many cases, the
principal reason for this movement, SO
far as I could discover, is the improve
ment which is taking place in the older
regions of the South. When "the new
order of things" begins to manifest itself
in Southern community there are many
persons, of the poorer classes, who feel
repealed rather than attracted by the in
dications of approaching change, and in
their restlessness and discomfort they
leave their old homes, hoping to find
more congenial conditions in newer and
more sparsely populated regions. Many
of these persons depend only in part
upon agriculture for their subsistence.
They obtain some portion of their living
by hunting and fishing, and these occu-
pations are much more to their taste
than steady work of any kind. These
emigrants often say, "It's agoin' to cost
too much to live hyur;" and they are
undoubtedly correct in this conclusion.
It will certainly require more money and
more labor to live under the improved
conditions in "the new South than have
hitherto been necessary, under the old
order of things; and many Southern
men, of the classes referred to, reason,
rightly enough, that for them the i'm
provement and progress promised by the
signs of the times are not likely to bring an
increase of happiness. atlantic Monthly.