The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-05-19
Stay East Young Man.

stay EaSU Dung Mdn.
The human creature in all ages and places
has shown natural propensity for trying
from the days when the Aryan hordes pour
ed from Asia over Europe to these latter
times when Europe sends its superfiuous
population to America and the restless youth
of Americas Atlantic coast seek fortune by
iourneying toward the Pacific. The magip-
alton leads men to fee from the common
place in which they find themselves to the
ideal of which they dream in the distance
This tendency has been of good service to
the race by carrying the older civilizations to
new fields and dffusing the benefits of hui
man study and invention. But while it is
for the general good of mankind, the pio-
neers usually become martyrs to the tenden-
cy. The first generation Of emigrants to new
lands must encounter dangers and undergo
hardships greater than they would have suf-
fered by remaining at home. 1t is only the
second or third generation which reaps the
advantage of the change.
As it was in the past SO it is now. Stimu-
lated by Horace Greeley's cry go West
Young Man. and its numerous echoes in
all quarters, there has been steady exodus
of the thrifty and industrious New England
ers toward the setting sun, until the rich
lands of the middle west have been made to
produce food for all the earth and great
empire has been founded ON the prairies
where the children and grandchildren of the
pioneers are living prosperously. All this
is well, but it can easily be carried too far.
When men go by the fertile prairies already
pretty fully populated and reach the dreary
plains beyond extending to the Rocky Noun
tains, they make a mistake and would much
better stay at home and make the best of
conditions which may seem to them hard un
til they have gone farther and Jared worse.
The region on the eastern side of the
Rocky Mountains, embracing the western
edges of Kansas and Nebraska and tho erraat-
er.part of the State of Colorado and the Ter
ritory of New Mexico, has been the subject OF
great laudaii II by correspondents ana PAM
phleteers, most of them in the interest OF rail-
road or mining companies, and the glamour
of poesy aud wild adventure has been added,
SO that it seems to many young persons as
yeritable fairy land where the air is always
delicious and invigorating and fortunes are
to be had with certainty for the seeking.
These plains, too, lie very high above the
.ea-about the elevation of Mt. Washington
so that the air is dry and thin and is good
Il has
is too dyspeptic to digest the rich moist air
of the coast. Under these influences there
has been, from England and the eastern
States to these regions and particularly tt
Colorado, an enormous pilgrimage of the
flower of our youth seeking fortune, and O
inyalids seeking health. The result has beer
unfortunate aud those parts are over crowd
ed with Young men who would do better else
where.
IT is impossible within the limits of an art
;cla like this TO give in detail the reason
why Colorado and similar regions are not de
sirAble places for our young men to seek, bu
any tourist may see with the most casual OF
seryation some obvious and conspicuous res
sons. In the first place these alkali plains ar
about as disagreeable space OF earth's sul
face as can well be conceived, swept by dry
acrid. dust laden winds, and producing fe
the most part only unwholesome growth'
such as soapweed, prickly pears, sage brush
COYOTES, rattlesnakes, Indians, desperadoe
and cowboys. The temperature runs to el
tremes within short spaces of time-in on
observed instance ranging from 30 degree
above at Z a. m. to so degrees above at moor
a difference of fifty degrees within five hour
How the impression was ever created thu
the climate is agreeable, it is difficult to SCI
Int probably it comes from the enthusiast
praises of asthmatic sufferers who find reliC
in the thin, dry air, and in their joy ignor
the unpleasant features of the place. Furtl
ermore there is an amount of brain and mu
Gle already in the country entirely dispropo
tionate to its needs. One may see ther
more young men seeking employment, dest
tute and hopeless, than anywhere else in th
world Everywhere are bright, educate
young men of good family connection ;
home, seeking for any work which will civ
them bread A chance to dig in mine ft
two dollars per day is welcomed as
piece of good luck by men who could
better in the east but are too prou
&c. come back to the homes which they lie
Wienes.eh high hopes, especially as tt
most ol sno- 80 get home unle
n mUt A very bad fa.tta9.p pay Tor tran
Slrong drink. If man is "outf of mel
ana cant get job he drinks wbiskev
afo"n his care, and if he be in luck ..
gets Job" he ''treats' his good forte
noerally. The whole tendency of one, slr-
roundings is to induce reckless and $50
iute naolt OF life and conduct. Man boy
wei bred and taught, with natur good
tendencies, becomes bartender. .nbler,
desperate or cowboy from the foe Of his
situation.
What is there to compensate all these {
disadvantages? The two induses of tie
region are mining and cse raising
Inc former as everybody knows species
Oh lottery in which are my thousand
oiaDks Tor each prize, and th.atter is not a
successful business as far noh as Colol ado,
ne occasional violent stems Prove Veryl
obstructive to cattle and step and already
eone Oh The most intelignt of the cattle
men are abandoning ne vain struggle
against unpropitious nture and are mov-
ing tneir Hooks and hfds to Texas. An 4
other method of gain, ,hich perhaps ought
10 be catalogued amorg the industries of the
region, is The drawing of money from the
east to assist the schmes of the Adventures;
out this is not so prosperous system as it
formerly was. Agriculture is simply i'm
possible without costly irrigation and the
wheat and corn necessary to sustain life are