River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-01-04
Going West.

From "Topics the Time" in the Gentry.
The young man in the older communi-
ties Of the East, reading of the marvel
asks himself whether he could not wise
~ join the ranks of the next annual
migration. No doubt the question,
''Shall | 90 West?" is the uppermost
problem in the minds of thousand of the
young men of the east, who have still
their careers to make, and have not yet
gained a secure and promising footi g
in the business world. 1t is a question
which each must answer for himself,
and concerning which no advice can 10
given that would be of universal appli-
cation 1t would be a grievous mistake
to suppose that change of longitude
alone insures success. Idleness, incom-
potency, and nerveless, drifting dis
position, have no better chance in Mon
tana than in Massachusetts. Indeed,
there are some men who run along fairly
well in the East, in the grooves of GUS
tom and of established acquaintance
and business c INJECTIONS, who would
make lamentable shipwreck if set
adrift in a new Western community.
On the other hand, the chances for
young man of average pluck and energy
are unquestionably much better In the
west than in the cas-. He shares the
advantages of being among the first to
open a fresh stOre-house of a natural
wealth. He gets the first dividend on
the increase of value resulting from
bringing population upon the soil. The
land he buys for three or four dollars
an acre, or gets for nothing by home
stead settlement, soon becomes worth
ten or fifteen. If he embarks In trade
or in any mechanical pursuit, his wares
or his services are in great demand, be-
cause all the new corners around him
require goods and implements. Then
there is q certain stimulus in the moral
atmosphere caused by the ambitions and
energies of a new community full OF
hope and activity, which makes hard
ships easy to bear and causes buoyancy
of spirits.
Western people find it hard to make
their friends in the east understand just
what they mean wheu they speak OF the
difference to be felt rather than defined
There is vastly more energy and
more hope per capita of the popu-
lation in new communities than
old, and the immigrant feels at once the
resulting stimulus. 1t braces up the list
less anu the ueSpOHOlllSJ anu H1dhSS
even the most active man conclude that
there is a deal more in him in the way
of work and ideas than he supposed.
Many young man who would have re-
manned a clerk or small-salaried employe
of some kind all his life, had he stayed
in the east, becomes, amid the larger
opportunities of the West, leading
citizen," and the owner of fine farm or
prosperous busin ess.
The young man going West can, there
fore, count upon the opportunities OF OBJ
tanning good land at small cost, the
business open ngs growing out OF the
wants of a new community, and the
moral incentive that comes from con-
tact with hopeful, enterprising people.
If he does not succeed in gaining iull
measure of independence in the course
of ten years, the reason viii lie In his
own disposition. He viii either lack
energy and capacity, or he will be so
much creature of habit and so
thoroughly the ouigrowth OF an older
civilization that he cannot adjust him
sell to the new environments. There are
men, as well as trees, that will not thrive
when transplanted. The intending
emigrant would do well to study ms own
dispos ton carefully, and make sure
that he is not OF that kind.