The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-04-25
MISCELLANY.
GOING WEST.

Tho young man in the older communities
of the East, reading of the marvellous
growth of this new western country, often
asks himself whether he could not wisely
'oin the ranks of the next annual migration.
No doubt the question, "Shall go West ~
is the uppermost problem in the minds OF
thousands of the young men of the East,
who have still their careers to. make, and
have not yet gained secure and promising
footing in the business world. 1t is q ques-
ton which each must answer for himself,
and concerning which no advice can be
given that would be of universal application.
1t would be a grevioHs mistake to suppose
that change of longitude alone insures
success. Idleness, incompetency, and 6
nerveless, drifting disposition, have no bet
ter chance in Montana than in NIassachu
sets. Indeed, there are some men who run
along fairly well in the East, in the grooves
Of custom and of established acquaintance
and business connections, who would make
amentable shipwreck if set adrift in a new
Western community
On the other hand the chances for a
young man of average pluck and energy are
unquestionably much better in the West
than in the East. He shares the advantages
of being among the first to open fresh
store-house of natural wealth. He gets the
6rst dividend on the increase of value result
ng from bringing population upon the soil.
The land he buys for three or four dollars
an acre, or gets for nothing by homestead
settlement, soon becomes worth ten or fif-
teen. If he embarks in trade or in any me-
chanical pursuit, his wares or his services
are in brisk demand, because all the new
corners around him require goods and i'm
plements. Then there is a certain stimulus
in the moral atmosphere caused by the am
billions and energies of q 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 when they speak of the differ
ence in the business and social tone of the
two sections. 1t is difference to be felt
rather than defined. There is vastly more
energy and more hope per capita of the
population in new communities than old,
and the immigrant feels at once the result
ing stimulus. 1t braces up the listless and
the Responding, and makes even the most
active man conclude that there is deal
more in him in the way of work and ideas
than he supposed. Many young man
who would have remained clerk or small
salaried employee of some kind oil his life,
had he stayed in the East, becomes, amid
the larger opportunities of the West,
"leading citizen" and the owner of fns
farm or prosperous business
The young man going West can, there.
fore, count upon the opportunities of OBJ
tanning good land at small cost the business
openings growing out of the wants of a new
community, and the moral incentive that
comes from contact with hopeful, enterpris-
ing people. If he does not succeed in gain
.ng full measure of independence in the
course of ten years, the reason will lie in his
own disposition. He will either lack energy
and capacity, or he will be SO much crea-
ture of habit and so thoroughly the out
growth of an older civilization that he can.
not adjust himself TO the new environments.
There are men, MS well as trees, that will
not thrive when transplented. The intend.
ing emigrant would DO we'll to study his
own disposition carefully, and make sure
that he is not OF THAI Aind.-Ceatu1y.