Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-04-25
Compositions.

Increased facilities for travel and for
obtaining news have within the last few
years brought New England and the
newer portions of the country much more
closely together and so have brought
nearer home to the New Highlander a
greater knowledge of the progress of both
1.-THE great west" and other rapidly grow
ing parts of the land. IL is good many
years though since Horace Greedy preached
his short and frequent sermon of "go
west, young man. and no new thing for
the rising, or for that matter the risen,
generation to follow that advice.
Nor would we by any means urge the
young man Or anybody else who find.
things too crowded for him in the east or
sees his way with any clearness to better
ing his condition by going west Or south,
to IL continuance in what he is dissatisfied
with. But it is never better to jump
from the frying pan into the fire and to
avoid this those who emigrate should
know what they are going to as we'll as
what they are leaving. Then if they are
convinced their condition will be beltered
New England is as ready now as ever to
bid them God speed and TO rejoice over
the successes as well lis sincerely noun
over the failures of those who 60 away
from the homes of their youth.
And it would be especially as migrate
full for Vermont to.condemn those who
leave her borders tossseek their fortunes
elsewhere as it would be for those who
have left her borders to remember the
state of their nativity with other than
good will and pride. For the sons OF
Vermont who have sought homes else
where have conferred much honor on their
native state and it is notable that they
retain love for the "old sod" not excelled
By that CT the emigrants from any state in
the union.
But because many of those who have
gone away havej done much better than
they could have done here it does not
follow that our people have cause 10 be
dissatisfied with their place in the world.
A man who works and gets living and
brings up his family with fair education is
of course within few hours after it is
printed in New York enabled to read an
account of how Jay Gould within 20 years
has accumulated fortune of hundred
millions or how some Vermonter who has
gone west has great farm and how this
man has suddenly become this and another
obtained that.
Granting that the rule:is that those who
have gone have more wealth than those
who remain, to strike a fair balance one
should be able 10 know the kind of life
lived, its effect on the real growth of the
man himself, what sort of life his wife
has endured and how the children are
growing up. True enough in many cases
we should find that in all, the west has
given better things than the east has
afforded. But in very many cases the
opposite is true and what we would urge
is that, in the determination of the ques-
ton where to make a!home or to continue |
one, dissatisfaction with slow advance or
improvement here, should not be created |
by exceptional successes elsewhere.
New England gives as good chance
now as for many years past for that
steady growth and improvement in life
and means of living. And one great
reason of dissatisfaction with what is TO |
be here obtained is that people now are
not contented with what their fathers
would have been delighted with and that
the stories of sudden advancement else
where are brought to New England |
homes much oftener than when weekly |
papers instead of dailies supplied the |
news.
So that those who are doing decenty |
well in New England will find it to their |
account to wait definite knowledge Of
what they can do to better themselves
somewhere else than to pull up stakes |
ION general principles just because
somebody has done remarkably well |
somewhere else. When this knowledge
of how ones condition can be bettered is
once obtained then we haven't a word to
say. Then Greeley's advice is good
advice to follow.
But besides the compensations that we
get in educational facilities and other
ways of Improvement for that "slowness'
which the inhabitants of (countries that
"boom" think is characteristic of the east,
there is a sort of security in more material
things that is well enough TO be noted. A
man may chance to get frozen to death in
New England winter but he is not going
to lose all his possessions and be carried
up into the sky kby spring cyclone.
Dakota runs the thermometer down some
so degrees lower than it ever goes here
and then thinks it has had Just q frosty
morning. 1t acknowledges ''blzzards"
but raises the best winter wheat in the
world. And the great south which as we'll
as the west invites immigration is eener.
GUS in its offers but is liable Eto forget to
mention such zephyrs asgthose OF Sunday
and Nonday,the first of which killeI about
100 persons and wounded 400 in Missis.
sippi and the latter of which killed 25
people in one county in Georgia.
Those who cannot well get away from
their surroundings here or who, doing
fairly well, do not want so to get away,
lose great deal in opportunities for
excitementsin dwelling in land where
billiards and cyclones are unknown. They
can get no farther than to be frightened at
Virgins predictions which never come
true, And losing the chance of flyine
through the air they must endure their
hum drum existence and content them
selves, as compensation for lost excite.
ment, with that safety which the seclusion +
of our mountain valleys grants.