Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1883-07-23
A PICTURE OF LIFE IN THE
FAR WEST.

AAe w A3SA
1t was sad, sad sight in which
was blended tears and laughter. On
the Santa Fe train was large fami
ly of Germans, so fresh from the
ship that you could smell the steer
age odor. There were fathers and
mothers, brothers and sisters, and
raft of little ones. Some were able
to crawl up and sit on seat; others
were still at the breast. They were
all bound for Neosho Valley. All
were tired, hungry and worn out
from four weeks passage. They
had left crowded Germany, where
they had been struggling for an ex-
istence, and they were going to their
new home in the New World. If
they started with any money it gave
out before they reached Kansas City,
for on the train they were eating
black bread and salt. When the
children cried for meat or something
better than stale black bread, the
mothers hushed them and told them
they would soon be at Plymouth, be-
yond Emporia, where they would
meet Uncle Heinrich and Aunt Lena,
and when they got out on to the farm
they would all have meat and milk.
''Oh, it will be Heaven said one
of the women, ''to live in a country
where our children can have all the
milk and meat they want p
AS the train passed Emporia the
poor Germans began to raise the
windows and admire the beautiful
country along the Santa Fe road.
The next station was to be the long
hoped-for new home. The mothers,
wreathed in smiles, began to wash
the children for the last time. Then,
when the rosy-cheeked children were
all fixed, they took white handker-
chiefs out of their bags and put them
around their own necks. Poor wom-
en-, they had but one dress on earth,
but as they were going to see broth
ers and sisters and neighbors who
had been away from Germany and
living in Kansas for five years, they
wanted to look as well as they could.
"The next station is the place. said
a big, healthful German, as he tied a
blue handkerchief over his old soiled
collar, s'and here we'll never be hun
cry again. Here my little babies
can have all they want to eat.
"Will your friends meet you at the
train?'' 1 asked, becoming deeply
interested in the poor but now happy
group.
"Yes; they knew we were coming
this week, and they'll be down to
every train. Heinrichs farm is only
two miles off,
'There they are waiting for US %
said the wife, stretching her head out
of the window, and sure enough
there stood crowd of twenty Amer
ican-Germans on the platform as the
train drew up. Soon the fathers and
mothers led the way off the train,
carrying the big bundles, the chill
dren following with dozens of little
packages. AS they struck the plat
| form brothers and sisters and fathers
and children came together in a long
embrace. Every eye was dimmed
with tears. Every voice faltered.
and every throat choked with emo
ton. 1t was the pathos of great
joy. But soon they wiped their tears
away and began to laugh and pat
and smooth each other on the back
| Then the Kansas Germans lead then
across the street to a hotel, where {
big dinner was ordered. For the
first time in their lives these poo
German emigrants ate beef-steak ant
fried eggs and cake and pie ant
fresh Texas cabbage. 1t was
worth days travel to see these ap
petites appeased. l became SO alb
sorbed I'M this little episode that
could not keep my eyes off them. /
a scene of the most heartfelt joy
ever witnessed. | could not look a
the scene without wiping away a tea
myself, and ] cannot speak of it nov
without my throat choking with emo
ton.
When the dinner was over they al
went out and got into new lumbe
wagons with bright green boxes AM
1ode out to the new home on th
farm.
Having occasion to lay over in tn
town, rode out to the new Germa
farm to see how the new emigrant
were getting along. I found tn
Kansas-G ermans had had them a
, over the farm before breakfast
When I got there they were shown
their stock. The happy emigrar
, would put his hand on colts bac
and smooth it like kitten. The
, he would examine a harness, the
: take hold of a plow handle.
| seThis," said the Kansas brother
| sis the span of horses | have got fe