The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1884-02-28
The Character of the New North


One sees little anywhere from rail-
way carriage, and when the country
is pretty much of n dead level, covered
with uniform net of thick grass, green
or russell, according to the time of the
year, the view from the window soon
ceases to interest, and no. one regrets
that he misses 200 or 800 miles of it
during the night. And we learn as lii
tie by hearing as by seeing. The in
formation picked up by the way, chiefly
i'm the odd minutes at stations, is not
of the most reliable nature; and no
where is it so difficult to get at the
truth as in the northwest on either side
of the boundary line. OF course, it is
part of every mans religion that the
country, and his section in particular,
must be cracked up. And when you
point to Indifferent crops, or tell of
hardships your trends have encounter
ed or drawbacks undeniably connected
with the northwest. these are at once
put down to some malign genius in
differently known as ''the govern
ment,'' or ''the syndicate, or ''the
banks" A man with these TO fall
back upon is armed at all times. He
has a complete Ready Reckoner, and is
saved the trouble of thinking, while he
has the comfort of knowing that some
body-against whom he has no person
al ill-will-is to blame for every ca
lamity. His casual Judgment is salts
fed, and at the same time his patriot
ism and self-respect are preserved in
tact. Fortunately, | was not depend
ent for information on the only sources
| open to flying visitors. l had visited
| the country three times and spent sew.
eral weeks chiefly in farmers houses,
and had learned something of the hard
| facts of the case 1t is no use binding
our eyes to the truth that the sun of
the northwest has its spots. Ten or
! eleven years ago could get few to be-
! lieve that there was anything good
there. Two years ago few would allow
that there was anything bad. By and
bv we shall understand that like every
other country it is mixture of good
and bad. We may be thankful for
enormous areas of good land, vast fer
| tile plains that shall be an inheritance
| for our children's children, unless we
| 90 on begging strangers-in mercy to
us-to come and enter on the posses
sion of 160 acres apiece, without neces-
sarily fancying that it is better than
! Ontario or Nova Scotia. /, for one,
would be very thankful for another
Ontario The northwest has many dis
advantages. The one that will be felt
most sorely for many a day was the
'.boom" of two years ago that unset
I tied values and demoralized the people.
Floods, grasshoppers, early frosts, mo-
nopolies and chameleon land policies
have been small evils compared to the
drinking and gambling, the rage for
specializing engendered, the laying out
of imaginary town sites and consequent
cheating by wholesale, the formation
Of wildcat companies, the fictitious
values everywhere, the attempt to
build u6 towns before there was any
country to support them, and all the
other evils connected with the craze to
get money suddenly, to get it without
working and to get it at other peoples
expense. Gray-haired men seemed TO
lose not only their old-fashioned hon
esty, but their senses. They talked as
if half million or million people
could be poured into country by one
road in year or five or six months,
and wilderness of stubborn glebe
turned into the garden of the Lord by
| dluAln0 W tOWA anu IOSdI-
inc railway stations. The settlement
of the northwest will take time, and
the more time it takes the better for
the country in the end. Intending set
tiers, 100, had better make up their
minds to endure hardships or stay at
home. for they need not expect to es-
cape what has been, and always will
be, the fate of the average immigrant.
The men who made Ontario and the
other older provinces were made OF the
right stuff So are the men VINO have
settled in Minnesota and Dakota,
hardy Norwegians, Swedes, Welsh
men, Canadians, who lived at first on
potatoes and milk, and were blind to
the necessity of completing railways
before they had obtained patents for
homesteads. The change wrought by
them on the appearance OF these prai.
rie states in ten years is marvellous
Men of the same stamp have gone into
our northwest, and unless we flood the
country with a baser sort, like will
draw to like. But it cannot be told
too plainly that for years 10 come no
body need 90 to the northwest bu
workers, and that almost the only
workers needed are farmers. There il
hardly any honest way of making s
living there except by taking it out O
the ground. .-ReU Principal Grant n
The Week.