River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-04-10
Restless Emigrants.

II COLlCSpO14NAClAO VI uAAO AAADhho bAN1
describes the class of settlers of the new
territories, who never are contented to
remain in one place: The farmer him
self is the most fascinating adjunct of a
Kansas farm. 1t Is here that the con-
tented steadfastness of the population
of the far Eastern States has met half
way the disorder and turbulence of the
far West, and the meeting has resulted
in type of character which 1 believe
has not its counterpart elsewhere in the
world. His history has usually been
somewhat as follows
He was born and raised" in Ohio.
When he reached mans estate-the es-
tate, by the way, being lacking-he|
struck out" for the West and settled
perhaps in Indiana. Thence when
things got too thick" he migrated to
Illinois, and after a sojourn of few
years in that State he swept on with
the tide of emigration into Missouri,
where as he vii tell you, "the rebels
were to rank, and SO he soon hitched
up the family schooner, embarked the
family goods and gods and crossed into
Kansas.
On his travels he has somewhere
picked up companion to whom a GER
tifcate, carefully preserved in frame,
shows that he has been married by a
Justice of the Peace, and of whom he
invariably speaks as "his woman"
He and CHS woman" have managed
to accumulate family more or less
numerous, and hungry in the superla-
tive degree.
The spirit of unrest that has con-
trolled him hithertofore has yielded to
the desire OF middle life for quiet and
he feels as though he was settled now,
and looks forward only very vaguely to
to claim in Colorado or farm in Iowa
when the tendencies of his earlier days
have again gathered force to stimulate
him to push on. There is no such
thing, however, as contentmeut among
certain class of the younger men; they
intend to pre- empt THAT claim in Col
orado before the land is all took up"
While waiting at little way station.
on the Kansas Southern Railroad, re-
Gently, | noticed on the platform a
young farmer, I took him to be, who
with "his woman" and family of three
children seemed to be also waiting for
the train.
"Well, 1 said to him." are you off
for Colorado?"
mo" said he, "Ioway."
"Going to settle there 2" | inquired.
Eyes" he replied; II was up there in
September and I seed nice little farm
that L took notion to, and SO thought
that if could sell out here for any
thing like what that farm would cost
me, would go and buy. Wall, fell
low came along and offered me ten dol
lars an acre for my eighty, and that
eighty up thar in Ioway wasn't but
twelve dollars an acre, and so / invested.
well" said I, lis the Iowa farm a
better farm?"
II dunno as it is any better" he an
swered. Maybe the buildens amt
quite so good, but then me and my wo-
man was sorter tired of Kansas, and
then she had the shakes, she did, and
so we thought that we'd move"
"How long have you been in Kansas ?"
Five years going on next April.
Where did you came from before
that?"
"Nepraska.
where were you raised?"
illinois,"
well, my friend" said /, "don't you
know that you are moving out
of the part of Kansas which Mr..
Greeley called the Garden of Eden
Recording to your own showing, you
won't better yourself any by going;
your wife will be as likely to get the
chills in Iowa as in Kansas: you are
running in debt on your farm; you have
all the trouble and expense of moving,
and the probability is that it will be
years before you will be as well of
again as you are now
wall, said this specimen OF vest
| ern go-a-head- my folks do
tell me that rolling stone don't gather
no moss; but then | tell them that
settin' hen don't git fat" / had no an
swer this, for had never reflected on
the drawbacks which the setting hen
may have to encounter.
This restlessness is the most charac-
teristle feature of the Western native
farmer of the middle and poorer classes.
He is always uneasy never satisfied any
where. He is always going to settle
somewhere, but can't find the place
where he is willing to admit that he
means to live and die. He helps to de-
velop an immense amount of the coun-
try. but can't bring himself to settle any
where long enough to reap the full re-
wards of his labor.