The Dickinson press., 1884-08-23
Life in Dakota.
Letters in Rural New Yorker.

HS0SSAo VA AsaA@ AVN OAh
1t is pleasant to turn from these
drunkards to q class who have been ov-
ertaken by some calamity and come out
here to retrieve their fortune-steady-
going, plucky fellows who make the
most of everything, and are determined
to succeed. Their mode Of living is ex-
ceedingly frugal, and in that they are
largely indebted to their wives. They
tax their ingenuity to accomplish much
with few tools, and in every way posi-
BILE get along with as little expense as
possible. A neighbor of mine went to
town last Winter with his good lady in
side q large packing case set on Two
runners made Of assembling. Had their
friends back in Michigan seen them in
such q rig, they would, no doubt, have
been Mortified; but they did their jour-
neys quito comfortably and saved the
expense of q sled. Then that class APP
pear to have faith, q quality very much
wanted nowadays; faith that their
Creator will not fail them in the
hour Of trial. Their tools, what
they have, are we'll cared for, and
their stock is we'll housed, especially in
winter. Things prosper with them so
well that the improvident class wonder
how they get along St we'll. They
ascribe their success to good luck, but
L, for one, firmly protest in season and
sometimes out of it. that there is no
such thing as good or bad luck. If
stock OR crops do we'll, it is the direct
result of care and attention; if they
don't, it is the result of carelessness.
That is a belief that nothing can shake,
and it would be we'll if it were more
generally acted on. Only this last win
ter, 1 have seen some striking examples
of its truth. But to return to the class
of which 1 have been speaking:-These
men are the salt of Dakota, and I look
for great results from their painstaking
and systematic labors.
Nature is exceedingly lavish with her
resources here, and poor farming lives
on her bounties; but the time will come
when these poor farmers will have to
mend their ways, or, like the Indian,
o further west. Every month sees
some shiftless fellow sell out, and in
some cases q better man takes his place,
so that before long we shall have a good
farming community. Most people are
going into stock as fast as their means
will allow, and the fact that heifer
calves cannot be bought, shows how
things + tending. Then there is the
young nan who "baches it." He has
either been Tilted by his girl back East.
and go beck and have his revenge in
marrying some one of her friends, or
his girl is true to him, and he has come
out here to make o home for her. Liv-
ing half Indian, half civilized, he
leads a strange life. His shan
ty is very primitive. and his
mode of living very simple; but he has
a stout heart and great expectations.
He sees everything through a o s col
ored medium, and has no doubt of the
future. Dyspepsia and disbelief are
unknown to him; he is possessed of a
sound body, and if he has no great soul
he is at least generous-hearted He is
the favorite at the store, as he is o largo
consumer of tobacco and other things
on which there is a profit, and he never
tries to beat down. My sketches of
character would be incomplete without
the 'school-marm." Here she is veri-
table queen, and rules her admirers
with q despot's sway. She has no end
Of lovers, and has escorts, buggy rides,
firtations and fun ad libitum, but l may
ask to what proft?-Clsrke Co., Oak.