The Opelousas courier., 1884-07-05
ALWAYS ON THE MOVE.
Restless Farmers Who Never Btor
Long in ono Place.

a recent Burlington (kansas) letter
It is here that the contented steadfast
ness of the population of the far East
ern States has met half way the disor-
der and turbulence of the far West,
and the meeting has resulted in atype
of character which | believe has motifs
counterpart elsewhere in the world.
His history has usually been somewhat
as follows:
He ives born and "raised" in Ohio.
When he reached mans estate-the
estate, by the way, being lacking-he
'struck OUT for the West and settled
perhaps in Indiana. Thence, when
"tlings got too thick" he migrated to
Illinois, and after a sojourn of a few
years in that state, he was swept BY
the tide of emigration into Missouri,
whence he soon hitched up the family
schooner, embarked the family gods,
and crossed into Kansas.
On his travels he has somewhere
found a companion, to whom, a certlfr
cate carefully preserved in a frame
shows, he has been married by a
justice Of the peace, and OF whom ne
invariably speaks as ''his omar
He and "his woman have managed to
accumulate a family more or less nu-
merous, and hungry in a superlatlye
degree. The spirit of unrest that has
controlled him heretofore, has yielded
to the desire of middle life for quiet
and he looks forward vaguely to claim
IN Colorado or a farm in Iowa when
| the tendencies of his early days have
again gathered force to stimulate him
to push on. There is no such thing,
however. as ~contentment among a
certain class of young men; they in-
tend to pre-empt chat claim in Colo
RADIO before the land is all taken up"
While waiting at a little way station
on the Kansas Southern Railroad re-
Gently l noticed on the platform a
young farmer, 1 took him to be, who
with "his woman" and family of three
children seemed to be also waiting for
the train.
"Well," l said to him, s.are you off
for Colorado"
"No," said he, "Ioway."
Going to settle there?' I inquired.
"Yes," he replied; 81 was up there
in September, ard l seed a nice little
farm that / took notion to, and SO l
thought that if l could sell out here
for anything like that would cost me /
would go and buy. Wall, a fellow
came along and offered me $40 an acre
for my eighty, and that eighty up thar
in Ioway wasn't but $12 an acre, and
SO I invested"
"Well," said ], sis the Iowa farm a
better farm?'
II dunno as il is any better" he an
swerad. MAYBE the buildin's amt
quite SO good, but then me and my
woman was sorter tired Of Kansas, and
then she had the shakes. she did, and
SO we thought we'd move"
"HoW long have you been in Kan
sas r
Give years going on next April"
"Where did you come from befor
that?"
Nebraska"
"Vhere were you raised2
illinois"
"Well my friend" said j, ''don't you
know that You are moving out of the
part of Kansas of which Mr.. Greeley
said that If the Garden of Eden was
anything like it Adam and Eve were
great fools for eve leaving? Accord
ing to your own showing you won'.
better yourself any by going; youv
wife will be as likely to get the chiils
in Iowa as in Kansas: you are running
in debt on yo1r farm; you have all the
trouble and expense of moving, and
the probability is that it will be years
before you are as well off again a you
are now"
WALL" said this specimen of go
ahead-atiyeness, my folks do tell me
that a rolling stone don't gather nc
moss; but | tell them that a settin' hen
don't get fat I had no answer to
this, for l had never reflected on
the drawbacks which the setting hen
may have to encounter.
This restlessness is the most charac.
teristic feature OF the Western native
farmer of the middle and poorer class.
es. He is always uneasy, never long
satisfied anywhere. He is always go
ing to settle somewhere but can't find
the place where he is willing to admi
that he means to live and die. I'll
helps to develop an immense amour,
of country, but can't bring himself te
stay long enough to reap the reward
of his labor. / was riding along q
Kansas country road recently in com
pany with a gentleman who was well
acquainted with the community. OF