The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1885-01-30
Esisas,, raisr.ut,:

u0SCTlO0D GQ0 CLASS Oh 60Gtler6 Oh Gn0 new
territories, who never are contented to
remain in one place: The farmer him
self is the most fascinating adjunct of 8
Kansas farm. Il Is here that the con-
tented steadfastness Of the population
Of the far Eastern States has met half
way the disorder amd turbulence Of the
far West, and the meeting has fesalted
in type of character which I believe
has not its counterpart elsewhere in the
world. His history, has usually been
somewhat as follows:
ne w6s born and ''raised" In Ohio.
When he reached imSatni's kstate-the es.
tate, by the way, being laekihg-he
''struck out" for the West and settled
perhaps in Indiana. Thence when
: ...things got too thick" he migrated to
Illinois, and after sojourn Of . few
yeats III that etats 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 d companion to whom d Ger.
tifcate; Carefully preserved in . frame,
shows that lie. has been married BY q
Justice of the Peace, and of whom he
invariably ipsaks as "ljs woman"
He and "his woman" have iiianaged
% 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
hs feels as though lie was settled now,
and looks forward only Very vaguely to
to claim in Colorado or farm in fowd
when the tendencies of his earlier days
have again gathered force to stimulate
him to push OH. There is no such
thing, however. as contentment among
= certain class Of the yotinger tilen they
intend tn pre;snlpt THAT claim in Col
,rado before the land ii; ali fSdk up.9
While waiting at little way station.
IN the Kansas Southern Railroad, re-
Gently, I noticed on the platform a
| young farmer, took him to he, who
with "his woman" and family Of three
children seemed to he also waiting fol
che train.
"Well," I said to him." are you of
/ for Colorado?"
"No," said he, "Ioway."
"Going to settle there?" I inquired
"Yes, he replied;"1 II was up there in
September and 1 seed nice little farm
that took notion til, artdso 1 thought
that If could sell out here for any-
thing like what that farm would cost
me, would 60 and buy. Wall, q 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, ond so I invested.
"Well," said I, lis tile iowa farm 6
better farm?"
II dunno as it is any better" he an.
swered. maybe the builden's aipt
quite SO good, but then me and my wo
man was sorter tired of Kansas, and
then she had the shakes, she did, and
90 we thought that we'd move"
4 "How long have you been in Kansas?' ~
give years going on next April"
Where did you came from before
'hssE, 'a'Sssr.si.::H
.1,,l %Miere were You raised9"
"Weli, my friend," said I, "don't YOU = u
know that you are moving out
of the part of Kansas which Mr.
Greeley called the Garden of Eden
Bccording 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 IL will bt
years before you will be as we'll of
again as you arc now."
"Wall," said this specimen of west
ern go-a-head-ativeness, INV folks de
tell me that q rolling stone don't gathe,
no moss; but then tell them that {
ssttiR hen don't git fat:" Ihad no an
kwer this; for had never reflected OF
the drawbacks which the setting bet
may have IL Encounter:
MS M: restlessness Is The most charac
teristlc feature of the Western na:i:t
farmer of the middle and poorer classes
He is always uneasy never satisfied any
where. He is always going to settle
somewhere, Init can't find the plac,
where he is willing to admit that h
means to live and die. He helps to de
sel6p an inimansk artiount of the. toun
try, but can't bring himseifto Settle any
where long enough to reap the full re
wards of his labor.