The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-09-04
DAKoTA's GIRL FARMERS.
Young women Who Own the Land They
81. i Cultivate.

From the New York Sun.
Mitchell, ID. t., July 8.-Most Of the
young ladies who own andworkfarms
in this Territory have a great abhor-
renee of notoriety, because ofthenum-
Der of bores that aresureto hunt them
up, either in person or by letter. A
floating paragraph about a young
woman who has alarm this place,
which appeared in the newspapers o.
few months ago, brought her more
than q hundred letters inside OF three
months. These missives were ofevery
variety under the sun, and included
nearly everything, from an offer of adj
vice on wheat-plantingto propositions
of marriage. While speaking with her
Yesterday on these subjects she said:
II had some Of the funniest letters
ever read. About adezen ofthem
were from men who wanted to marry,
evidently a lazy, shiftless lot, for not
one of them could spell, and in every
case the letters indicated ignorance
even of the common courtesies of life.
They were principally from widowers,
and all began by saying that they had
been thinking of going to Dakota for a
long time. | suppose they all thought
thai | would Jump at the chance toget
them. / never answered any of them.
Some of the letters were from old
ladies in the Eastern and Middle States
who wanted to give me good advice,
and others werefrom girls, widows and
old maids, asking how | managed to
get along, and what was necessary for
+Io~, 4D 10 -, nrlar Hn rot %harncolxyao
established as well as 1 am. / answer
ed some of these, and two or three of
them have writtento me since.
'"The worst n~uisances that | have
to deal with, she continued, "are the
men, young and old, who come out to
see me. They are about the toughest
lot / ever heard of. / have had to
drive some of them off the place, a
they seemed determined to stay. /
suppose it is so everywhere, but it
seems strange that a woman can't 60
ahead and accomplish something for
herself without being worried to death
by all the old bummers, cranks, wild
overs, and dudes within a thousand
miles. One young fool came to see me
last spring, and after following me
around q sixty-acre lot twice, Just be-
cause | treated him decentlyy actually
had the nervet to ask me ii mythoughts
ever turned to matrimony. i told
him that they never had, though |
didn't know what might happen II [
came across just the right person.
That seemed to help him on a little,
and he asked what sort of a person it
would have to be. told him | didn't
l.,n,, -. ..,J l1l ~. Aaatfn,,.4n tho
fact that nv off horse was a little off
his feed.
"'How would / do?' said the young
fellow, and / says:
"'If / had a ten-acrTl lot full Of fell
lows like you / wouldn't take the
trouble to scrape you up with a horse
rake
Zone elderly man from Pennsylvania
came here last fall and, stopping in
town, he would drive out here every
day. He began at first by pretending
he had a deep religious interest in me.
Then he wanted to know how / stood
financially, how | got my farm, and
how much / made from it, lit took
him several days to get what hewanted
to know, and then he intimated awish
on his part to take tea with me, and
spend an hour or two in the evening
at my house, as there was something
that he wanted to say to ME. 1 tried
to get rid OF him, but he vas oldenough
to be my father and was so decent
about things generally that | finally
consented. After tea he took a couple
of chairs out on the east side Of the
house, and when we had both seated
ourselves, he said:
"sI have been thinking for a long
time about marrying again. I've
got
"Now, you stop right where you
are, said /, sor I'll set the dog on you.
If that's the nature of your remarks,
we'll adjourn this meeting right here.
I've got workto do, and I don't want
any fooling around
ssYou V saw q man get up and
git like he did. We never said a word,
and / have never seen him since.
81 ratherl like some of these young
chaps from the city sthough-the kind
that are not making love, but who
are always wanting to help you. They
think they are SO strong, andGwhen
anything is to be done they are so
quick 90 take hold; but, gracious good
ness, / could break a good many OF
them in two, if / wanted to, They're
good boys, though and I1Tnever say
anything against them.
This young lady, who is as brown
as a berry and as solid as q russell,
with all the spryness and grace OF the
g~entlest Of her sex, owns 100 acres OF
good land, and has it under q pretty
fair state of cultivation. Some old
farmers might make fnn Of a. few things,
and she readily admits that slp has
much to learn, but she to
make her ingandconsiderab more.