Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-05-18


farmers than in the east, in New England
especially, and being a country of ssmag-
nifcent distances" markets are remote
and hard to reach. What matters it if
wheat, corn and grain of all kinds can be
raised with ease and abundance, if the
same cannot be sold at n living profit?
Look at the record of the great state Of
Kansas for 1854. Kansas next to Califor-
MIA is the greatest wheat producing state
in the Union, and the crop of last year
was estimated at 100000 (forty mil
lion) bushels. 'sBut" says writer, elm
stead of proving a source of prosperity,
it seems to have plunged the state into
general bankruptcy. The great bulk Of
wheat farms i'm Kansas were bought
on time from the railroads and mortga-
ged for the bulk of the purchase money,
and the price of wheat is so low the
farmers are unable to pay their interest
money" Wheat sold last year for 40, 81,
30, and even 10 cents per bushel, and as
the Kansas estimate of raising wheat is
40 cents per bnshel, the profit, like the
north pole, is hard to find. In the inte-
rior towns corn sold for Is and Is cents
per bushel and if 10 cents is allowed for
raising it, there is little left to pay for
hands get S12 per month, and there is
about as mnch enjoyment living on
prairie remote from neighbors, with corn,
oobs and ''Buffalo chips" for fuel,
scarcity of water ETC., as one would find
in a penitentiarY. How much better are
times up in Dakota, where 1000 Vermont
ers think of going this spring? Little if
any, and the Northern Pacific R. R. is
patiently waiting to absorb their hard
earnings in freight charges. Railroad
monopolies get the cream, so to speak,
of every western state, and here in Cali
fornia we are completely at the mercy of
the great rans-continental lines. Cali
fornia with it's fine climate and great re-
sources, which are largely overrated, all
the same, is one of the hardest places for
poor man to get living in, that can be
named, and without plenty of means /
would advise no one to come here. Once
here you are good ways from nowhere,
and to get back east if dissatisfied, is Il
hard thing to do, unless you bring
legal tender enough to return with. Chi
nese competition makes it hard for the
day laborer. and negroes are being i'm
ported from the south because they will
work for $12 per month in the vineyards,
whereas white men get $35, and $50, or
81, so per day, without board. Money is
very scarce, rate of interest 10 and II
per cent, and mortgages on every thing !;
but we have the finest climate in South
California in the United States, and if a
person with money is looking for that, l
would say come this way. Another thing
about the west is this; there is more
| restlessness and discomfort than can be
| fonnd anywhere else. So many people
have been disappointed, such hardships
| encountered and deprviatlons endured,
that change Of any kind is viewed with
joy, and they change and keep changing,
but satisfaction manages to elude them.
When railroading in New Mexico, 1 had
many chats with emigrants going to Cali.
fornia, Oregon and Washington Terri
tory, and they were western people too
Illinois, Missouria, Kansas and Colorado
were all represented, and their stories
were about the same, ''no place for {
poor man where they came FROM" still
lots Of people think their fortunes would b.
made if they get into any of these states
1 know of family from Texas that NOV
ed to Oregon in 'prairie schooner,
being months on the road, went to Wash
ington Territory, back to California ant
then took government land in a remot
region among the mountains of San deg
County, Is miles from a post office ant
60 from town of any Importance. Their
they exist to-day-you can't call it liv
ing-and kick themselves every tim
they think of the home they left in Texas
| mdDy pCOplc WHO ltdNC CllhouU hiC w
proud to return after having blowed an
belittled that state on leaving and other
are too poor. | have talked with bot
kinds of such people and know whereo
| affirm. Impressions formed in earl
life are lasting, and the customs of Ne
: England are hard to give up or outgrov
and like Mr.. ellis from the "Land of tn
Dakotas" many hope sometime to retur
to the old scenes. The great, rollin
prairies are grand to look upon and rio
over in railroad train, but to ive G
them is quite another thing. Monotony
scene or action is tiresome, and the hill
and valleys of old Vermont, with il
lakes and rivers, creeks and forests, al
a thousand times preferable to the bal
bosom of mother earth, as seen on I'll
prairies. "Who wants eternal sunshil
or shadow? Who would fix forever tt
. cloud-work of an autumn sunset, or har
= over him an everlasting moonlight" b
1 am extending this too much. In clio
- ing II will say, there is no place tn
= doesn't have it's drawbacks, and VIII
i Vermont lacks in some things she max
= up in others. Her timber, fuel, and u
u rivalled water in creeks and springs, W
be sadly missed by the men who ego
west" and if money IS made, it will be
y a sacrifice Of the comforts of life al
many of the pleasures which New En-
:. land society contributes to ones exi
~ tence.
l. CLAIMING SEVERANCE.
ID Orange, CAL, May Sd, 1885.
x WASHINGTON LETTER.
SPECIAL i)RREsPoNDENcI oFTHE MONITOR.