Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-10-02

realizing it. There the people are all
cider and we notice oil that at once
All nature is older too in every feature.
This causes US to feel older and forces.
this thought constantly upon us, caus-
ing often more sadness than pleasure.
1t follows unavoidabIy that we soon tire
OF the search for pleasure as we used to
know it, while we are unable there to
find the pleasure of associations whrch
We have at home in the west, and SO
long to return,
The west is prairie country and the
east as we knew it was timbered. Here
there is rapid and constant growth.
Groves and fields and towns are newer
and greenef and brighter every year
There is here development toward
youth In nature itself. The east or
older west, which is the east to the most
OF us, loses its forests and grows drier,
the streams are smaller. the forest has
lost its game and the brooks their fish,
where we used to find sport Probably
every friend of our youth has grown old
faster and shows age more than we do.
This makes life seem short to us. A
soldier thinks of the company or regl-
ment with which he served as they were
when in ranks together and as they
seemed in camp life or when all were
mustered over twenty years ago. But
upon these comrades this quarter of
century has told in gray and wrinkles
more plainly than upon any other class.
The schoolmntes are yet more
changed. w, were all equal then.
Each was happy and apparently had
plenty or none knew ii they lacked
much. Hard times and the
struggles of life have changed
all this. We hunt up our school mates
and find the ties of association all gone.
They have been long married and their
children are often married. The toll OF
daily life has fixed the life IN narrower
lines and the buoyancy of youth is gone
We shake hands with an old boy or girl
friend and ask about their progress and
welfare, and the reply is often con-
fusion of struggle and disappointment
and sorrow. The whole view OF the
world and life has changed and we can
not find the old conditions in which our
younger life was set
Back there society has changed. The
rich have grown richer and the poor are
poorer. Glasses have become more
distinct and separate. New groups and
relations are formed. The unappro-
priated wealth of nature which lay
around us all SO abundantly in every
life ls all now possessed and held ex-
clusive]y and the margin of plenty ls
narrowed, to want for many. The poor
are notso easily cared for and large
families are burdens. Wages are bare
living, aud the ability to change
employment or seek better opportunities
is lessened uutll to most it is denied
There is less human sympathy and
Deighborly kindness.
1t is not strange that the new west
holds us and draws us back into life
where oil seems more natural and brigh
and hopeful for us all. Here there are
few that are old and most people are
younger in spirit and activity. W,
have become acolimated here, and sun
air and sky are dearer to ns, and we and
all our associates are hopeful an;
delighted in the growth and develop
ment of which we are part. 1t is no
strange that the prairie west has sucI
strong hold upon us and those who hav
once fully become part of it will re
turn to it with Joy and share its labo
and changes with more delight thai
they can find IN olden scenes which ar
changed.
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