The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1888-01-27
A Solid Reason Against Western Immi-
grafton.

Incomplete reports show that 2l7 per-
sons lost their lives by the recent terri
bic winter storms in The northwest, and
this number will probably be increased
by further reports. But the exact
figures will never be known. In the
frontier settlements the population is to
a considerable extent shifting one,
aud many persons have been LOST on the
pIairies of VIII ON no record exists. Un-
til the snow thaws the remains of many
OF those reported missing will not be
found, as they are DOW covered by the
drifts
The severity and the dangers of this
arctic climate are fOrcibly shown by the
fact that many of the lost were frozen
to death in the immediate vicinity OF
their houses and barns that children
were frozen to death while going 10 or
returning from school, and even in the
vicinity or outskirts of considerable
towns lives were lost by exposure to the
binding and deadly blizzard. a major
ity of the cases, We presume, were of
persons who came to their death, not
while Oh long journeys, but in attending
to their ordinary avocations on .heir
farms or near them. There have been
equally terrible storms heIetofore-in
fact they occur on an average every four
or five years-but tie loss of life has not
been large because the population was
lot so great, and the older settlers were
taught by experience how to meet emer-
gencies of the kind.
OF late years tens of thousands of I'M
migrants have poured into the North
west from milder climates of this country
and Europe. who were, for the most
part. completely ignorant of the dan
gers CT prairie blizzard. In fact there
Is something very inviting, as we'll as
deceptive, about the extreme cold
weather of the northwest, with its
bright and cloIdless skies, bracing at
mosphere. and still air 4; but these con-
ditions in briet time often give way TO
binding snow storm, terrific huTri-
cane comes up, the air is so filed with
fine snow dust that it is impossible to
discern objects few yards distant, and
the most experienced lose their wey un-
less they foreg0 their journey and seek
any possible refuge. Thus TO wbJm
such weather is revelation, and 1t is to
many and increasing thousands every
winter, fall easy victims.
1t seems to us there is lesson in these
winter Billiards of the northwest, as
well as the summer cyclones farther
south, for the Pennsylvania OF Ohio
farmer Spurred by some temporary dis
couragement to seek home for himself
and family or the chesp lands of the
frontier states and territories, from
Texas to the British line. The circu-
lars OF immigration agents and societies,
OF land grant railroads, and the gushing
appeals of real estate speeula.OTs or the
One-in-twenty successful immigrants,
make no mention of those terrible eli
matte peTllS, the winter blizzard and the
summer cyclone. Y ct they are as much.
II not more, of a certainty than the
cheap lands and generous crops of the
west to say nothing of the absence of
the social comforts and advantages in
the way of schools. churches and society
that give a charm to farm life in the
oder states, which it takes a life time
to develop on the frontier
Tor tue young. the needy and the ad-
Venturous there is charm and many
advantages in the west, but for the
reasonably well-to-do eastern farmer
there are sacrifices, discomforts and
even perils rarely betterment, all
things considered, and very often dis
astrOus failures. Before moving he
should study what advantages he and
his family have about the ''old home
fam" and what they are likely to en-
counter on the frontier. such a blizzard
as the one of last week, with its death
Ion Of nearly three hundred men.
women and children, is not of rare oc-
curence, except as TO its death rate. and
that comes from the larger population
exposed to the danger. The blizzard is
as certain for the future as it has been
In the past.-PutSb1Tg Post.