The Press., 1888-03-29
For The Press.l "A FAR CRr TO DAKOTA"
Topeka, Kan, March l.

whole years, cultivation of the familiar acres of semi pnlverized rocks, which Old Time has for unnumbered ages been dill gently blasting and grinding with such de- mented tools as fitted his hand, cold aud heat, rain and frost, realizes the truth which exactly sums up his lifes eIperi- ence, that "the winter destroys what tho summer can yield" he very naturally, af- ter taking another modest drink of hot peppered cider, says to his sons, If indeed there are yet left any sons on those rugged farms, Boys, let's go west" Whereupon those boys, large, muscular, hearty fel- lows as ever habitually wore their stogies outside their pants, look for a moment at each other, glance at the care-worn face and labor-worn hands of their mother, and the eyes of sisters, to whom the bare thought of going some where is a sudden and joyful inspiration, respond Agreed !" That word agreed" IS "the first step that counts" ill what may be very serious un. dertaking, or rather 1t is the necessary prelude to that first step.
 The farm and it's appurtenances must be sold, usually at sacrifice, and most cer- tainly so, if the terms are carh down, aud If the farmer has no other funds to fall back on, then no other cuurse seems avail able. It is natural enough that farmer thus situated in the east, who has been able, and IS still able, to merely just live, support his family, aud make both euds meet on his paid-up farm, but who has been able, and sees no prospect of ever be- ing able, to accumulate a surplus, who, listening with distended ears to the boom. lug reports ever rolling in upou him from the far-off west, of the farmer planting A dozen acres of corn per day Gas Ts done) with single team, while he is himself sit ting upon his planter, his span of horses or mules walking all the while with about the same pace they would hold on the highway, and gathering his thousand bar rels of corn in autumn, or diggiug his acres of potatoes with machiue that blows them out of the ground, sifts out the dirt exactly as a winnowing machine does the chatf from the grain, and deposits tue tubers in receptacle attached to and forming part of his machine, or harvesting his far-stretchiug areas of wheat with ma. chimes that cut, rake and bind the grain as the team walks along, and the millions of bushels of graIn shipped to Chicago from the fields of these same farmers. Or again the stock growers, whose tens of thousands of cattle graze upon the hun dreds of thousands of acres in the limItless west, to supply with beef the states of the ChSty hAld buS SOuuITleb OI Europe, DeCUnleH bewildered in thls blare of "souuding brass, Tn excitement resolves to 30 and rake hand in the management of this wild and dazzling whirl of rushing life and national prosperity. Such resolve Is harmless enough, so long as it remains inert, but when it springs forth in action its success is at least problematcal, and whether 1t kill or cure, or both, depends much, though not entirely, upon the skill and judgement employed by the man who undertakes to guide the craft upon which his hopes, his fortunes and his family are all embarked.
 He thinks within himself, "What man has done, man may do, :" but usually sees only the success implied in the maxim, and not also the other side. One thing that the said man has often done, notwith, standing his utmost endeavors to the con- trary, is to utterly fail. Unforeseen situa- tons and occurrences will certainly con- front him, and unknown problems present themselves for solution. The outcome to many an adventurer has been essentially not unlike the fate of the fablcd youth, Pb@ton, of ancient mythology, who fired with ambition "to guide the suns bright chariot for day" received the reluctant permission of his father, Phpbus, to do
  ing the feebleness of the hand that essay ed to guide them, seizing the bits in their teeth, as 1t were, rushed pell mell along the skies, threatening universal disaster, Jupiter lnterfered, and struck with a thunderbolt the inefficient charioteer, plugging him headlong into the river Eridanus, to be buried on its shore, and ever more bewailed by his mourning sis. ters :-
 "All the long night their mournful watch
 they keep,
 And al the day stand around the tomb and
 weep"
 However, if the fear of failure and di- saster had always predominat,.d, the vast areas of the west would to-day be the same uncultivated wastes they were when the black shore of Plymouth first received the imprint of the Puritans foot, where inc deed half of the first corners were buried during the first season. It seems always to he assuming q serious responsibility to ddVfSe a farmer tor indeed any onp) to pull up and go west, :" unless the person giving such advice Is ready, willing and able to render efficient aid to the new comer, 8 stranger, in a strange land, to obtain a footing in some business situa tion. promising livable results, but when the transnlgrant evolves success from his own consciousness he can glorIfy himself in all his successes, and blame only him self in his defeats.
 Thus our farmer above referred to pack ed his trunk and boxes and starred for Da. kota, and we may in due time hear from hun.
 The papers tell us of terrible storms in the east, Washington, New York, &c., Sunday and Monday last, and it is inter esting to us at least to note the fact that since the closing of Saturday last not single cloud has been seen from here. the days having been very suggestive of spring, clear and glorious, and, judging from the repairs and burnishing of blows. planters and all the manifold tools of ex tensive farming that has been going on, as usual, all winter in the shops where such work is done, our farmers will be ready to welcome spring, not in poetry, but iu fact.
 JIM. W.
 
 Peterson's Magazine for April opens