River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1888-07-26
LETTER FROM VERMONT.
DANnr. VI. July is. 1855.

EDITOR JOURNAL After leaving the
busy, hurrying streets of the North
western cities and villages, and in a
few days walking the streets of
New England hamlet, which has not
changed perceptibly for thirty years,
Irving's legend of Sleepy Hollow comes
to me as a reality, rather than fiction.
If three teams or more than a half
dozen people are seen on the streets at
once. it means that there is some I'M
usual excitement. or that something
of weighty nature is happening.
The opportunities for rest and quiet
in such a place Will satisfy the most
weary mortal. But he must not tell
that one hundred and fifty teams at
once may often be seen in the streets
of village like River Falls, or he will
be looked at with eyes of pity, that
he is so prone to falsehood. Many,
and in fact, most people, who have
not the strongest social ties to bind
them here for long visit, become
restless and homesick, after a short
stay, and long for western rush and
hurry, where life's candle more rapidly
burns out. and the nervous system is
sooner exhausted, and ready for the
doctor.
1t is scarcely too much 20 say that
there are two civilizations in Vermont
and Minnesota. No two processes of
industry, as a rule, are performed
exactly alike, whether in the house or
in the field. For instance, the eastern
farmer tries to get all his hay into the
barn, each night, lest the changeable
weather should spoil it. The western
does not. Corn and potatoes are
largely cultivated with the hoe. here;
in the west, rarely touched by it.
A self-rake reaper is rarity, and very
| few in county. The details of cook.
ing, which l cannot explain, are so
different that one can usually tell
whether the lady was brought up east
or west of the eightieth meridian, as
soon as he sits down at her table.
Even the very gait of people who
rarely walk on level road, is differ
ent from jewellers upon the prairie.
Economically speaking, this is a
fairly prosperous year. Corn is late,
but growing rapidly. The hay crop
is good, but not remarkably so. But
ter and cheese command fair price,
which are the most important pro-
ducts. The former is chiefly made in
| factories; the latter at home. The
price of land is, of course, higher than
in the west, although it has fallen at
least one-third since the war. And
yet, the per cent. of interest from
IA land investment is very small, when
not more than one.half of it is fit for
anything but pasture.
The roads are of course billy, but
the gravelly soil makes the road bed
so smooth and free from sand that it
is perfection, and would shame many
pavements. People travel much less
| than in the west, and visit each other
but rarely, and on going west they
always remark that the western peO-
pie are very social and friendly with
each other, as they, and all others
| should be. Surely, t is not the christ
| ian, nor Christ's ideal of life when
dear friends, as they think, and near
relatives, only few miles apart, do
not see each other more than twice a
year, and then but an hour or two.
The total work done is not lessened by
"a reasonable time spent in sociability,
but rather increased, and the sum of
happiness and mental activity is also
greater The Sabbath, as rule, is
not sinned against, even by people
who make little profession beyond
common morality and deceney.
In politics, everything is hopelessly
Republican, and in law, prohibition
rules. Temperance physiology, under
one of the best laws in any state, has
recently been placed in the common
schools, and the Pathfinder books, at
state expense placed in the hands of
pupils. These books are not what the
rumsellers approve, like those selected
in some western states, so the present
school children are likely 10 grow up.
not tipplers nor high license citizens.
Of course, the personal morality of
the two candidates, in the clear light
of a high ethical standard that pre-
walls here, will bear its proper fruit at
the polls. The tariff sentiment is all
one way, as the free trade minority
can carry nothing.
If people have money, or wish to
devote themselves to literary pursuits,
instead OF business, or wish to cult
vate art, in the midst of the most
magnificent scenery, or wish to recruit
an overworked system, let them come
and live here in the narrow valleys of
the Green Mountains. People will
| retire here, with fortunes so modest
that it would only be beginning for a
man west of Chicago. Let others say
which is the happier man. II. B.
1.-THE Children Have Gone West,
Is what you will hear often spoken in
the old homesteads of the East.
Time was when "the East was on
the seaward slope of the Alleghanies,
but now It is Ohio, Indiana, Illinois
and Wisconsin that are ''the East to
! thousands of the young married folks
who are settling up the great North
west and the Pacific Slope. The
young folks" are SO busy they can't
often find time for holiday, but rail-