News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-02-14
From oregon.
PORTLAND, Or. Jan.

Having received and read copy Of
your worthy paper, and taking fol
f granted that you will give space in
I your columns for brief letter, take
! this method of reaching over more
: than four thousand miles of land and
, water and shaking hands with Morris
, vile, as / expect to pay the New
, England village of that pretty name a
, visit in the near future. In selecting
a topic for the critical eye of the pub
, lie, one generally finds it a difficult
task, and especially difficult when the
writer does not know anything of the
people for whom they write. Yet in
this instance l feel that whatever the
letter itself may lack in interest will
be made up of the subject matter
"West," my native land. 1.-The
great west," as strangers doubtless
say when reading about it, and it is,
in many ways, a great country, with
its thousands of miles of prairie lands
intsrspersed with its great belts of
timber, navigable streams and vast
and varied agricultural fields that
span the space from our mountains
ribbed with precious metal to the
boundless sea, all of which we are
justly proud, and also Of the iron rails
that give US daily connection with the
older and more civilized parts Of the
country. With all the rest nature
was kind in her distribution of eli
mates, giving us a variety, mostly
mild and warm, so mild, in fact, that
people are apt to become sleepy and
dull after having become acclimated
here, as it takes but little, if any en-
ergy to keep warm and the constant
pelt of the rain, with it's dreary mon
otone, seems to lull one into a state of
stupidity, or malaria, as our physi-
clans call it. am speaking of the
climate of Oregon. AS we travel
further north into the Territories, and
of the two evils give me the least,
washington Territory we find cold
er weather, more blue sky and health
Ter, brighter looking people. But
when Eastern people come to our
land of ''milk and honey expecting
to find money lying by the way-side
or growing on trees, and work to be
had for the asking, they only meet
with bitter disappointment. To be
sure L am not competent to draw COM
PARSONS between this and ether coun-
tries, for all [ know of any other land
is the little knowledge [ have gained
from advertising sheets or "booming"
just as you can draw
conclusions from what you read of
this country, and | believe it is the !
nature OF human beings all over the
world to allow their imaginations to {
wander far away and draw pictures in 5
some distant land, and to my minds :
eye there is nothing so grand in the S
orm ola home as the good old homes ! !
Of the pilgrim fathers, founded Dec a
II, 1920, which to-day must be near :
y perfected by their posterity. Homes
where from generation to generation v
ather and son till the soil, living 4
ives of honor and industry, and max s
ne every foot of ground hallowed |
pot. 1t has always seemed to me a 5
acrilege for old people to forfeit such s
ONES for a mere plttance and emf n
rate to some far off vision Of greener N
elds and pastures new to build for a
a newer and better one, \
where they only find a floating popu- f,
alton bent on the same purpose and
never finding what their deluded minds
had pictured. How often do we meet
such emigrants here-women and chill
3ren homeless and destitute. OnlE
asst week as l was coming up First {
street on the cars a poor, sickly look t
ne woman, thinly clad, with prema- L
urely old and broken hearted look {,
anne into the car and sat down oppo-
lite me. l could not help plying
er and probably she noticed it, for
be says, care you from the East?' IL
nd finding that L was wholly western u
he said, "Too bad" 1 could only h
mile, for 1 certainly thouuht it was u .,
20 bad that she came from the East. h
he then told me her pitiful story Of 81
be beautiful home in Connecticut d
Did at sacrifice; how they migrat- l
d to Portland, Oregon, and now n
leir money was all gone, they were B
Il sick but father and he could not $;
nd any work. And so l have seen a
time after time. 1t is well enough
Or young people just starting in life, -
all of romance and good health, for q q
hey are able to endure such priva- n
ions as they must naturally be re- A
uced to; just as my parents did in 4
852, when they arrived here with "
mpty pockets and low spirits. This ST
) a good place for capitalists to "
1vest their money, but not for old s
0lks who have nice, warm, comfort z
BILE homes where they have see |;
heir children grow to manhood and .
Yet L believe that here :
5 well as elsewhere the same econo-
ny of living and working may be car !
led on with harmony, and that hap
y hearts may exist in log cabin as
7ell as in more palatial residence,
lst as educations may be gaiaed out
ide of college walls. All pleasure in d
ife comes from contentment, whether y
4 the wild West or the far East.
MRS w 7 LAWRENCE m