The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1889-08-15
INTuE WHITE MOUNTAINS.

LITTLETON, N. H., Aug. ., 1888.
EDITOR NEws:-This is one of the
very many picturesque and attractive
towns of the really beautiful state of
New Hampshire. Elevation here
about 100 feet above the sea, with
mountains high enough to be hand
some and devoid of the rugged desola
tiOn which characteriZes the great
Rockies of the west. The railroads,
climbing along the lovely valleys which
gradually lead from the sea levels to
the mountain tops, are at this season
running frequent trains filled with
p!easure-seeking tourists and resi-
dents of the towns visiting each other
or making trips to and from the sea-
side resorts. The air is just warm
enough to be pleasant, and cool
enough to be refreshing. Excellent
hotels abound, for the accommodation
of the legiOns of tourists who demand
nice entertainment.
| Winnepesauke and other lakes are
exquisite pictures of scenery, framed
in sinuouS lines of emerald hills, and
on the steamboat pier, at The Wiers''
for instance. and see almost as clearly
as if through sheet of glass, hun
dreds of big rock bass, gliding easily
around, ten or fifteen feet below the
surface of the transparent water, their
capaciOus mouths seemingly indiffer-
ent to the fish-hook bait dangled
temptingly in plain sight under their
taStidiouS noses.
But my object in pennfng this hasty
note is to state that all over the east
ern states, New York and Pennsyl-
vania included, but especially in the
| New England states of Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts
and Connecticut, 1 find farms are rap
idly decreasing in value, that in many
places good farms, well improved, in
This and adjoining states, are unculti'
p waited, and in fact abandoned, while
many of them comparing favorably iT
acres of soil under cultivation, build
; ingS, orchards, ETC.. and nicely located
are offered for sale without buyers, fOl
One-half the price of such farm il
good land, mostly in cultivation, goOC
orchard, good house, large barn, foul
miles from a manufacturing town il
New Hampshire, stands begging ;
purchaser at 81 400, and could no
command a loan under Kansas rules o
over $500. Many farms on which gen
erationS of hardy New Highlander!
have succeeded each other, are tO-da,
1 abandoned as much as any claim i'm
} proved with only sod house ant
v twenty acres of breaking in Western
Kansas.
The reasons are that the presen
generation of young people here il
s bent on either going TO the large cite
or to the expansive west, and the OLE
folks, no longer able to continue tn
I toll which has stiffened their limb
= and bent their gaze earthward, mus
live in the towns for comfort in thei
L closing years, and, happily for many o
v them, can SubSist on the intereS
@ yielded by western farm mortgages, il
which they have had the courage
invest since their children have foun
d it possible to live in that distant re
C gion. After some years farm value
> here will no doubt touch bottom an
become subjects of Investment, but
y will not be this century in which the
L will rise to anywhere near their oil
y values, or farming here become at
q tractive to Young America. Foreign
ers may take and cultivate easter
= farms-until then they will continu
y to deteriOrate.
Il Am having pretty general goo
- time on sea coast, in city and Ill noun
tains, in which / wish everybody i
Emporia could participate.
$ Yours, J.R. GRAHAM.