The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-03-19
"GWlNE BACK TO BRASkY."
What the Pacific Coast Wants in Immi-
grants.

grants.
Especial Correspondence
SAN FRANCISCO. March One of the
questions asked by those much on the rail-
roads is where are all the people going to,
and where do they come from! 1t is quite
study this, the perpetual migration
of the lower and middle classes of so
ciety, and nowhere else is the fact so ap-
parent as on the lines of travel across the
continent. Day after day, year in and
year out. trains pull out from Chicago,
Kansas City and other shipping centers
with full immigrant cars westward
bound, and one would be led to believe
that soon every spare acre in the far west
would be settled; but despite this perpetual
tide Of western emigration the census pc
RODS do not show any remarkable increase
in population. The reason is to be found
in the returning east bound trains.
These eastbound trains do not go nearly
empty. Almost as many are returning
east as are going west.
Aside from the restless disposition of
certain class of fne'er-do-wells, large num-
ber of farmers and laborers get an i'll de-
fined impression that fortune awaits them
beyond the Rockies, and without any clear
purpose or destination in view they pack
up their effects, which too frequently COM
prise miscellaneous collection Of tinware
and children. and start for Oregon, Cali
fornia or Washington, as the case may be-
When they land at one of the cities of the
far west they have no money left. and are
not met by employers in eager quest Of
laborers, as they had calculated.
After eking out a precarious existence
for few months nearly one-half of such
emigrants shock" what they have left, or
induce their home friends to lend them
enough money to get back to where they
started. When they get home again they
proceed to lavish abuse of the west, and
if they try farming, under conditions en-
tirely new to them, and tailed to reap
rich harvest the first year, they report the
land as good for nothing If they come as
laborers, and find no particular scarcity of
hired help, they return east cursing the
Chinese in particular and the western en-
ployers of labor in general. Such do not
stop to consider that the farmers q Cali
fornia and Oregon have been managing to
get their seeds planted and harvests gath
cred before they thought of emigrating.
What the far west needs is immigrants
with capital enough to buy land and
one year at least without earning dollar.
There are now enough laborers here to do
all the work to be done. The Pacific coast
states can absorb vastly increased popu-
lation. But good live farmers are most
needed. There are now enough merchants,
mechanics and newspaper men here, but
not enough farmers who are able to ac-
quire farms of their own.
was recently waiting at the depot at
Stockton for train, and observed two tall,
hardy looking men, each with big, black
paper sachel and a bed quilt tied into
roll and corded with clothes line. en-
gagged the younger of the two in converse
ton, and found him to be typical immi-
grant of the class above described.
He said: II am gwine back to 'Brasky.
This bloody kentry is no good fur white
man to live in. have bin up to See-attel,
and while feller gifts good wages he pays
$40 week fur board and has mighty
little left. l cum On down to kaliforny,
and worked all summer with thrasher
at s. day and board. But feller has to
sleep on the soft side of straw pile, and
make up his own bed in the mornin'. Ar
ter thrashen was done bin a-grubben and
cuttin' wood fur feller at $3.50 day.
But I amt spoke to a wommon in six
months. Why, common feller amt no
more'n dawg in this kentry. Nobody
don't care nuthen fur nobody. a feller
sleeps in barn and furnishes his own
bed
II tried plowen, but was afaard Id git
lost They start out in the morLin' a dozen
teams in a gang, and it takes all day to go
one round They take along dinner and
feed for horses, and when noon comes they
take out, feed and eat, and then drive on
till night afore they gifts back 70 where
they started No, sir, no kaliforny fur
me. I'm gwine back TO Brasky, wbar a
feller is somebody and has his bed made up
fur him, and whar feller can speak to a
wommon without she gittin' scared"
And he bought second class ticket to
Omaha, and had bag of grub to last him
a week
He was type of immigrant, good enough
where labor is needed, but of a class OF
whom there seems to be enough here al
ready. Is. u. w.