Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1892-01-01
Six Months in the West.


any other cognomen, yet there is a
charm in the name that indelibly fixes
its imprint upon our inauguration.
So it is with the inhabitants of the
eastern and older states who have
been reared in lap of piety and beds
of ease and taught TO believe that
the west abounds with Indians and
half savage barbarians who have
escaped the hands Of Justice in the
east and have sought and found an
asylum among the Aborigines of
the west. Where the sound of the
church going bell, etc.
The early authors aud writers
from the old world and Miss Marti-
neau, states that she was told when
she started west that the people that
she must encounter were not only
unsocialized but uncivilized and that
they did not sit at the table at meals
and in this our day are not sell
dom heard from the same quarters
statements just as preposterous and
absurd.
Many seem to think that the lamp
of literature has been extinguished in
the west and in It's shadows vicelike
kissing adders creep or Shiny serpents
crawl. The wheels of the great car
of civilization has reached its termi-
nus and the fine conception of the
poet realized.
As one by one in dread medinas train
star after star fades OF the etherial plain
Thus at her full approach and secret right
Art after art goes out and all Is night.
Philosophy that leaned on heaven before
Sinks TO the second cause and is no more,
Religion blushng veils her sacred fires
! aud unawares morality expires.
Iwould that | could borrow that
iron pen from the departed spirit of
the immortal Benton, with which he
wrote his thirty years in the senate,
and be guided by his lofty mind
while portray the beauties, grand
ure and vastness of that portion of
the west that | have seen in the last
six months. Poets have sung their
songs and historians have recorded
its wonders and yet the traveller is
struck with awe and amazcment at
the vastness and grandure witnessed
at almost very turn from Chicago
to the crest or summit of the noun
tains. Ever since the May Flower
landed at Plymouth Rock emigration
west has been opposed and discourag.
ed by a large portion of the commun-
ity who have had the benefits of new
country and were comfortably fixed
and our experience as far as our recol-
lection reaches back shows that the
New England states discouraged
people emigrating to the Holland
purchase, New York, and so on to
Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and on to
the Pacific states each one of which
is large and great enough for an
empire in itself and in point Of
soil and climate the pioneer has
found increased benefits and advant-
ages and doubtless this comparison
will hold good to the early settlers
of Alaska. 1t is difficult for the
reader of history to believe that as
late as 1855 whole counties Of as
rich land as ever laid out to the sun
was put on the market at l2I cents
per acre from 80 to 100 miles from
St. Louis and Kansas City but now
under high state of cultivation,
supplied with railroads and thriving
towns every few miles and even at
that late date the u. S. Government
was giving to heads OF families $40
acres to emigrants to the state of
Oregon and still there are opportuni-
ties and openings as good as were
ever offered in the past but more
difficult 10 see and find than the
spontaneous gifts Of the government
as marked out by section lines, and
hundreds can better their condition
morally, socially and pecuniarily by
adopting and putting in force the
advice of III. Greely, "Go West"
do not wish to be understood
that Michigan has no natural ad-
vantages but that every avenue is
filled to its overflow and every ave.
nue. that produces a reasonable living