St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-07
PRAIRIE FARM LIFE.
ITS ISOLATION AVID now TO apply 4
REMEDY.
MENTAL EFFECT ON PEOPLE.

ers Where There Can BE Some
Social Advantages.
E. V. Smalley, of st. Paul, editor of
the Northwest Magazine, contributes
the following Interesting paper to the
Atlantic Monthly for September:
Isolation OF Life on Prairie Farms.
In no civilized country have the cult
vators of the soil adapted their home
life so badly to the conditions of nature
as have the people of our great North
western prairies. This is strong state.
ment, but | am led to the conclusion by
Ten years OF observation in our plains
region. The European farmer lives in
village, where considerable social en-
JoYment is possible. The women gossip
at the village we'll, and visit frequently
at one anOther'S houses; the children
find playmates close at hand; there is q
school, and, if the village be not a very
small one, a church. The post wagon.
with its uniformed position merrily
blowing his horn, ratties through the
street every day, and makes an event
that draws people to the doors and
windows. The Old men gather of sum-
mer evenings to smoke their pipes and
talk of the crops; the young men pitch
quoits and play ball on the village
green. Now and then detachment of
soldiers from somO garrison town halts
to rest. A pedder makes his rounds.
a Dlack-frocked priest tarries to join in
the chat of the elder people, and to ask
after the health of the children. In a
word, something takes place to break
the monotony of daily life. The dwell
ings, if small and meagerly furnished,
have thick walls of stone that keep out
the summers heat and the winters
chill.
CONTRAST IN THE NORTHWEST.
Now contrast this life of the Eu,
r0pean peasant, to which there is JOY
Gus side that lighteRs labor and priva.
ton, with the life of poor settler on a
homestead claim in one Of the Datotas
or Nebraska. Every homesteader must
live upon his claim for five years to
perfect his title and get his patent; so
that if there were not the universal
American custom of isolated farm life
to stand in the way, no farm villages
would be possible in the first occupancy
of a new region in the West without a
change in our land laws. If the coun-
Try were so thickly settled that every
quarter-SeetiOn CT land 160 acres) had
family upon 1t, each family would be
half mile from any neighbor, sup
posing the houses to stand in the
center OF the farms; and in any
case the average distance between
them could not be less. But many set
tiers own 800 acres, and a few have a
square mile of land. 640 acres. Then
there are school sections. belonging tC
the state, and not occupied at all, and
everywhere you find vacant tracts
owned by Eastern spectators or by
mortgage companies, to which former
settlers have abandoned their claims,
going TO newer regions, and leaving
their debts and their lands behind
Thus the average space separating the
farmsteads is, in fact, always more
than half a mile. and many settlers
must go mile or two to reach a neigh
boris house. This condition obtains
not on the frontiers alone. but in fairly
well-peOpled agricultural districts.
THE PRAIRIE HOMES.
If there be any region in the world
where the natural gregarious instinct
of mankind should assert itself, thai
region is our Northwestern prairies
where short hot summer is followed
by long cold winter, and where there
is little in the aspect of nature to fur.
nlsh food for thought. On every hanC
4he treeleSS plain stretches away to the
horizon line. In summer it is checkered
with grain fields or carpeted with grass
and flowers, and it is inspiring in its
color and vastness; but one mile of it is
where some watercourse nurtures
fringe of willows and cotton
woods. When the snow covers
the ground the prospect is bleak
and dispiriting. No brooks babble under
Icy armor. There is 10 bird life after
the wild geesea and ducks :havt
passed on their way south. The silence
of death rests on the vast landscape
save when IL is swept by cruel winds
that search out every chink and GRANNY
of the buildings. and drive through eBci
unguarded aperture the dry, powdery
snow. In such region you would eX
pect the dwellings to be of substantial
construction, but they are not. The
new settler is too poor to build of brick
or stone. He haulS few loads Of
lumber from the nearest railway
station, and puts up a fralI little
that looks as though the prairie wind:
would blow it away. Were it no
for the invention of tarred building
paper. the flimsy walls would not keeI
out the wind and snow. With thi.
paper the walls are sheathed under the
weather-bOards. The barn is often {
GondeScript affair of sod walls anc
straw 70 of. Lumber is much too deal
to be used for dOoryard fences, anC
there is no Enclosure about the house
a barbed-wire fence surrounds the
barnyard. Rarely are there any trees
for on the prairies trees grow very
slowly, and must be nurSed with care t
get start. There is saving that you
must first get the Indian out of the sol
before tree will glow at all; which
means that some savage quality mus
be taken from the ground by cultiva
ton.
LACK OF SOCIETY.
In this cramped abode, from the win.
d0ws of which there is nothing more
cheerful in sight than the distant
houses of other settlers, just as ugly
and lonely, and stacks of raw and uu.
threshed grain, the farmers family
must live. In the summer there is q
school for the children, one, two OF
three miles away: but in winter the
distances across the snow-covered plains
are too great for them TO travel in severe
weather; the school house is closed, and
there is nothing for them to do but tc
house themselves and long for spring
Each family must live mainly tc
itself, and life, shut up in the
little wooden farm houses, cannot
well be very cheerful. A drive tc
the nearest town is almost the only di-
version. There the farmers and Their
wives gather in the stores and manage
to enjoy little sociability. The big
coal stove gives out grateful warmth,
and there is pleasant odor of dried
Goldfish, groceries and ready-made cloth.
Ing. The women look at the display OF
thick cloths and garments, and wish the
nrnn mad lpni1 haffar ca that ia