Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-03-01
LETTER FROM MISSOURI.


Mr.. Editor:-A man can know but
| very little of his country until he
travels through it. The immense
| area of the United States gives it al
most every climate, as it has given it
the wonders eff the whole world in
the immensely of its rivers, the bread
tn of it's valleys, the extent of its
prairie stretches; the length of
mountain ranges; their heights; va
riety of productions; mineral resour-
SEES; immense forests; unsurpassed
mountain scenery; great lakes; an
| Unreasonable stretch of sea coast
line on two oceans and along a great
gulf; diversity in all lines which is in
deed wonderful. To add to the won
ders of nature is the astounding de-
velopment of the country in the COM
paratively few years since civilized
man came here to reside. The settle
ment of the Atlantic shores, covered
as the country was with heavy for
est; the Western march of the pio-
neer; the opening of navigation on
the vast lakes and up the long rivers;
the sweep of population over the Al
leghanies, the Ohio, the Mississippi
and the Missouri; and then the vast
westward stride which ran across the
desert stretches of the mid regions
of the continent; the opening of the
mines of the placer regions of the
PnoHu Mountains ond tho Ciprro Ma
vadas, and the planting of great
States on the Pacific coast, with cities
and towns countless in numbers; the
stretch of thousands and thousands
of miles of railroads over heights and
along routes seemingly impossible;
the running of electric wires in a vast
network system all over the great
country are but some of the things
which have been accomplished in
comparatively brief period.
And all this country has been rapid
ly peopled by the nations of the earth.
The sons and daughters Of the New
England and Colonial sections have
gone westward in vast numbers; but
they have been a lured. here by the
hopes of better homes and conditions,
the enjoyment and the promise of
blessin not to be obtained in the
Old countries. Hence to day as the
traveller visits the states Of the Middle
West he finds himself in condition
among people which are strangers
in tongues, manners and in desired
conditions of life. Americanized to
some extent, there are signs and GUS
toms of different foreign countries.
The buildings are not of the Yankee
types; the mode of farming has
changed; tho towns are unlike those
of the East, there is a foreign air
about things. OF course to the Yam
kee these things are new and not al
ways agreeable; but he has to re-
member that to others his customs
and habits may be strange, and pos
sibly repelling.
foreign country, in sense. 1t was
settled in part by the people of the
northern tier of the Southern terri
tory, who were swept along by the
western currents from Virginia, Ten
nessee, Kentucky, etc. And then !
there was the drift up and down the
great rivers which left mixed popu-
lation in the river towns. The slaves
with Southern slave owners, or were
born in the state; a few of the adven-
turous Yankee pioneers made homes
here, while the tide swept by to Kan
sas. Then there has been the long
and steady influx of foreigners, the
greater per cent from Germany.
These people are usually thrifty in
dustrious, provident. They are not
averse to work or dirt. and would not
be characterized as scrupulously
neat They manage to live and