The Black range. (Robinson, Socorro County, N.M.) 1882-1897, 1897-05-14

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THE TEARS OF BITTER ANGUISH FLOWED
and to work on a salary is uncertain.
Thousands do it, of course, and'a small
per cent. of them get on very well but
such cases are rare. We have had ex-
perience in that way, and we know
what it is to be thrown out of employ
ment and left stranded without money
and with sickness, We have hard times
here, and suffer many privations and
disappointments, but | would not ex-
change it for the east, for here we have
hope of home by and by, and there
we could hope for nothing. Here you
are your own master, there you were
the servant of your employers, who,
because they paid you a pitiful salary
sufficient to keep yourself and family
alive, felt that they owned you body
and soul. I'll take Kansas with its
trials and disappointments in prefer
ence to the east"
'Yes, so will l." said John, "but do
think the settlers who come here to
build up homes and improve and beau
TRY the land, ought to receive better
treatment from the government There
is no justice in giving up to corpora
tions and cattle kings all the choice
portions of the public lands, leaving to
the homeseekers the sandy, arid plains,
where nothing but sand burs and coy
otes flourish. But the rich men, sup
pose, must be cared for, and whatever
they don't want is rendered to the
poor. But after all this is perhaps
as good as any place for the poor
man, for he don't seem to be wanted
anywhere except as convenience to
the wealthy. 1t is truth, verify, that
there is no place in this world for
the poor. They are cumberers OF the
ground"
John and Mary, being heartsore and
discouraged, were probably prone to
take a melancholy view of the situa-
ton, as people are apt to do under such
circumstances. But after all, who is
there to say that their view, though
melancholy, was not to some extent at
least based on facts? Who is there to
say that poor men with families
brought into competition with the labor
of all the civilized and semi.civilized
world do not have hard time of it in the
east, and feel themselves fortunate in
nine cases out of ten if they are able to
keep their dependent ones barely above
want? Who is there to say against
John Green's assertion, that the poor
settlers on the public lands of the west
have not been neglected by the govern.
ment and forced to occupy the arid
plains passed over by the rich cattle
men and giant corporations as useless?
Mary and John may have looked at the
situation through smoked glass, but if
they did, they saw not far wrong.
AS John had feared, the outlook for
crops grew less and less promising
with each week. The weather con.
tinued dry, and day after day the sun
ran his course through cloudless
heavens. The earth became parched,
and the vegetation that had, in spite OF
all obstructions, forced itself into life
dropped, withered and died. For three
long months not drop of rain had
fallen, and it being now July there was
no longer any grounds for hope on the
part of the settlers. 1t was impossible
that any crops could be grown thus late
in the season, even were it to rain at
once.
There was nothing before the Greens
but repetition of the experiences OF
the winter two years before. Their
store of provisions saved from the crop
Of the preceding year was almost gone,
and they had no money and no means
of raising any. They had not even the
privilege of borrowing from Scraggs
this time, for they had nothing to
mortgage him in return for his accom-
modation. Take the most cheerful
view of the future that they could, ana
picture it in the brightest colors their
buoyant fancy could suggest, and IT re-
NAMED a dark, somber, forbidding
prospect, unrelieved by single ray u
light.
John regretted the loss OF his money
now as he had never regretted it before
and no opinion he could form OF hlm-
self, however low and debaslng, was
spared him. With that money all saIe-
ly at hand he and bis family could pass
unpinched through the coming winter,
and have enough left to pay the debt on