The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-09-24
MOVING.
rs it Best to Be Always Movingp =

have lately been thinking about
the curious way in which our Ameri-
can people move about from place to
place. All classes do it, but l speak
more especially of farmers. They are
always going West from the older
States, and am told by people who
have been there, that even out on the
plains of Texas and Kansas it is the
same way. The Elusive "Wcst" is
still beyond, and the canvascovercd
wagons are still on the march, appar-
emily no nearer the stopping place than
before.
1t seems to be something like the
case Of the "down-east Yankee, who,
catching the Western fever, sold his
farm, picked up his traps and started
West. He located several times, but
always found, before getting fairly
adjusted, that the West whlch he was
seeking was still further on. He fol-
lowed this ignus fatus for many years,
and finally landed at his old home in
the Pine Tree State, having made the
circuit Of the globe.
Bishop Bcrkely, was it not, who
said. Westward the course OF empire
takes its way?" From the earliest
dawn Of civilization the human race
has been marching Westward like
great grasshopper swarm, leaving the
wreck and ruin of the ages in it's path
behind.
Is it best to be always moving
about? I think not. In the first
place, it costs money. We know the
old adage, IA rolling stone gathers no
moss" Again, moving breaks up
family associations and local attach
ments, which mean much in the ideal
life. We need to cultivate more the
European habit of sticking to the
old homestead, where generation after
generation succeeded each other on
the same estates. If o spirit Of con-
stan. improvement. is kept up, the
children may always begin life with
good advantages.
A great many farmers are constant
ly moving to other parts of the coun-
try, as they say, to better their condi-
tion. Some of them succeed in their
purpose, but larger per cent. gain
nothing, or are even worsted. The
same energy in trying to meet the
conditions of success would have sue
ceeded in the old home as we'll as in
the new. Some Of these people soon
return, broken in fortune and health,
to begin life anew at the old stand.
Many cases are pitiable.
Who has not seen one OF these poor
families trudging along the dusty
roads in On old tumble-down cart, or
one-horse wagon, drawn by blind
horse, or one.eyed mule, the father
sick with malaria, the mother haggard,
and the children suffering the pangs Of
b niger? The poor mans greatest de-
sire, ss he burns with fever, Ia to get
one more drink from the cold, gushing
spring at the old home so inoonsider-
ately abandoned.
In the section where live farmers
have been going West az long as
can remember. We also have them
coming from the West to settle here.
Within mile and half of me there
is an Englishman who lived many
years in Kansas. He came here and
bought farm, thinking thereby to
better his condition, while many OF
the farmers here had been going to
Kansas for the same purpose. Men
come here from the Northwest and
buy farms, while others go from here
out there-all seeking the better
country. Families will come here and
settle down, apparently on the poorest
little old farm that they can find, after
baving lived east, north and west.
Isn't it wonderful-this spirit of un-
rest.
The main cause of dissatisfaction