Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1903-07-01
OLD SCENES REVISITED.
New England Welcomes Thousands Of
Her Scattered Children.

New England Welcomes Thousands of
Her Scattered Children.
New England expects to welcome
nearly half a million Of her scattered
children back under their old roof
trees during the summer, says the
Brooklyn Eagle. She Is planning
every state Of her with the solitary ex-
ception of Rhode Island-a mammoth
family reunion to take place during
the summer vacation. Nearly every
town in Maine, New Hampshire, Yer
mont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut
has planned an "old home week" for
some time between the middle of July
and the middle of September. They
have invited their wandering sons and
daughters, who went forth many years
ago to make their fortunes, and their
%grandsons and granddaughter, who
were born in many instances on the
soil of some upstart western state and
have never een the old home, back
for a week on the old sod. And the
invitation is being numerously accept
ed, and during the vacation thousands
will turn their steps eastward.
Just a million have been invited, all
told. They have been invited by one
or another of the New England towns
to come back and join hands with the
people still around the old firesides
whose grandfathers were the friends
and neighbors of their grandfathers.
And the idea has taken nightly. All
Yankeeland is interested. State asso-
Citations of the most prominent citi-
zens are arranging for big general eel
ebrations, and each individual town
is preparing to look well to its own.
AS is usual in such cases it is not
entirely a matter of sentiment. New
England has a reputation for practical
hard-headedness which will put even
sentiment on a practical, paying basis.
She expects to derive a tremendous
benefit from this whole 'old home
week" movement. She is planning the
biggest reunion v e projected-in
fact. a series of hundreds of reunions
combined into n tremendous whole.
and she expects to combine profit with
the pleasure of the meeting.
Scarcely a city, town or hamlet east
of the New York state line but will
have its day of welcoming its old
townsfolk. The boys that went away
poor, the girls that married and made
new homes for themselves, will come
back" prosperous, with their families.
The experience of the past four years
has shown what they will do. Sum-
moned by this call to the old homes,
which they probably would not have
otherwise visited, they will be feted
and made much of. The old love will
return. Some of them will buy old
farms and turn them into beautiful
country places, others will give librar-
les or other public buildings, rebuild
ancient churches, erect tabulets and
monuments.
Some idea of the strong ties of SEN
timent that bind the New England
states to each other and to the other
states of the Union may be gathered
by the following summary. In con-
sidering the data We should remem-
Der that 1t represents only present
conditions and does not refer in any
way to the thousands of native emil.
grants who have in generations past
gone out from those states to fight the
battles of civilization, and who have
done so much toward pushing our
frontier from the upper Hudson to the
Mississippi, from the Mississippi to
the Rocky mountains and from the
Rocky mountains to the golden sands
of the Pacific.
Maine has furnished 216,551. New
Hampshire 124,04S, Vermont 1855
Massachusetts, 299, 614, Rhode Island
81. 542 and Connecticut 142,2 toward
this grand total of 1,012,367.
OF these New Englanders 312 600
have gone to the middle and extreme
west. They have founded cities there
and built up states in which the spir.
1t of New England institutions Is re-
incarnated and which stand as a unit
with New England on all great ques'
lions of public policy and national hon
or. Scattered along the southern sea
board from Delaware to Florida are
1900 more and in other parts of the
south about 5000. In the nearer
states of New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania are 177,322, while the
interchange between the New Eng
land states themselves amounts 10
about half a million.
California has been the objective
point of over $4,000 from New Eng.
land, and 10000 have settled in Colo
RADIO, Washington and Oregon. ILL.
nois stands close to California, with
10000 to her credit. Next in order are
Minnesota. with 10000; Wisconsin,
with $4,000; Michigan, with $4,000:
Iowa, with 81, 900; Ohio. with 10000,
and Missouri. Indiana, Kansas and Ne.
braska, with a total of $4,000, which
is equal to the entire population of
Nevada.
New York has drawn upon New
England for 10000 of her people. and
the draft has been honored. Sixty
five thousand have gone to swell the
population of New York City. while
the New England colony in Chicago
numbers $4,000. thatin San Francisco
10000. and an equal number have fol.
lowed in the footsteps of William Penn
TO help build up the Quaker City.
In New York City the New England
ers. on DIR. Bangs calculations. are:
From Maine. 1854; from New Hamp'
shire. 2.32l; from Vermont, Alps;
from Massachusetts,. 25,235; from
Rhode Island. 4.03S; from Connecti-
puf % lSO