Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-04-07
a Homesteader's Dark View.

A Homesteader's Dark View.
The following communication was
taken from the Kansas City Star and
shows some of the conditions which
exist in the western country:
To the Star: There are great many
people who have altogether wrong ideas
about this homesteading and public land
business. Thousands of them through
these exalted ideas are placing them
selves where they will endure more
misery and hardships than they ever be-
fore thought existed. | think it is
wrong to give out any reports or en-
enlargement that will be the means of
adding even one more family to the al
ready thousands upon thousands of
those helpless, hapless unfortunates
sitting in those miserable little shacks
out in the sagebrush all over the barren
plains of Washington, Oregon, Idaho
Montana, Wyoming and Utah; sitting
there without crops or feed, the only
drop of water hauled miles in barrels
and frequently bought at the railroad
station; miles from neighbors and many
more miles from town or postoffice; in
hundreds of cases the wife and children
out there alone while the husband and
father is away at some construction
camp tryIhe " eaIu some provisions TO
carry 10 them; not nelghpor or doctor
wlIhn miles; no heip OF any KIND TO be
fau' the coyotes hoWling around the
shal,Iy' VIII venture that tney are
Ihlnklng, more VlVidly OF Dante
lhIerho tnan tney are OF the great
appearances III the west
ana Wnat are 5he eS people sitting out
lle :i' W wa ioi. Nopouy Knows. some
VIII 'eii you Ihey are waiting 1or water;
some VIII tell you they are waiting Tor
lne means 10 geI away ana sun othefs
VIII auiiliC Ihey no nOI know what they
are Waitlng lOr. lhese barren, DESC
lale' DUSTY, aihah, sageprush plans or
ueser's nave existed Tor thousands OF
years anu propaDly are mucn the same
as Iney were III the beginning Ihey
win pe 1le same thousahu years from
now. but lureu Dy exaggerated re-
ports ana Ihe ever allurng nope OF get
Iihg someIhihg lor mourning, people VIII
leaVe good MONIES ana prospects and
come out mere ana enter INTO hand to
nanu COMBAT WIN starvation and the
insane asylum IN an effort to obtain
piece OF thls DESERT country Tor their
very own lhere is not one out OF
oozen VINO succeed ana even those that
90, what nave tney got! Absolutely
notmng. nave lVed IN Washington
ana nave Travelled extensively IN Oregon,
Montana ana ldaho. nave hled on or
entered homestead and desert claim
IN TINS state Which nave held for four
years. nave seen many, very many,
others come ana nave seen them go
again, TOO after putting IN years of
hardshlp ana losing all they had.
nave before me an article written by
the edltor OF me Dalles (Ore.) Optim-
ISL, statlng mat IN trip through East
erh oregon ne IN one DAY counted
seVenty-two nomesteaders shantles,
only one OF Which was occupied. The
next day ne counted thlrty-three, of
winch only TWO were occupied. The rest
were all deserted and the amount of
misery ana Dhghted hopes those desert
ed shantles ana homesteads represented
can only be imagined by those OF US who
nave endured part OF 1t,
one OF your correspondents says from
his nome he can look out on five sec
tons OF land unsettled upon and therein
is great opportunities; From my place
can look out on whole townships that
are unsettled and that should remain
unsettled.
South OF me IL is thirty miles to my
nearest neighper, ana southwest 1t is
much further. Boise, on the north, is