Year: 1869

inaw are.closed with or obstructed bv ice "a
long as any obstruction from a similar cause
exists in Lake Superior or the passage to it,


but facts do not justify this statement. re-


member some twelve years since, when pass
ing through st. Croix town in this State, of
seeing in local paper the statement that the
first boat OF the season got through the ice to
the head of Lake Superior on the seventh of
June, when knew that propellers had been
running between Chicago and Buffalo for at
least six weeks. That was, no doubt, an un-
usual season, though this very season, which
is not considered unusual, while boats reached
st. Paul from below Lake Pepin, and passed
from Chicago to the lower lakes before the
middle OF April, no boat had been able
to reach Duluth up to the tenth of May.
The steamer Sandusky, at Superi'r (near
ported passing all the boats that had


been to the head of the lake during the sea-


son fast in the ice, in the lower end of the


lake, and the passengers reported fifteen Of said


vessels, several propellors and two side wheel
steamers, all fast in the ice at Marquette, on
their way to that port, and that some of
them had been there ten days. This copy
from communication from Superior in a
St Paul paper. Marquette is about half way
down the lake, and the ice 70 doubt had been
blown from the north shore by the prevailing
winds, but the facts show the precarious state
of navigation even at late date in the sea-
son, and that the season Of navigation by the


superior route is much shorter than by the


Lake Michigan route.


intended to submit some of the
specious statements in relation to the North


ern Pacific Railroad route to the same cruci-


al test of facts, but the space / have already
occupied admonishes me to defer what
have to say upon that point, and bring this
letter to close. In doing so wish distinct


ly to discla.m all hostility to the interests of


this or any other State, and particularly to
either of the railroad enterprises to which


have referred. / desire only to state facts and


any interest that will not abide these is not


worthy to influence the minds of your peo-


pie, or to beget discomfort with their present


locations and prospects. 1t is the false esti-


mates of gain to be derived from change of


location that prompt many Of your people to


leave Maine for the West, and would only


give them facts instead of fiction, hold the
mirror up to nature and necessity, so that *
they do "pull up stakes saqgpptar aptRStte States of the


new new, S1ey may know something of the re-


gion.-its prospects, drawbacks and advan-


tages,-to which they go. Too many "go it
blind" act hastily and repent leisurely, and
scores of this latter class l have met who,
while insisting they have done well by COM
ing West, frankly concede that, by remaining
contentedly in the East. and following their
old vocation, they would have done much bet
ter. This is very common confession, while
not a few cease not to regret the day they left
their old homes in the East, and but for ad-
vancing age would still hope to go back, at
least in season to lay their bones with those
OF their ancestors. But the means of such
persons, generally not very abundant, in most
cases are in lands not readily available for


ready money, while they very properly reason
that dozen or fifteen years have wrought


changes there as well as here, so that, should
they return they would find themselves
among the active life of new generation, al


most strangers in the land of their early asso-
| Citations, unable perhaps to adapt themselves
| to the new order of things which would ey-
| erywhere exist around them. Too late, alas


for such, they have realized the wisdom Of
the maxim which enjoins to "let well enough
| alone" OBsEkVEh.