518 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



stocked market. There is but a very small portion of the 

 inhabitants of an old country that make good pioneers 

 in a new one. 



Notwithstanding we have unnumbered acres of rich 

 soil at the West, I never can advise an eastern farmer 

 who is able to "make both ends meet," to become an 

 emigrant: for if he will exercise the same frugality and 

 cheap mode of living that he will be compelled to when 

 he gets into his new log cabin, he can remain comfortable 

 where he is, and ought to be contented and happy. He 

 ought to bear in mind that all those rich acres are only 

 the raw material, out of which farms are to be created; 

 and he ought to know, but more particularly his wife 

 and daughter ought to know, that they will have to en- 

 dure many deprivations and hardships in a log cabin, 

 that never were dreamed of in a carpeted parlor with 

 its piano and other accompaniments. Although there 

 are many who "make matters worse," there are others 

 who make them better by emigrating. Don't understand 

 me that I think none but those who are so poor that they 

 cannot live here can better themselves by emigrating. 

 Far from it. It is capital that we most need at the West, 

 and it is there that it can be most profitably used. And 

 there are thousands of farmers in the Eastern States 

 whose farms are under mortgage so heavy, that they 

 labor year after year without any other hope than keep- 

 ing the interest from accumulating upon the principal, 

 and yet they might sell and save enough to make a com- 

 fortable home in the West. It is such who ought to emi- 

 grate, and it is the duty of the wife and daughter of such 

 to say, "husband — father — sell the old farm and let us 

 all go to the West." 



This is a wise resolution. The hardest part of the task 

 is, however, starting, and the determination to do that, 

 accomplishes one half. Now this family, raised in com- 

 parative luxury, stand most in need of advice. 



First, as to what they shall take. — Ah, my dear girls, 

 wipe away those tears. I see you divine that I am going 



