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THE ILLII^OIS F^HIVLEH. 



'211 



There is no female hand to help them, none 

 of the restraints that other society imposes, 

 but a carelessness succeeds, of not only per- 

 son and appearance, but in the valne of their 

 earnings, in the very mammon itself that has 

 become their divinity. That man cannot 

 live alone, was one of the earliest announce- 

 ments, that has gained strength with succes- 

 sive ages ; but here woman cannot enter, her 

 very tastes and susceptibilities would revolt. 

 She would be out of her orbit in scenes so 

 rough and uncongenial as arc here presented. 

 Without women, without children, or with 

 but few of them J without schools or provis- 

 ion for learning, or but poorly encouraged, 

 what can be expected of man but that he 

 should lapse into barbarism ? Men can 

 scarcely go on these enterprises without 

 leaving families, mothers, sisters, some one 

 dependent on them, at home, that are har- 

 rassed with cases and suspense, though, if 

 the ties become weakened or dissolved, worse 

 yet for the parties concerned, that such 

 temptations should have been permitted to 

 rupture the smooth current of their life ! — 

 Women fear these mining adventures, and 

 well they may ; they are the greatest suffer- 

 ers by them. 



We knew a party of young men from staid 

 New England, that so lost their bahnce at 

 eight and ten dollars per day, that they could 

 not work, did not work, would not work, and 

 the major part of them became little better 

 than vagabonds. Could they have scooped 

 up gold by the shovel full it would have been 

 the same. The thing had lost its value in 

 their new surroundings, and without solici- 

 tude or care, nothing remained for them but 

 neglect and improvidence. How many are 

 there ia any community that succeed to 

 wealth and competence? Not many; and 

 rely upon it, the ratio of success will not be 

 disturbed in mining. It will be the lesser 

 fraction, and not the greater, that will return 

 unsuccessful. 



In the dispensation of railroads and tele- 

 graphs, the ease and rapidity of communi- 

 cation, the different parts of the world are 

 put nearly on a par in the results derived 

 from labor. No one department continues 

 favored or depressed tor a length of time, 

 but soon reaches the general level. Grada- 

 tion is the law of progress. It requires a 

 well disciplined mind to use even a moder- 

 ate degree of success with advantage or credit 

 to itself There is not much use in saying 

 that money is a secondary consideration, but 

 if we have to lose all balance of character, 

 all respect for stationary life and quiet pur 

 suits, become alienated from home and kin- 

 dred, then we may well doubt if respecUible 

 poverty is not better. There is no need 

 certainly for all this, but the liability to it is 



Very great with those who embark in these 

 enterprises. Let them weigh well the cost, 

 the expense, the risks we have named, ere 

 they undertake them. ; 



Again, what farmer boy would lose his, 

 home, the incitements that are constantly 

 presented in his pursuits, the elevation at- 

 tending increased knowledge, the duties that 

 pertain to the family relation, for gain that 

 is precarious, that has little in it that is com- 

 mendable as a means, much that is damaging 

 to the character, that is impermament as a 

 vocation ? Gambling is very common at the 

 mines, and very subtle in its influence over 

 the excitable spirits of the young. Money 

 is spent much after the manner in which it 

 is earned. If it come by chance, it will go 

 in the same way, or by other lawless expen- 

 diture. If the miner return unsuccessful 

 the wiser may profit by it, but this is not the 

 rule when adventure has once possessed us. 

 We still crave new excitements, repel slow 

 acquisitions, .dislike quiet unobtrusive ways, 

 covet that lawless Independence which ends 

 in the worst subserviency, and, lastly, the 

 unsuccessful has lost time and opportunities 

 that may never return. 



The farmer who sees the processes of veg- 

 etation, if he is an enlightened man, has 

 unalloyed delight, and his prospects under 

 this development have nothing in them to 

 shock his moral perceptions. The black- 

 smith' if he chooses to give rein to his tho'ts, 

 may consider the coal and iron that he uses 

 and works upon as something more than the 

 representative of value. He may even com- 

 pare Pennsylvania and California as States, 

 and find one wanting in the elements of a 

 permanent prosperity — the other overflowintr 

 with them. But in justice to the latter, we 

 might observe that its mining, as now chief- 

 ly conducted, by companies and organized 

 bodies, leaves the agricultural and other 

 intereets of the State unaffected to their own 

 development. 



It may be said that the mibers for gold in 

 the United States, show a better.record than 

 those of England, who work in coal, iron, 

 tin, and copper, but the difference between 

 their respective conditions in the social scale, 

 is as wide as the poles. Until we can place 

 English lower society in the same base as 

 our own', which theoretically acknowledges 

 no lower. Is practically energetic and ambi- 

 tious, and intellectually better informed, we 

 may be prepared to admit that our reasoning 

 is iuconclusive. The worst feature of Amer- 

 ican society is its instability. We are not 

 satisfied to leave places where the institu- 

 tions, labor, and soil oper te against us, and 

 so far so good ; but we never stop. We sat- 

 isfy the mind in its adventurous cravings, 

 but we satisfy nothing else. No sooner is 



the farm fenced in, the soil broken, the trees 

 planted, than we volunteer for the Mexican 

 war, start off for Texas or Iowa, perhaps turn 

 fillibuster, or the flaming vision of gold 

 haunts us and we go to California, leaving 

 the farm to waste, the association of neigh- 

 bors, society, kindred, friends, natures land- 

 marks, to wither in their freshness, with 

 little prospect of their being revived again 

 in all their fair proportions dujing life I 



Such is too much the career of our coun- 

 trj-men. The continent gets peopled the 

 earlier, but not the better. The material 

 ends of existence are elevated into undue 

 importance, civilization is weakened into a 

 normadic system, into a rough, border, per- 

 haps Mormon life, that in its c-oarcctions 

 involves the old States in turmoil, confusion, 

 and expense, towers the general intelligence, 

 le<rislation, and virtue of the nation. These 

 arc the fruits of adventure and they are in- 

 soperable from it. 



Another feature worth consideration is the 

 accessibility of these gold fields to the popu- 

 lous districts, enabling our Western States 

 to send their tens of thousands, and other 

 places in prouortion, to swell the competi- 

 tion, the leveling process. From all we can 

 learn gold has to be dug with as much toil 

 as potatoes, and is often full as prosy, and 

 if we compare it with the higher departments 

 of husbandry and industry we shall find it 

 sink out of sight in all valuable estimation. 

 Provisions too will be very high, are trans- 

 ported from great distances, and one may 

 possibly star%'e clinging to their gold bags. 

 We say then to every one disposed to go to 

 Pike's Peak or the Gilu, " let well alone," 

 and if not In this comfortable position, the 

 chances to acquire it are about equal in em- 

 ployments at home, iu which he may be 

 assisted by the aid of friends and associates. 

 If, nevertheless, some will go, let them not 

 loose their common sense, or suppose that 

 life is not still a struggle, in which skill, 

 consummate prudence in its earlier stages, 

 far "Tcater reserve arc even more necessary 

 to them than ever. /" B. 



The Cane Staple. 



Mr. Editor: I think that there can be 

 no lonirer anv (juestion about the successful 

 cultivation of the Chinese Sugar Cane here; 

 that it will grow to periection ; that it will 

 yield large crops; that its juice can bo made 

 into excellent syrup, and this profitably to 

 the grower — with some furtlier conditions. 



And the conditions are tliese : the man 

 who expects to raise cane and woik it up at 

 a profit, should select high and dry ground, 

 plant the seed early, so as to have much of 

 his crop matured by the 1st of Septomler. 

 When he has planted his seed, he sliould go 

 about getting his apparatus to work up his 

 cane. He should have this all ready by the 

 tii-st of AuiTust. Better be a mouth too 



