354 
ladies’ department. 
Cabies’ ^Department 
ADVICE TO WESTERN EMIGRANTS. 
Will that portion of your female readers who are 
intending to leave the “ old homestead,” and seek “ a 
new home in the West,” accept of a little plain ad¬ 
vice from one who has grown grey in the emigrant’s 
log cabin, and if from experience he has learnt wis¬ 
dom, will be able to give advice which will be prac¬ 
tically useful. 
In the first place why are you going to the West ? 
—Fori hold it to be “self-evident” that no good 
husband will abandon the old home for a new one, 
contrary to the wishes of his wife, and therefore the 
question is to her. 
If the object is mainly to find husbands for those 
“ young ladies ” who, in consequence of false pride, 
and foolish fashion, have been reared in idleness, and 
taught “ all the accomplishments of a fashionable 
boarding school,” let me tell you that you are going 
to an overstocked 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, 1 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 endure many depriva¬ 
tions 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 emi¬ 
grating. 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 keeping the interest from accumulat¬ 
ing upon the principal, and yet they might sell and 
save enough to make a comfortable home in the West. 
It is such who ought to emigrate, 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, starling, and the determination to 
do that, accomplishes one half. Now this family, 
raised in comparative 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 to tell you that you must leave the pia¬ 
no. Yes, you won’t need it. True it cost $150 or 
perhaps $300, money foolishly laid out, too, on ac¬ 
count in part for which “ that mortgage ” was given, 
and it will now only bring half the money; but that 
i will buy 120 acres of the richest kind of the western 
soil. You don’t know how much an elegant piece o) 
furniture of this kind looks out of place in a log cab¬ 
in. I do. During my travels last winter, I came upon 
a lonely cabin all unadorned by plant or shrub, and 
against the rough black Jogs, and upon the rough 
puncheon floor, stood a costly piano. The wife had 
been raised in luxury, fitted for life with a finished 
education, which naturally unfitted her now, without 
servants to take care of her humble house and grow¬ 
ing family. And what use had she for a piano ? 
None whatever. But before marriage it had been her 
dearest friend, and now her parents, thinking to make 
her a most acceptable present, had sent her this old 
friend (dear at the cost of freight), soon to be rutned 
under its rough shelter. Half its cost in necessary 
and useful articles, would have been far more valua¬ 
ble. I now speak to the farmers who expect and in¬ 
tend to occupy a log cabin in the West. In prepar¬ 
ing then to emigrate, dispose of all costly, easily dam¬ 
aged articles of furniture. Take no tables, chairs, 
bedsteads, sofas, bureaus, except, perhaps, one very 
plain one, well packed, for upon all such articles you 
will have to pay freight by the pound. Sell the chi¬ 
na and cut glass, and pack up only what you now 
call the kitchen, table, and cooking furniture. Don’t 
take, to break, those great gilt looking glasses ; cheap¬ 
er ones will look as well, in which you will look as 
well as in better.—A rag carpet must be substituted for 
those for which “ that mortgage” was given. Yes, 
certainly, the book-case must go, and let it be well 
filled and don’t forget to leave the needful with the 
printer to induce him to continue to send “ the paper” 
to your new home in the west.—Beds and bedding 
carefully packed in tight boxes or barrels, and in the 
proper way, and let every article be put up and plainly 
directed. Don’t say it is not necessary because you 
are going with the things and can see to them ; you 
might as well undertake to see to a whirlwind, and 
in that your moveables would not be handled more 
roughly than they will upon drays, canal boats, 
steamboats, and wagons, before they are finally tum¬ 
bled out in a heap at the door of your new home. I 
do not object, ladies, to your taking all those rich 
dresses. But I do object to your taking them in any 
other way than under safe lock and key. For your 
journey, have nothing in use more costly than plain 
calico. 
And now, girls, as you cannot well cultivate in¬ 
strumental music in a log cabin, nor sport your silks 
and prunellas through the abundant black mud of a 
rich western soil, so as to occupy all your time, let 
me assure you that in that soil you can cultivate 
lovely flowers, and beautiful shrubs, vines and fruits ; 
and soon cover over the “ ugly black walls” of your 
new house, with climbing roses and fragrant honey¬ 
suckles. So be sure that for this you go well pro¬ 
vided. You may as well lay in a good supply of 
“ small fixings ” such as threads, needles, pins, tape, 
&c. ; but all the larger articles of merchandise, and 
such articles of furniture as you will really need, you 
can get in any of the large towns near your new lo¬ 
cation. 
My advice is, that you take nothing (excepting ar¬ 
ticles in the clothing line) that will be superfluous 
in a log cabin. “ But,” I hear you say, “ surely 
chairs, tables, and bedsteads, which you direct us no* 
