TI-I12 l'iU'l'i.A.L IM LC W -YORKER 
1171 
Finding a New Home 
Pioneers in New York. 
Not the pioneers of early Colonial 
days, when wolves howled where the loco¬ 
motive now shrieks, but the pioneers of 
a new era in the agricultural life of an 
old State. The original tenants of the 
land, the Indians, were driven out by 
a hardier race of whites; now the des¬ 
cendants of those whites are themselves 
giving place to another people of the 
same color, but of hardier fibre. 
The ruggedness of the hills requires a 
rugged people and each succeeding gen¬ 
eration of the families who cleai’ed the 
forests displays a softer palm and a more 
covetous glance toward the luxuries of 
the plains. The “deserted farms” of New 
York lie in the hills, miles from town 
and scant of neighbors. Potentially good 
farms, most of them, and capable of yield¬ 
ing a livelihood to families who are able 
to work hard and practice the economies 
to which our forefathers were not strang¬ 
ers. Those who cleared them are now 
dead and their children have yielded to 
the lure of the town. The “original in¬ 
habitants” are leaving the hills and their 
place is left vacant or being taken by 
alien people. 
A recent trip into the highlands of 
Tompkins and Schuyler counties reveal¬ 
ed conditions which are duplicated in 
many other counties of the State, and 
which seem to the writer to promise well 
ior the future. A drive of a few miles 
over good country roads shows, here and 
there, deserted or semi-deserted farms. 
These range in size from 40 to 200 acres; 
they are partly wooded and partly cleared ; 
some slopes are so steep that it is folly 
women as rugged as their husbands work 
with them in the fields. Pioneer condi¬ 
tions are evident; the food is as simple 
as it is wholesome; clothes are for cover, 
not for fashion, and the children’s toys 
were not purchased at the stores. But 
homes are being made, and the founda¬ 
tion of other homes is being reared. Farms 
that were once going back to wilderness 
again support these families. 
These tow-headed children are Ameri¬ 
can-born Finns; many of their parents 
do not yet speak English. These Finns, 
coming in many cases from the copper 
mines of Michigan and Wisconsin, have 
become the second generation of pioneers 
of the hills. Accustomed to poverty and 
hardship in their Old .World home, the 
loneliness, the scant fare, the lack of 
social intercourse and the hard toil of 
their homes have no terrors for them. 
1 he ownership of land represents free¬ 
dom and independence and they are will¬ 
ing to pay the price of a new hope for 
the future. While doing it they are lay¬ 
ing the foundation of a new citizenry 
which will be as American as those who 
left the hills, and, let us hope, more loyal 
to the soil which nourished them. 
M. n. d. 
A Trip to a New Country 
The Reason for Cheap Living. 
Glowing Prospects. —- A good many 
years ago, shortly after we were married, 
my husband and I listened to the advice 
ol a friend who lived in a Western State, 
and decided to sell out and move out there. 
destination, a small town 13 miles back 
from the railroad. After some difficulty 
a man was found willing to make the 
trip out that night. Soon after 11 p. m. 
we started. 
A Cold Drive.— The mercury was 
down to zero and still falling. There 
was no snow on the ground and the 
roads were cut up into deep ruts, so 
rough in some places as to be nearly im¬ 
passable. Soon after we started the 
wind commenced to blow, and it seemed 
as if we would surely freeze. We put 
our extra wraps around the baby and cov¬ 
ered up well as we could with the blankets, 
but never as long as I live will I forget 
that long ride through the bitter cold, to¬ 
gether with the constant worry for fear 
baby would catch cold. But when we 
arrived at the house of our friend just 
before daybreak baby was as warm as 
toast; but, oh, how cold we were! It 
was several days before I could go out¬ 
doors without shaking with the cold. The 
day we got there it began to snow, and 
kept it up until the roads were impass¬ 
able for several days. So it was nearly 
a week before we could get our trunks 
and boxes of bedding from the railroad 
station. 
Setting Up Housekeeping. —Our host 
knew of a vacant house in the village 
that we could rent, so my husband saw 
the owner and rented it for a year for 
$2.50 per month. It was a nice house 
with kitchen, living-room, two bedrooms 
and pantry downstairs and two bedrooms 
upstairs. There was also a Summer 
kitchen and woodshed besides. There 
was a small barn with pigpen and hen¬ 
house and a large garden containing over 
an acre. There were several apple trees, 
one peach tree, one pear tree and five 
plum trees, great big plums they bore 
that year; a large grapevine clambered 
over the south side of the house and cov¬ 
ered the kitchen window. Compared to 
the rent we had been paying it seemed 
too good to be true; but later on we were 
to learn the reason for such cheap rent. 
Next thing was to get the house fur¬ 
nished. We did not take any furniture 
with us, as it cost so much to ship it, 
our bedding, silverware and such things 
being about all we took. So my husband 
made a trip to the city to get some furni¬ 
ture. The people we were staying with 
said they had some things stored away 
in the attic that they would sell us; a 
(Continued on page 1174.) 
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CODFISH, FRESH LOBSTER 
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Four Little Finns on a New York Farm. 
to till them, but for the most part, the 
lields are rolling and present no barriers 
to the use of labor saving machinery. 
But the buildings present a melancholy 
sight. Most of them were never painted 
and now shingles are gone, window panes 
are missing and porches are falling in; 
evidently, they no longer shelter the fam¬ 
ilies that built them and are awaiting 
either other tenants or final dissolution. 
It is not these houses and the adjoining 
fields that awaken Lope for a new life 
in the hills, however; it is the fact that 
other houses near by which were evi¬ 
dently once like these have been re¬ 
claimed to the homemaker. Roofs have 
been repaired, windows again shut out 
the storms and fences have emerged from 
the briars and weeds that turned them 
into hedges. Sturdy children, bright-eyed 
and flaxen-haired, play in the yards; 
Times were hard in the East and the 
cost of living high. This friend wrote 
quoting prices at which they were buy¬ 
ing their produce, which were so much 
less than we paying for the same goods 
in the East, that we finally decided to 
move, as he assured my husband that 
there was plenty of work to be had by 
anyone willing to work. He advised us 
to start right away and not wait until 
Spring, as we thought of doing, so we 
started. After a long journey on the 
cars we reached the city where we wei’e 
to finish the rest of our journey by stage. 
Owing to a wreck on the road our train 
was several hours late, so instead of tak¬ 
ing the stage at 2 p. m. as we intended 
we never arrived until 10 o’clock at 
night. As there would be three days to 
wait for the next stage we decided to 
hire a rig and driver to take us to our 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 West 30th Street, New York 
