OCR Text |
Show .. .., . THE GRE.AT WEST . ••• IMMIGRANTS' AND SETTLERS' GUIDE TO THE NEW STATES AND TERRITORIES. WHO SHOULD GO, AND HOW TO GET THERE • . First, who should go.-It has been found that not more than one in three of our American emigrants improve their condition, social or pecuniary, by en1igration; while a very large number, probably one-half of those who have gone to the West, after years of labor and toil, have found themselves but little better off than when they left their early haunts and habits of life. This is a somewhat startling fact, and while it in no way affects the truth of the statement frequently made throughout this work, that emigration in the aggregate is beneficial, it nevertheless cannot fail to arrest the attention of my reader, and induce him to ascertain, if possible, the cause of this ~eeming paradox. The solution of the problem he will find easy enough. It is to be found in the incapacity or disqualification of a large number of those who emigrate. It is no exaggeration to state that fully one-half of those who annually go West are devoid of the requisite enterprise and energy to insure success; and many of them are wholly unfitted to endure the hardships and trials incident to life in a new and remote country. Hence their ill-success, and |