E. Marston

“ When Frank began with the farmer, it is not too much to say that he was totally ignorant of everything belonging to a farm; but he had not been on this farm for six months before he became convinced that he had learnt everything there was to learn, and that he could give a few wrinkles to his master.
Then he told me that there was a wonderful farm to be had close at hand, dirt cheap, a chance not to be lost; it was a small place of about 200 acres with good house and building, and splendid feeding prairie-land adjoining. ”

“ I had found out by this time that I had acted very unwisely in supplying an inexperienced youth, however energetic and right principled, with capital to start farming in a new country without any practical knowledge whatever.
Hundreds of youths go out to America and the Colonies every year under circumstances very like those of my son. Indulgent parents supply them with money at once to start them in life in an occupation to which they bring nothing but conceit and ignorance combined, and their money is as certain to be lost as if it were thrown into the sea. ”

“ Paul, the capital of Minnesota, is a very flourishing and beautiful city built on a series of terraces on the left or eastern bank of the great "Father of Waters," over which it commands magnificent views. The streets are paved with pine-logs, over which one travels in comfort that contrasts most favourably with the rough and clumsy paving-stones of New York. Minneapolis is situated ten miles further west, on the right bank of the Mississippi. ”

“ We are matter-of-fact; stare as much as you please, but come not within our grip. 80Build your airy roads above us, span us over if you will, but know that death and destruction await him who dares to come within the proscribed limit of our rapids above or our whirlpools below. You may sail on our placid waters up yonder, your 'Maid of the Mist' may approach the outer circle of our Falls below, but come not within that circle, or we shall have you in a grip from which no power on earth shall save you. ”

“ At present I am working about two miles from home, cutting down trees for fencing. I then start them down the mountain on a small natural gulch on the snow; they go like greased lightning, and make a terrible noise, which is echoed and re-echoed through the mountains.
"I have just completed my stable which looks boss, logs with mud chinking; next year I intend putting in twenty acres of spring wheat.... As I have just bought some beef-bones I am making a fine stew; which makes my little kitten mew and skip round, being the first taste for her little sides." ”

“ No language can do justice to the wonderful grandeur and beauty of the cañon below the lower falls, the very nearly vertical walls slightly sloping down to the water's edge on either side, so that from the summit the river appears like a thread of silver foaming over its rocky bottom ”

“ Here we take the Chicago and North Western Railroad for St. Paul. This iron road claims to be "the best and most perfectly 84equipped railway in the world;" its luxuriantly furnished drawing-room coaches are marvels of beauty and comfort, and the dining-cars are superb; the meals and attendance are equal to what one might expect to find in any first-class hotel, and I can bear most willing testimony to the civility we met with from all the officials, from the chief passenger manager down to the road attendants. ”

“ It is as healthy a country as there is in America. There is always a market for farm products at good prices. Quick and cheap transportation is afforded by the lake port at Duluth, or by rail direct, to the great markets of the world; while the numerous mining camps in the RICH GOLD AND SILVER SECTION through which the Northern Pacific Railroad passes, afford a western market at good prices. The United States Government is also a large purchaser of oats, hay and provisions in North Dakota and Montana for use at the various military posts. ”

“ While the constitution of our nation guarantees to every person of whatever birth, rank, or condition, past or present, a generous freedom in his own thoughts and religious convictions, not only the common law pronounces against adultery, bigamy, and polygamy, but every consideration of safety urges against permitting a self-proclaimed enemy to harbour within our fold while he gathers strength to strike at our life with the venom he already possesses. ”

“ Generally they seemed to be well-to-do and thriving; and when I looked at the numerous great ricks of wheat, the abundant stubble, the rich dark soil so easily and so cheaply cultivated, and the cattle and horses around, it was plain to my perception that a man of ordinary industry, intelligence, and thrift must inevitably become not merely well-to-do, but wealthy. ”

“ You may train up and control your boys to a certain age; you may make them a present of as good an education as you can afford; you may lay down plans for their future; you may find niches for each one to fill; you may fondly hope that each one in his turn will quietly drop into his niche; that they will live and work together, and in course of time become a help and comfort to you in your declining years. ”

“ We wandered through the woods and down by the lakes for miles, but we heard not a sound of bird or beast; the dead silence is almost appalling; not even the noisy little katydids get so far up the mountains. ”

“ Of the Great Population—no man can predict how great it will become—which will soon inhabit this vast region, the new comers from the older States will become the first families, and leaders, socially and politically, in this newly opened section of the United States. They will all become prosperous, and many will acquire fortunes in a short period, by turning the vast wheat-producing lands, ready for the plough, into productive farms; by stock-raising, on the immense grazing ranges ”

“ The change in the scene is so startling, and the appearance of the landscape so wholly novel and so singularly grotesque, that you rub your eyes to make sure that you are not dreaming of some ancient geologic epoch, when the rude, unfinished earth was the sport of Titanic forces, or fancying yourself transported to another planet. Enormous masses of conglomerate—red, grey, black, brown, and blue, in towers, pyramids, peaks, ridges, domes, castellated heights—occupy the face of the country. ”

“ Any person who is a citizen of the United States, or any person of requisite age who may be entitled to become a citizen, and who has filed his declaration to become such, may file his oath with the Registrar and Receiver of the Land Office in the district in which any desert land is located, that he intends to reclaim, not exceeding one section of said land, by conducting water upon it, within three years; and by paying to the Receiver twenty-five cents, per acre for all the land claimed, such person may enter said land under the desert land act. ”

“ If it snows to-morrow I shall plaster up my shack inside, having bought a bushel of lime.... Every day I learn something new, and expect to do so for years to come. I look forward to a bright future. All farming operations have ceased long ago, and nothing can be done until the spring.
"... I have made several friends out here, but have been very careful who they were, and sometimes by moonlight I skip away five miles and have a chat with a good old timer.... My paint box has not come from Cook City yet; when it does I will try my hand at giving you some faint idea of this superb scenery." ”

“ The utmost height of a nigger's ambition is to drive a coach or to be a waiter in an hotel; and it is just all he is good for."
This reminded me of the many members of the "coloured aristocracy" I had met with as waiters at hotels and in railroad dining-cars. I remember one especially—the head-boss of a small army of black waiters at one of the largest hotels in an Eastern city—a tall portly fellow in evening dress, diamond shirt studs, and white kid gloves. ”

“ There is no place like home, after all. On reaching Boston, I felt more like being at home than I had ever felt since I left my own country. Boston resembles an old English city more than any other town I have yet visited in America. ”

“ Polygamous and treasonous Mormonism stalks wantonly, insolently, and blatantly through this Territory, to the shame and degradation of every Christian woman and every man with a love for law and a regard for decency. Crime under the guise of religion is a hundred fold worse than under the banner of Satan. ”

“ This circumstance, and the fact that it is the nearest point in the mining region to the head of navigation on the Missouri river at Fort Benton, gave Helena a great start in earlier days, and it is certainly likely to maintain its position as the chief commercial town of Montana territory. It is surrounded by mountains, rising one above the other, till the more distant are lost in the clouds, forming a view of striking beauty and grandeur.
The town itself, so far as we had time to observe, is not well built; the streets are narrow, crooked, and steep ”

“ Frank's companion B. being of an inquiring mind, knew every farm and every farmer on the route, or perhaps in the whole valley. He knew the value of every man's estate, and how he stood with his banker; one was worth 50,000 dollars, another 20,000, and here and there an unthrifty "Rip Van Winkle" with an insuperable aversion to labour and hopelessly in debt. Amongst them were one or two millionaires. It is a characteristic of this community that everyone knows to a dollar how much everyone else is worth. ”

“ People's ideas differ in regard to what constitutes religion. Some hold that it is merely sentiment and faith, and does not necessarily embody action. I differ from this view; and I have always been bold to express my opinions on every subject without fear, favour, or hope of reward. I am of the opinion expressed by the Apostle James, who stated that faith without works is dead. The religion that I believe in is a religion that finds expression in action. ”

“ On leaving Brainerd we pass through the Lake Park region, and for some distance the scenery is charmingly diversified by fine timber and lakes, on which may be seen flocks of wild ducks and larger water-fowl, sometimes a solitary prairie chicken, and here and there a well-fenced wheat farm with good buildings, and surrounded by many large ricks. In the neighbourhood of Detroit, Mic., is the White Earth Reservation of the Chippewa or Ojibway Indians, of whom there are 1,500 civilized and Christianized. ”

“ To me these great waters seem to say, "Men may come and stare at us, and men may go, but we flow on irresistibly and for ever. We care nought for your staring, your admiration, your poetic fancies about us. ”

“ This is pre-eminently the land for the poor man, but only for the poor man who is willing to work hard. He can raise enough to support his family, and if he has a few cows their increase will in the course of a few years make him well-to-do. I spent a night a short time since in the cabin of a settler who, with his wife and four children, had located about forty miles from the railroad. He had ten cows, a team of horses, and a mowing machine. From the cows his wife made enough butter to pay the living expenses of the family. ”

“ Life here is without any of the festivities of Old England. If there is a dance, you invite your lady love to go with you, and pay two dollars for the privilege of dancing in a little cabin no bigger than mine (seventeen by nineteen) , crowded with cowboys and farmers' daughters. As I have no lady love, nor the money to throw away, I have not given them the pleasure of my society yet.
"Sister A. ought to come out and keep my house for me next summer. Tell her I will build an addition to the mansion if she will come. The mountain air will do her good." ”

“ They all say that one railroad spoils a town, two bring it to par again, and three make it 'boom.' This seems the general rule throughout America. On my way out to the mountains after work, some three months back, I found a good prospect for copper, and since then we have taken up four distinct veins in the centre of a good mining camp; but we shall simply represent them each year to hold them so that it will not ruin us. (Representation is ten days' work each year on the mine for five years, then you can get your patent.) We may make a fortune from them, and we may not make a cent. ”

“ I told you in my first letter that it was my intention to spend my holiday in this region, and here I am sitting in our little log cabin, overlooking a vast expanse of prairie valley, nearly six thousand miles away from my native land. So much of one's time is taken up in the railway trains that little is left for doing anything out of them. I told you that the three special horrors I expected to have to encounter would be mosquitoes, Indians, and bears! I saw one or two mosquitoes in New York, and I felt them in Chicago, but only slightly ”

“ A pre-emptor may submit proofs of continuous residence at any time after six months from the date of settlement, and obtain title to his land. The settler in possession of a valid pre-emption claim may, at any time, convert his pre-emption claim into a homestead. No person who abandons his residence upon land of his own (not a town lot) to reside upon public lands in the same state or territory, or who owns 320 acres of land in any state or territory, is entitled to the benefits of the pre-emption laws. ”

“ The true cause is that the whole vast country from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, all through Minnesota, Dakota, and Montana, is a wheat-producing country, all of the product of which is tributary to the city where these mills are located. ”