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ELECTIONS OVER.Democrats and Eels Used to That Sort of Thing—A Crab Came; the Devil Take The Hindmost—Wlndom and his Pledges—His Beautiful Head Outside—What Will be the Fate of the Anti-Monopolist and Its Editor When Ulysses I. Comes to Reign—Tree Planting—The Mennonites of Mountain Lake—How Peter Dick Prays for His Neighbors—A Lesson forthe Evange'ists -It Does Make a Difference Whose Ox is Cored. The elections are over, for which let us be thankful, and we Democrats have returned to our habitual state of defeat; we have got used to it, like the eels to skinning.As tor myself, I really do not know how 1 would feel did I tind myself on the side of the dominant party. A friend suggests that I would feel very like looking for an office ; and I suppose lie is lit, though at present 1 have a most profound contempt for otfioe seeking— more than contempt; I see in it the unhealthy friction that is wearing away the Hepublic. Principles and country are no more thought of; politics have degenerated into a scramble for office, and the d—1 take the hindmost is the shibboleth. The country is safe in the opinion of the little or big politician, it he gets the little or big office; “gone to smash, sir.” if the other fellow gets ir.lu tact the po itieian’s views of the country are very limited, bounded on all sides by sell; similar to those held by-alt infamous countryman ot mine, of the name ot Blake, who got fifty thousand pounds and a title from the English government lor voting away the Irish parliament.“My (lod, Blake.nsaid a friend to him, will you sell your country?”Yes, I will.” replied Blake, “and -4 d glad 1 am that I have a country to sell.If there are any of the Blake stock left they should emigrate here, for, as the boy wrote to his lather, Come out west, father: mighty mean men getoffice hereNow where is the remedy for all this? In the people you may answer, the ma jority of whom are not office-seekers or office-holdersCertainly not. and very sorry every mother's son ot them is that there are not offices enough to go all the way round; not hut that we have stretched the line cotsiderable. Set them in a row and we have at present f( rly-one miles of office holders in this country. But the people seem to me like a flock of sheep who follow the bell-weather, rather than rational beings adjudicating on matters of vital interest to themselves.Senator Windora seems to be the hell weather of this State at present. He is a very nice gentleman for a small tea-party ; divides his hair with great taste : in tact, has a well cultv .ted head, oul-shfe. but lie is no more a statesman than fin coachman, a fabulous animal.Well. Mr. Windom went round the State last fall, and with his hand impressively laid upon his virgin breast uledired his honor to the neonle fthepolitics or politicians. I will let them go by for the present with this remark:A Republican lormof government is the btst for mankind, if mankind is worthy of it, and that is the very problem we are now solving1 with an out-look not very promising for the affirmative.A hundred years hence some subject of King Ulysses IV., looking over the files of the Anti-Monopolist may light upon the above sentence and say, that old fellow’s head was level.What am I dreaming about? Why, if the monarchy comes Ulysses I. will have all the files of the Anti-Monopolist burned by the public hangman—m in-archy always has an official hangman, and a good deal of hanging for him, too —and the “pestiferous little demagogue,” who at present runs it, confined in a railroad box-car and exhibited throughout the country as a warning to those who would dare to lay impious hands on blessed monopoly.How hard it is to get out of this political rut, when one has got into it. Well, here goes:—I have been through a large portion of the State this fall, and lound the farmers, notwithstanding the harvest-storm, in good humor with fair prospects before them. All ot them who are now prosperous have earned that prosperity by years of hard, honest labor, hardships and privations. I make this remark for the benefit ot those who may be inclined to publish immigration pamphlets. It is cruel, it is sinful to allow any romance into such documents. Minnesota is a good State for a man to come to, if he comes to settle upon land I believe it is as good a State as he can find. But he must come here not expecting a paradise, nor that “our winters are pleasanter than our summers;” people who write so, torm their judgment near to coal stoves, carpets, storm doors and buffalo robes. They know nothing of scanty clothing, open shanties, treeless prairies, and the tierce, terrible, drifting snow-storm. These are the enemies many of our settlers had contend against, and bravely they have eoni quered them. To-day they have thes-oomfovtable homes, their youDggrover of trees growing up to protect them from the summer’s heat and the winter’s storm, their well filled granaries, and plenty ot warm clothing. Those who come now will not have to suffer what our early settlers went through ; nevertheless, those who eome with but small; capital will have to manfully struggle with privations and hardships for some years bctore reaching comlortable independence.In speaking ot Minnesota as a home for poor men, anxious to win for themselves honest independence, the twin boon of rugged health, it would he rein ss not to speak in just praise ot those men of menus and intelligence who have turni d their attention to tree planting on our prairies. They have not been sat islied to say to the settler, you should set out trees; but they are giving him practical lessons iu trqe planting on the farms they have opened, and along the railroad lines under their control.I have spoken ot treeless prairies; a lew more such enterprising citizens as have a ready turned their attention to tree planting and the name will have no significance in this State after a short time.The last time I was at Manka o, a town I always go to with pleasure and leave with regret, though I cannot say with certainty that its citizens share in my personal feelings—I met at I he store ol John F. Meagher, Mr. Peter Diet , one of the leading Mennonites located »t Mountain Lake, on the Sioux City railroad. You may imagine that I was glad to meet Peter when 1 was informed thai he was one of those famous emigrant Mennonites we have heard so much about, and that there was every convenience for interviewing him, in the shape of an obliging German who was willing to act as interpreter.The Mennonite colony at Mountain Lake, on the Sioux City railroad, has twelve square miles of territory, made up of government land, railroad land, and land bought from original settlers Each family has about 160 acres, but they are not as is generally supposed, all capitalists ; on the contrary the passage of 25 tamilies was paid from Russia; 25 families more had just as much as landed them at the colony, and there are about 40 families worth from $5,000 to $:t0.00. Those latter have assisted their poorer countrymen by buying oxen f r them, building their houses, and in every other way assisting to make them eom-lortable.1 d d cot ask Mr. Dick anything about j the peculiar tenets of his religion, butmay be sure they were good, or those filty tamilies would not be comiDg this lull.The settlers at Mountain Lake are twenty miles from timber. The railroad company supplies them with wood, 'out they are notdependanton this source alone for fuel. They have a way lor compressing smalt bundles ot straw, and stoves suited tor burning it; a bundle will last half an hoar, throwing out great heat, and it is calculated that two tons ol straw will last a family a whole winter. People will shiver as they read ol this burning of straw for fuel, just because they are not accustomed to it; and those straw burners, if they are wise and set out trees, can within a few years have plenty of good timber growing on their own larms.Now that the leading daily newspapers of the State have commenced to attack railroad combinations and exorbitant freight charges, I hope that they will make the amende honorable to Mr. Donnelly. Itseems be was not such a “pestiferous demagogue” after all. but an honest, fearless, outspoken man, who stod up for the rights of poor farmers. Now the papers that denounced him have come out in favor of the rights of rich millers. It does, indeed, make a great difference whose ox is goredD. O BCORRESPONDENCE.A Ringing Call to Debt-Ridden Farmers to Migrate to Stevens County.Hekmann Station, Nev. 22nd, 1875. Editor Anti-Monopolist:Westward Ho!1 wonder if one-fourth of the readers ot the Anti-Monopolist know what a grand region of country lies on the line of the St. P. . P. R. R-, stretching from the village of Litchfield to the Red River of the North? I wonder if it ever occurred to the thousand and one stunted and tax-ridden larmers ot the older counties to sell their hopelessly mortgaged farms and strike lor the unbroken soil ot the west, where laDd may b_- had almost without money and wiihoutprice. Here is a gloiious country waiting pa-tieutly for the hand ot toil and industry to un-ock its vast stores of bread and butter tor a hungy world. Ho, tax-ridden farmers, what’s the use ot your struggling against tale? What sense is there in toiling and sweating to support some fat capitalist or greedy corpora- ion who holds a deadly mortgage on your 1 O nestead. Sell out at then, st terms you ean get aud strike lor the free prairies ot the west, and w heu you have secured a home that is free Irom encum-berunce. let it be your eternal resolution that the avaricious capitalist shall never fasten his greedy clutches upon that home.I need not say that I am delighted with this part of Minnesota’s heritage. Though visiting it under the most unfa. voraUe conditions, and although I have not yet selected the exact place where I shall locate, yet 1 am quite sure there is a spot somewhere in this region which was designed from all eternity lor me.And now Mr. Editor, I am forced to make a confession. I have tor Some time been the subject of a growing disgust lor the r .i'roads, also lor railroad men. and for the whole railroad system, a fact for which the Anti-Monopolist is no doubt largely r. sponsible, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad largely so.Hereafter let me say that when the Anti-Monopolist attacks railroads, if it does not make honorable exception ot the St. P. P. R. R. and its corps of officers and employees, I shall consider it my duty to write to the editor and say. “stop my paper,” a catastrophe awful to contemplate. 1 beg the Anti to heed this warning.Wben Mr. Young, of the Grange Advance, said, a few months ago, that Geo. L. Becker was his choice tor Governor of Mincesota. I thought him crazy. Think of it! a railroad m in for an Anti-Monopolisi Governor! And yet, sir. if Geo. L. Becker was a candidate tor that offiie now hr would have two votes sure (that is if Young didn t g back on him). Why, sir. you feel the m- mcnt you get on this road that you are in a different element. Every officer, sa far as 1 bane met them, seem to take pleasure in giv ing information and extending courte sies. Even the very conductors are gentlemanly and accommodating. Let discriminating public give credit to whom credit is due, even if it be a rail road.IT 1111].... 1 ,„1
Newspaper Details
Saint Paul Anti Monopolist
Saint Paul, Minnesota, US
Thu, Dec 02, 1875
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Jennifer P.
USA 28 Feb 2024
Other Publications Near Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul Daily Globe
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Saint Paul Labor Advocate
Saint Paul Sunday Times
Saint Paul Wester Standard
