Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1893 — Why He Remained East. [ARTICLE]

Why He Remained East.

New England is, in proportion to its population, the richest part of the .United States. From Maine to Connecticut the country is dotted with savingsbanks, and the bulk of the vast insurance wealth of the Union is owned there. Tom Reed tells a story of a Nebraska farmer who, traveling through Maine, happened to stop at a little house hanging from the side of a rooky hill, which constituted the farm. During his stay he made many cutting criticisms upon the character of the soil, and asked the farmer why he did not go West, where the farm land was so rich that you could thrust your arm into it up to your shoulders, and pull from the bottom dirt as rich as guano. “I want to know!” said the farmer; “and where might such lands be?” “Where I live—in the West,” was the reply, “which is in Blank Township, Blank County, Nebraska.” “I recKon I have a mortgage on some of that land,” replied the Maine man. And he thereupon brought out an old tin box, and showed mortgages on half the farms of the township. “I bought these mortgages,” he went on, “with what I made off my farm here; and as long as you fellows pay the interest, I guess I will stay East."