They were both decent, intelligent men, and, had they remained, taken land, gone to work, opened a farm, and seen their first crop ripening, you could no more have got them back to Philadelphia than you could get them into the penitentiary.
Now, we say to those for whose benefit this pamphlet has been written, if you come here you must come fully prepared to feel the effects of a great change. If you come from a city, you will, doubtless, feel lonely for a while, until you get accustomed to prairie life; you will miss many immediate comforts; you will have to put up with discomforts, with disappointments, with trials. The man who feels he can stand up against all such difficulties in the present, and look bravely to the future for his reward, let him come to Minnesota. The man who feels within him no such strength, who is easily disheartened and inclined to listen to the idle talk of every man whom he meets, let him stop away and listen; better to listen now, where you are, than after going to the expense of coming here.
To the family man we say: We would much prefer that you should come on here in the spring and see for yourself before breaking up your present home and bringing on your family.
If you settle down, you can send or go for your family; if you are not pleased with the change, there will not be much harm done.
Another very important piece of advice we give to you: If your wife is very much opposed to going upon land, do not come out. A discontented wife on a new farm is far worse than the Colorado beetle. But if she urges you to come, if, in this matter, she thinks of your welfare and that of her children, rather than of the society of the gossips she will leave behind her; if she says to you, "we will have the children out of harm's way anyhow," then come with a brave heart and the smile of the true wife and mother shall be as a sunbeam in your prairie home.
[HOW TO SECURE GOVERNMENT LAND.]
Although we cannot promise government land in any of our colonies, still we give the following synopsis of the laws affecting such land, as likely to be of benefit to those who wish to secure homes in this way.
HOMESTEADS.