Go West. (Advice ... to Settlers.)

Front matter

ALLAN LINE ROYAL MAIL STEAMERS. *»- ASSISTED PASSAGES TO CANADA are Granted to Navvies, Agricultural and General Labourers, and their Families, and to Female Domestic Servants. *** Application for Assisted Passages ic be made upon the Special Forms which are provided for the purpose. Further Particulars can be obtained from ALLAN BROTHERS & CO., James Street, Liverpool, 103, Leadenhall St., London, and Foyle St., Londonderry. J. & A.. .ILLAN, 70, Great Clyde Street, Glasgow, JAMES SCOTT & CO., Queenstown, OR ANY AUTHORISE-D AGENT OF THE LINE. fivr*ij — IMPORTANT LNF$$U&I0ON POR EMIGRANTS TO THE CANADIAN NORTH- WEST. The " .All Rail Line," North of Lake Superior to Winnipeg and the Par West, will be ready for traffic about the time the Navigation opens to Quebec, in the Spring of 1885, and the Emigrants will have Sleeping Cars from Montreal to their future homes, and such despatch and accommodation generally as they have never had before.

Hitherto Passengers to Manitoba have been obliged to travel either vi4 the Lakes or by the long, tedious, and expensive route via Chicago, but from April next they will be enabled to step into the Canadian Pacific Train at Montreal and go right through to Winnipeg w'hout changing cars, and in about half the time it would take by the old routes ; besides this great advantage, Emigrants over the New Route will have no trouble with their baggage, which will be checked, and sent forward by the same train as themselves ; and as the railway runs through British Territory all the way, there will be no Customs overhauling after the Passengers leave Quebec. a stacker and carrier. Frontispiece. GO WEST BY PERCY TAYLOR. LONDON : WYMAN & SONS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, lincoln's-inn fields. 1885. ADVICE AND COUNSEL TO SETTLERS.

The Author will give advice to intending Settlers as to their best course to pursue, and an opinion as to their chances of success, for a fee of £\. is. In order to avoid unnecessary correspondence, the following questions should be answered in numerical order : — i. Age. 2. Previous experience and occupation. 3. Health and constitution. 4. Tastes and habits. 5. Amount of capital at command. 6. Whether single or married; if the latter, what family. If these questions are fully and clearly answered, an opinion of some value can be given. Mr. Taylor will receive, as vacancies occur, a few young men in his own house, who can remain with him, learning some business experience, till they see an opening for themselves. References given and required. Terms, 30s. per week. The Author will be glad to contribute articles, on American subjects, to papers and periodicals, at reasonable rates.

Chapter I. Who Should Go

AFTER a long residence in the Western States of America, I have just revisited England. The number of inquiries I have had here from persons, either intend ing to emigrate themselves or to send out relatives, has emboldened me to write a few chapters on the country itself; the most profitable businesses to engage in; the amount of capital they require to carry them on successfully ; and the best means to acquire the necessary experience. I have endeavoured to make my remarks as simple as possible, and to confine them to matters of minor detail, which will be of more use to people seeking information than the mass of statistics and geographical matter from which so many works on this subject have been compiled. I have selected to illustrate at length a few of the businesses that can most suitably be engaged in by men who have had no previous experience.

There are many others in which similar results may be obtained, but my space only allows me to notice them in a cursory manner. If this book, however, meets with the favourable reception I hope for, I may at a later date be tempted to treat some of them more fully. I am sure that my remarks may be read with advantage by all intending emigrants, as I have used every endeavour not to make my figures too nattering, but to convey as clear an understanding as is possible in a short article of the nature and way of carrying on those businesses on which I touch. B GO WEST ! 2 Still, I do not pretend to give information enough to enable any one to at once engage in the businesses treated of, for I consider it essential that every one should have a certain amount of practical experience before engaging in anything abroad.

The best means of obtaining this, which can only be gained in the country itself, I shall endeavour to point out. In countries developing so rapidly as are the Western States of America and the Western provinces of the Canadian Confederation, there are very numerous op portunities for men with small capital to start a business in and around new towns rapidly increasing in size. If these men are economical at first, and curtail their expenses as much as possible in order to increase their capital, the growth of such towns, and further development of the surrounding country, may be depended on to extend their business, even more rapidly than they can their means to carry it on. Yet, from long experience, I should say that not over ten per cent, of the people above the rank of a labouring man who go to America succeed there, though the reason of this is not hard to find.

A large percentage of such persons are idle, worthless fellows, without the elements of success in them under any circumstances ; these their friends will find it cheaper to keep at home, for they almost invariably return there as soon as they have spent whatever money they have taken with them, which, with their passage-money, is entirely wasted ; while, of those that are fairly steady, the greater number go without the slightest idea as to what they are going to do, or how they are going to do it ; nor have they, in many instances, either capital or practical knowledge enough to command success. Unless a man has sufficient capital to start some business, or has some profession or trade at his finger-ends, he had much better remain in England, where he has friends who may be able to do something for him, than lose time and money in going to America, where he will have only himself to rely on.

No one can hope to succeed there, or in any of the colonies, without hard work, application, and some experience. It does not follow, therefore, that, given both brains and WHO SHOULD GO. 3 capital, success will be obtained. Prices, ways of conducting business, style of living, — all are very different in America to what they are in England; while numerous sharps are always on the look-out, ready to take advantage of the greenness of the new-comer. Under no circumstances should I advise any to start for America unless they first find some reliable man to whom they can at once go, and with whom they can stay till they become somewhat accustomed to the country and its ways. New-comers are exposed to many tempta tions, and numbers of young men, who might otherwise have succeeded, have frittered away their capital hanging round the large cities of the East and West, deluding them selves with the idea that they were waiting for something to turn up.

It is a most injudicious thing for parents or relatives to intrust to young men considerable sums of money, when most probably they have the vaguest ideas of its value, especially on the eve of starting for a new country. The best policy is for any one going out from England to make arrangements so that any funds he may have at his disposal, beyond those absolutely necessary for his actual expenses, shall not follow him for at least a year ; he cannot in less time acquire the necessary experience to enter into any business; if he has his capital at hand, he will be constantly seeing, what he may consider, chances that will tempt him to start for himself, and this, if yielded to, until he has learnt a business, means failure. Having made up his mind to go to America, a man may either determine on the business he means to follow before leaving the old country, or he may reserve his decision till after his arrival there ; but, having decided, he should make up his mind not to change, unless under heavy pressure, or it will be fatal to his chances of success.

As soon as you have determined what part of the country is best suited in climate and natural surroundings to your taste, the first step is to discover some reliable man living in the chosen locality.* If you can find no one among your friends or acquaintances who knows any one suitable, * See author's advertisement at end of book. B GO WEST ! 4 search in a map till you find the name of some country town about where you want to go, and write to the post master there, asking him to give you what particulars you may require about the country, and to send the name of some reliable man with whom you may stay, enclosing a post-office order for a small sum to reimburse him for his trouble. You will always get an answer, for a post-master in the States is a Government official of some importance, who is in most cases very civil, and ready to give information.

Having, by one of these means, found a suitable man, whose charge for board should not exceed £i per week in a country town or 25s. in a city, you can make arrange ments for staying with him as long as you may consider advisable. After a few months' stay, an idea as to what business is best suited to your requirements should be arrived at. Having now become somewhat used to the ways of the country, you should be able to find some one in the business you have selected who, in return for a small premium and your assistance in the office, will board you and teach you all that you require to know. This, however, I do not regard as a particularly satisfac tory arrangement for either party, as the teacher may not consider himself under it justified to use his pupil to the best advantage, or, if he does, the pupil may consider that more than a quid pro quo is demanded of him.

If you have the spirit which is necessary for success, it will be better for you to Lake a situation with some man in the business you intend to follow, even if at first the salary is very small, and to make up your mind to do the very best you are able, no matter how hard you may find it at the commencement. By doing this, you should, at the end of your term of probation, have acquired a thorough knowledge of your business, and, in addition, have the satisfaction of knowing that you have not been drawing on your capital for your support in the interim. Let me again caution you that, having once made up your mind to engage in a business, youshould not alter your determination, unless for the gravest reasons. To a green hand any business will probably seem hard and uninteresting at first, while you will be continually hearing WHO SHOULD GO. 5 how much better your chances would be in something else ; once, however, your mind becomes unsettled, and you begin to change your plans, I regard your chances of success as poor : believe me, that, if you only stick long enough to the work you have taken up, it will grow on you, and, as you get more used to it, you will begin to like it.

There are few businesses a man can make a mistake in taking up in the States, if he will stick to it, no matter how depressed it may be at that particular time ; indeed, I think there is no better chance than to start into a business during a season of severe depression in it : you are then sure to learn to use every possible economy in conducting it, so that, when good times come again, you are enabled to reap the full benefit of them. Another reason is, that a term of depression and low prices is sure to be followed at an early date by* — to use an Americanism — a " boom." The cause of this is to be found in the volatile nature of the majority of American business men : as soon as any particular occupation promises to become more than usually remunerative, hundreds leave their own business and at once embark in it, consequently it but for a short time, if ever, fulfils its early promise, because there are too many men at the game.

As soon, however, as the depression, always caused by overtrading, sets in, most of the men go out and engage in something else that is commencing to boom ; then the trade, relieved from too much competition, rapidly becomes more profit able, and enables those who have remained steadily in it to reap a good harvest before it again becomes sufficiently remunerative to attract the floating element. I will take, for an example of this, the business of baling and shipping hay, with which I am well acquainted. Some years ago there were but few men in the trade, all of whom were making a fair profit, though using the old-fashioned and somewhat clumsy beater-press. As the great cities grew larger, however, the demand for baled hay increased, for the supply of loose in the country surrounding them, within easy hauling distance, became too small to meet the de mand ; about this time, too, the Dedrick steam and movable horse-presses were invented.

These, by their superior quali ties and the smaller bales they made, gave a great impetus GO WEST ! 6 to the trade ; the price of baled hay in the cities went up, while the cost of pressing and shipping went down ; baled hay, being so much more convenient to handle, became daily more popular, and threatened to soon drive the loose article out of the market. Farmers, at a distance from large cities, began to seed down more land ; wild meadows never before used, except for pasture, were got into shape and cut ; while hay-barns and presses sprang up at nearly every station where hay could be obtained. With what result ? In three years baled hay was selling in the large cities at less than the cost of production ; while, worse still, owing to the inexperience and dishonesty of many of the new comers, a large proportion of the hay had been baled when not in a suitable condition, or had been actually rotten when pressed.

This, of course, buyers could nos detect until the bales were opened for consumption, so, in consequence of the losses they sustained in buying poor stuff, they soon began to discriminate against baled hay, and loose outsold it from 25 to 50 per cent. A year or two of this broke many dealers, and disgusted more, who promptly left the trade. Those who were left in, being mostly men of capital and experience, were enabled to hold their hay to stiffen prices, which, in con sequence, soon began to rise ; this tendency is steadily in creasing as buyers begin to regain confidence in baled hay. While many farmers are ploughing up their meadows, trie cities are still growing, so in another year or two the supply will again fall below the demand, and high prices will be realised by those who have remained in the business.

Of course, after a short season of large profits, the out siders will again rush in, and a like succession of fall and rise will take place. The same thing has occurred, and is occurring, in most other businesses. It will be noticed, from the above example, that a man who had left his own business to engage in the hay trade when prices were at their best would, in all probability, have been a heavy loser. He could not have had time to buy his machinery, erect his buildings, and work a trade together, before the fall came, while being new to the business, and not used to the small economies practised by WHO SHOULD GO. 7 the trade in dull times, he would feel the dropping prices more severely than his older competitors ; to add to his chagrin, his original business, depressed when he quitted it, would, probably, now be booming, leaving him the poor satisfaction of comparing his possible gains, if he had re mained in it, with his certain losses in the trade he had engaged in.

The best time to start for America is August or September ; you may then be pretty sure of a pleasant passage. This will give you time before the commencement of the new year to determine what business you would prefer, and to seek out some one with whom to learn it. I consider the pleasantest route, after having tried all of them, is that taken by the Allan line to Quebec, as you are a much longer time in sight of land than by any of the lines run ning to New York. By this line you would leave Liverpool on the Thursday, Friday morning you would wake up in Lough Foyle, where the steamer remains off Moville till evening for the mails to come from Londonderry. During this time you can have a few hours' run on shore. On the Wednesday evening after leaving Lough Foyle you will probably sight Labrador, remaining in sight of that coast, Newfoundland, and Anticosti till you enter the St Lawrence, going up which the scenery is very beautiful.

On Saturday evening you probably reach Quebec, where a mail train, running through to Chicago without change of cars, meets the steamer, reaching there in some thirty-eight or forty hours. Or you can go from Quebec to Chicago by water, following the St. Lawrence, the Welland Canal, and the great lakes. While going through the Welland by this route, you will have time to run over and see Niagara. The scenery through the Thousand Isles, some parts of Lake Huron, and the Sault St. Mary, is very fine. This route will take from five to six days, and will not cost any more than going by rail. From Chicago, which is the great railway centre of the West, railroads run to all parts, so you will have no diffi culty in getting on from there to wherever your destination may be. The railroads in the States and Canada are very fine, though the trains do not run as fast as they do in England, GO WEST ! not exceeding, as a rule, thirty miles per hour.

The coaches are very long, with a passage down the middle, and seats for two persons arranged in rows across the car on either side of it. At each end of the coach is a door, out side of which a platform enables the passenger to pass easily from one coach to another, even when the train is in motion. They are entered from the stations by steps ascend ing to these end platforms. Pullman cars are attached to all through trains. In them a berth can be obtained for ios. per night. During the daytime the beds are turned up, and the car transformed into an elegant drawing-room. A smoking-room, card-room, and lavatory are attached to the car. On some trains meals are served in dining-coaches; others stop twenty minutes each meal-time at dining stations. The food provided, however, is poor, and the charges high, so the passenger had better provide himself with a sufficient supply before starting.

This fault will, I fancy, be amended in the near future. The arrangements for taking care of luggage are admirable. On leaving the steamer the baggage is checked, — that is, a strap, to which a brass plate about i J inch square is attached, is fastened to each package, and a similar square of brass, with a corresponding number, is handed the passenger, who has no farther trouble with his luggage, except passing it through the Customs at the frontier, till nearing Chicago. Then a baggage - man passes through the coach, and inquires whether he is going any farther or to any hotel. If going farther, the baggage is re-checked to his destination ; if going to an hotel, on giving its name, the baggage is checked to it, where the passenger finds it on his arrival. Otherwise, on production of your checks at the baggage-room at the station, your luggage is delivered to you, without any extra charge for all this trouble. GO WEST ! 9

Chapter II. Railroads

THROUGHOUT the West and North-West, railroads can be built very cheaply, owing to the level nature of the surface of the country, which renders little cutting or grading necessary. The main expense is for bridging the wide and frequent rivers. All the roads are broad gauge, but the permanent way is not laid in so expensive a manner as in England, the rails being simply spiked to the sleepers (American ties), nor are the roads so carefully ballasted as they are here. The reason of this is, that trains not running at such a high rate of speed, the wear and tear of the permanent way is not so great. Most lines are single, with sidings at the stations to allow trains to pass one another. The engines are more powerful than the English ones, and the freight-cars much larger ; box-cars, which are used for carrying grain, hay, and mis cellaneous merchandise, are from 28 to 34 feet long, 8 feet wide inside, and 6 to 8 feet in height ; the newer cars are the largest, with a growing tendency to increase the size.

Box-cars are entirely enclosed, and water-tight, so that no tarpaulins are required. Their capacity is from 10 to 12 tons of baled hay, 400 to 500 bushels of wheat or rye, 450 to 550 bushels of corn, and 800 bushels of oats. Grain is loaded in the cars loose. Coal-cars are 28 to 30 feet long, by 8 feet wide, and hold from 20 to 25 tons. Lumber is loaded on flat cars. A load is 8,000 to 1 2,000 feet, according to its dryness. Instead of keeping a lot of porters idling round the stations, doing nothing most of the time, in America the employes are carried on the train. At any but the large terminal stations (American, depots), the only force em ployed is the station agent and telegraph clerk, the latter of whom is partly paid by the telegraph company. The crew of a passenger train consists, besides the engineer and stoker, of the conductor or guard, a much more important GO WEST ! 10 personage than in England.

He is generally a smart, well educated man, on whom all responsibility rests ; he is assisted by one brakesman for each car on the train. The luggage is looked after by the baggage-master, who is allowed an assistant if the train is a heavy one. Just as a train is reaching a station, the baggage-master throws back the doors of the baggage-car in which he rides and gets ready all packages checked for that particular station ; the moment it stops, the brakesmen assist to hand this out, hand in anything that may be going on, the conductor calls all aboard, and in a few seconds the train is again in motion. The passengers (even old women) know their business, and are ready to step on and off the moment the car has come to a stand-still ; five minutes previously a brakesman passes through the car calling out the name of the station they are approaching.

Powerful brakes are used, so the train does not slacken till almost in the station, and as soon as the brakes are taken off resumes its normal rate of speed. By these means much valuable time is saved, and the permanent way has not to be racked by the maintenance of a high rate of speed between stations in order to make up for the time lost in stopping. This is very different to the English system, by which five minutes is generally lost in stopping at some small country station to pick up, perhaps, a single passenger with half a hundred weight of luggage, which it takes two or three porters, watched by a station-master and ticket-clerk, to load. Another great advantage is, that night trains run between all the large cities. By one of these a business man can leave Chicago after his day's work is done, get a comfortable night's rest on the cars, and wake in St. Louis or Cincinnati ready for the day's business ; while the following night he can return to Chicago, instead of losing a day each time in going and returning.

Except on very long journeys, there is only one class besides the Pullman sleeping-cars. The local fares are three cents (i-Jd.) per mile, with long-distance tickets at reduced rates. Most roads sell 1,000-mile tickets for 20 dols., or id. per mile : these are good till 1,000 miles have been travelled in any number of trips, the conductor punching out the number of miles ridden each journey. RAILROADS. 11 The passenger-cars and the system of handling luggage I have described already. Not much money is as a rule expended on the station buildings, but still they are sufficiently commodious for their requirements. In hauling freight cheaply, the American lines are even more advanced. The gang employed to handle a freight train consists, besides stoker and engineer, of a conductor and two brakesmen, with extra hands on heavy trains.

These men load and unload at each station all local freights in less than full car-loads ; that which is to be loaded is placed by the shipper conveniently on the plat form, on which what is unloaded is also put. Full-car lots are switched into the siding and unloaded by the consignee. If a shipper requires an empty car to load, he notifies the agent, and the next local puts him one on the siding. Rates vary according to distance and description of merchandise. On short hauls, for miscellaneous freight in less than car lots, it runs from 4 to 6 cents per ton per mile ; for car lots it is from 2 to 3 cents only. From Chicago to New York, some 900 miles, rates at present are 25 cents per hundred for flour, grain, and feed, and 30 cents for provisions, that is, at the rate of -005 to ■006 per ton per mile, or a little over a farthing.

With cheaper iron under a lower tariff, these rates will be materially reduced, and, as nothing adds to the prosperity of a country so much as cheap transportation, a season of very good times undoubtedly lies before the West The parcels traffic is at present in the hands of the express companies, who pay the roads a certain annual sum. By express any article can be sent C. O. D., that is, for the bill to be collected by the express agent on delivery; for example, if you require anything from any of the large cities, you send your order to a merchant there, requesting the goods to be sent C. O. D. ; he ships them, enclosing his bill to the express agent; on payment of this, the goods are delivered to you, and the money remitted to the merchant. This system greatly facilitates business. The express business is carried on entirely by passenger trains, consequently the charges are somewhat high.

Heavy articles, however, can be ordered without prepayment in the following manner: — The goods required are sent GO WEST ! 12 by the merchant, directed to his own order ; at the same time a bill for them with a delivery order attached is sent to the local bank, or, if there is no bank, to the express agent ; on payment of the bill, the delivery-order is handed to the customer, who presents it to the station agent, by whom the goods are delivered to him. This is a great convenience, as, in the event of a break-down of machinery requiring repairs, or anything else being wanted in a hurry, it can be telegraphed for and despatched by first train. In sending car-loads of merchandise to any one of whose stability one is not assured, the following safeguard may be used : — The bill of lading you have made out to yourself, with the address of the consignee on the margin ; this you endorse, and attach to it a draft for the value of the goods.

This draft and bill either you, or your banker, forward to a bank or express agency in the town for which the car is destined. The consignee is notified, calls round, pays the draft, and obtains the bill of lading, which, being endorsed, entitles him to take possession of the car. On the arrival of the car, the consignee, whose address is likewise on the way-bill, is notified, and, on his producing the bill of lading, it is placed at his disposal on the team track, where he is allowed forty-eight hours to unload it. On each team-track are scales, overwhich every load coming out of the yard has to pass ; every car has a separate number, and an official record of the weight of merchandise taken from each is kept, which can be inspected by the shipper, if at any time he is dissatisfied with the weights returned by the consignee.