A pictorial description of the United States; embracing the history, geographical position, agricultural and mineral resources .. . ny othersections of the Union ; and far betterwould it be for the individuals and thepublic, if the floating population ofour cities would act wisely and sufferthemselves to drift westward with whatlittle pecuniary means they may have.Many foreigners will land upon ourshores with sufl!icient ready money topurchase land enough to yield them acomfortable subsistence; but instead ofavailing themselves of this advantage,they unwisely seek employment in ourcities, soon

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A pictorial description of the United States; embracing the history, geographical position, agricultural and mineral resources .. . ny othersections of the Union ; and far betterwould it be for the individuals and thepublic, if the floating population ofour cities would act wisely and sufferthemselves to drift westward with whatlittle pecuniary means they may have.Many foreigners will land upon ourshores with sufl!icient ready money topurchase land enough to yield them acomfortable subsistence; but instead ofavailing themselves of this advantage, they unwisely seek employment in ourcities, soon spend their small means, andlive year after year amid the miseries ofhopeless poverty. The cost of transition from the Atlan-tic states to the fertile regions of thewestern states, is now quite trifling forso great a distance, and hence emigrantswho come with some money in theirpockets, have no excuse for enduringthe miseries of obtaining a precariousexistence in our cities. The second illustration, on page 565, represents the halt of the emigrant fam-ily for the night. They may be seenpreparing their frugal meal, and arrang-. 564 DESCRIPTION OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. ing themselves for rest, to be ready atbreak of day to start again on theirjourney, cheered amid the privations andvicissitudes to which they are subjecton their toilsome vvay, by the conscious-ness that each day lessens the distancebetween them and the land of promise, and that the fertile soil of the west willrecompense them for all their troubles. Groictli of the West.—Tlie followingremarks on this subject were made bya former resident of the west, now es-tablished in the profession of law inPortsmouth (N. If.), at a public meet-ing in Boston to take measures in rela-tion to the late Chicago convention :— • I say you can not have been indif-ferent to the political strength of thewest; but have you, until quite recently, comprehended the vast commercial re-sources of that region ] Of these you are now compel