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On the northern shores of the lower peninsula are also numerous points which, scarcely known a few years ago, have become the annual attractions of people from distances of hundreds of miles. All along the shores of Grand and Little Traverse bays villages have sprung up which are filled during the summer months with transient colonists. At Bay View, near Petoskey, the Methodist denomination owns and controls several hundred acres of land, embowered in the forest, upon which have been erected about a hundred residences, occupied during three months of each season by an average population of one thousand. Some of these cottages are very picturesque, and a camp-meeting is held among them every year, which brings together great numbers of people. A few miles distant the Presbyterians have a rural retreat, while at Charlevoix there are a large number of commodious summer residences which are favored by Baptists but not controlled by any denomination. Friends and neighbors belonging to the southern counties of the State frequently buy adjacent property at various points in this region, and carry their accustomed society into their summer sojourning, where boating, fishing, freedom from business cares and simple living create new life. There are numerous points on Lakes Huron and Michigan and on the St. Clair and Detroit rivers which are also frequented in the season by visitors. Many families come to some of these places year after year from inland States and neighborhoods to enjoy the health-giving air of the lakes.

Not the least among the features which attach its people to Michigan are the great abundance, simplicity, cheapness, and comfort of its summer resorts.

MINERAL WELLS.

The medicinal virtues of mineral waters are attested by many generations of invalids who have found relief at the spas of Europe or the healing springs of this continent. Chronic diseases, that prove invincible to professional skill, often yield to the influences of these natural remedies, which are potent in stimulating torpid organs to normal action and in restoring tone to over-taxed systems. When due regard has been given to the value of the rest and of the change of scene, air, diet, and habits, which attend a sojourn at such resorts, the fact remains that the use of the waters is frequently and directly followed by recuperative results. Absorbed in the bath-tub or taken as a beverage, they arouse the vital forces of the body to new action, and produce alterative effects which expel disease and revive the flagging vigor of the system. Springs containing solutions of mineral elements abound in Michigan, and at several points artesian wells have been sunk into apparently inexhaustible reservoirs of water strongly impregnated with these natural medicinal agents.

Experience has shown that the mineral waters of Michigan are useful in the treatment of rheumatism and kindred disorders, of paralysis in its diverse form's, of dyspepsia and other nervous troubles, of catarrhal affections of any part of the system, of chronic diseases of the liver and kidneys, and of the general debility following prostrating sickness. The best known of the mineral springs of Michigan are these: At St. Louis, in Gratiot county, yielding an alkaline water; at Mt. Clemens, Lansing, Spring Lake, Three Rivers, Fruitport, and St. Clair, producing saline waters; at Wyandotte, Alpena, and Springwells (below Detroit), yielding sulphur waters; at Eaton Rapids, Grand Rapids, Leslie, Grand Ledge, and Hubbardston, giving water strongly saturated with the salts of lime; a chalybeate spring at Owosso; and a well at Midland producing water with peculiar purgative properties. Large sanitariums for the treatment of patients, with boarding houses or hotels attached, have been erected at Mt. Clemens, Eaton Rapids, St. Louis, Wyandotte, Spring Lake, and a few

other points. The usual charges at such resorts range from $1.50 to $3 per day for board at the hotels, with lower rates at private boarding houses, and from 50 cents to $1 per bath. Large quantities of these waters are shipped away in bottles and casks.

GAME AND WILD BERRIES.

Game, still very abundant in Michigan, must be reckoned among its important natural resources. Hares, rabbits, and squirrels are numerous in the settled as well as in the newer counties. The favorite bird, known to naturalists as the colin but commonly called the quail, is found in all the older parts of the State; it comes with civilization, and holds a place midway between the domestic and the wild fowl. That it thrives in this latitude and is likely to abide here permanently is shown by the fact that during the fall of 1881 sportsmen found it more abundant than in any immediately preceding year despite its very vigorous hunting in the past. Michigan is peculiarly the American home of the partridge or pheasant (ruffed grouse), so highly prized by epicures, and the prairie chicken (pinnated grouse) is found within its borders. The list of feathered game common in the State also includes the wild turkey, woodcock, snipe, and plover, and enormous flocks of pigeons annually make their nestings in the northern counties, and are there killed or captured in vast numbers. The lakes and rivers about and in Michigan abound both in web-footed fowls and edible fishes. Swans, wild geese, and ducks of all varieties and in countless numbers feed upon their surface. The statistics of the fishing interest of the great lakes have been already given. The interior waters of both peninsulas are well stocked with trout, bass, pickerel, perch, and other food fishes, while the only streams on this continent in which the grayling-that delight of European anglers-has been found are the Au Sable, Manistee, and a few neighboring rivers in Michigan. The Jordan and the Boardman have won a national reputation from the abundance of their speckled trout. North of the valleys of the Grand and Saginaw the forests yet shelter vast quantities of large game. Black bears are still quite numerous. The American deer, a noble specimen of the family of red deer, is so common that it is estimated on excellent authority that not less than 70,000 of these fine animals were killed in this State during the single season of 1880. The law of 1881 prohibiting the exportation of game from Michigan greatly reduced these figures during the season of that year, and promises to prove useful in protecting the deer from speedy destruction and in preserving this valuable stock of food for the people of the State. The fur trade of Michigan is still an important item in its commerce, and the beaver, otter, fox, mink, muskrat, and raccoon are trapped in large numbers, and their skins command a quick sale. The fiercer varieties of animals, however, are practically extinct. The black bear, except at bay, is no more dangerous here than the deer. Wild berries grow luxuriantly in all parts of the State, the most prolific being the blackberry, raspberry, cranberry, and whortleberry. Nut-bearing trees are also common in its forests, and wild honey in large quantities rewards the search of the bee-hunter. The practical value to the settler of the vast stock of natural food thus briefly described is two-fold. With his rod or gun he can provide his own table with substantial food. Again, he can always find a ready market at good prices for such game as he does not consume, and thus make his skill in marksmanship or in angling contribute to his income. The pursuit of game is open to all upon equal terms, and the laws relating to this subject are limited to protecting game from extinction by killing during the breeding season or by wholesale slaughter. Within these reasonable

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restrictions, and with due respect also to the rights of private property, any inhabitant of the newer districts of Michigan can make the forests and streams about his home contribute liberally to his larder and his purse. Nature there places within the easy reach of the poorest settler a wider range of selection from the choicest varieties of game than is open to many of the wealthy epicures of the old continent.

MICHIGAN HOMES.

The large proportion of people who own the homes they live in is a peculiar characteristic of American communities, which is made more conspicuous by contrast with other lands. Michigan is a particularly forcible illustration of this feature. It is a custom which propagates by example, and the social, political, and business conditions of the State all encourage it. A rented farm is scarcely known. Most of the dwellings in our cities and villages belong to mechanics and workingmen who are their own tenants. Among those who are thrifty it has become a habit to invest the first savings in a house. There is choice enough among the building lots of every place to meet almost every pecuniary condition, and a few hundred dollars judiciously used will secure a comfortable home in any town in the State. A practical farmer who has any means at all can with even greater facility establish himself on land of his own, with a reasonable certainty, if he deserves it, of financial independence, increasing comforts, a respected life, and a good outlook for his children. It is the workingmen of this class, the men who respect labor and owe to it, under the blessings of Providence, all their success, who control the political affairs of the State; and it was the same class who, thirty years ago, declared their respect for the sanctity of a home, by incorporating in its written constitution these provisions against the contingencies of misfortune:

"Every homestead of not exceeding forty acres of land, and the dwelling-house thereon, and the appurtenances to be selected by the owner thereof, and not included in any town plat, city, or village; or instead thereof, at the option of the owner, any lot in any city, village or recorded town plat, or such parts of lots as shall be equal thereto, and the dwelling-house thereon, and its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any resident of the State, not exceeding in value fifteen hundred dollars, shall be exempt from forced sale on execution or any other final process from a court, for any debt contracted after the adoption of this Constitution. Such exemption shall not extend to any mortgage thereon, lawfully obtained; but such mortgage or other alienation of such land by the owner thereof, if a married man, shall not be valid without the signature of the wife to the same.

"The homestead of a family, after the death of the owner thereof, shall be exempt from the payment of his debts contracted after the adoption of this Constitution, in all cases, during the minority of his children.

"If the owner of a homestead die, leaving a widow but no children, the same shall be exempt, and the rents and profits thereof shall accrue to her benefit during the time of her widowhood, unless she be the owner of a homestead in her own right."

WAGES OF LABOR AND COST OF LIVING.

There was a material advance in the wages of some kinds of skilled labor during 1881, and an active demand for mechanics prevailed in its later months, especially for those classes employed in the construction of buildings. Probably there never was a period in the history of the State when so much progress was made in the erection

of dwellings and business structures. The general prosperity of the country and the rapid growth of the State combined to create this condition. It was not confined to the large towns and business centres, many of which made extensive and costly architectural additions, nor to mills and manufactories, which multiplied in every section of the State, but it extended into districts that are strictly rural. The improvements in farm buildings within the year were very marked.

It was also an exceptionally expensive year for housekeepers. The advance in many articles of household consumption, especially in the products of the soil and the stockyard, was particularly noticeable during the fall months.

The tables which follow were compiled from figures obtained from intelligent and reputable citizens of the places mentioned therein. A uniform request was made to each to furnish the average retail prices of the articles named, and the average wages of the kinds of labor specified, for the year 1881. In each case the rate is somewhat higher than that which usually prevails. At the time most of these statistics were gathered the prices of food and of wages had reached the highest figures for the year, and it is probable that in estimating the average this circumstance may have been less carefully considered in some localities than in others, which would account for a few apparent disparities. One or two points are omitted in the tables from which efforts to obtain information proved unavailing. But a clear and intelligent idea of the value of labor and the cost of leading articles of food in this State may be gathered from what follows, and fair conclusions may be drawn from it indicating the prevailing prices of farm, garden, and barnyard products. The places designated represent fifteen important business centres, situated respectively in the counties of Alpena, Calhoun, Cheboygan, Genesee, Grand Traverse, Ingham, Jackson, Kent, Lenawee, Manistee, Muskegon, Mecosta, Saginaw, Sanilac, and Wayne, and a glance at the map will show their geographical relations to the rest of the State.

WAGES, ETC., IN THE UPPER PENINSULA.

A letter from the Assistant Commissioner of Mineral Statistics, dated at Marquette in September, 1881, furnished information concerning that portion of the State as follows:

"Miners receive per day of ten hours from $2 to $2.25. They work one week day-shift, and one week night-shift, alternating. Miners working on contract make $2.50 to $3.50 per day. Prices are about the same the year round. Furnace men get $2 to $2.25 per day; the founder $1,500 to $1,800 per year. Surface laborers at the mines get $1.75 to $2.00 per day; laborers on the railroads $1.80 per day; teams $5 per day; farm hands $1.50 to $1.75 per day, exclusive of board. Carpenters, painters, etc., receive $3 per day; masons $4 per day; wood choppers $1 per cord. The demand for labor is good, fully equal to and rather in excess of the supply, especially for experienced miners.

"The board of single men costs them $18 per month.

quarter to a third more than in lower Michigan.

66

The cost of living is a

"The wages in the copper regions average about the same as here. Upper Michigan must ever be a field which will require the labor of a large number of men at remunerative wages, varying of course with the demand for iron and copper, but the country is improving rapidly, and other fields than mining will require labor in the future to a much greater extent than has prevailed in the past."

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