The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1843-11-03
The Chicago g.0is-.-The Alton Teirarnub

The Chicngo 1.0ts..- he Alton Ietcs Fa % h.
1t will be rccoIlec,ed few weeks ago We ex
pressed ourselves curious TO know what the Al
ton Telegraph and Sangamo Journal would hav
to say in relation to the prices brought by the for
fei,ed lots sold in Chicago So far as the 'reic
graph is concerned, our curiosity is now so,isfic,
perfectly satisfied. The editor in his last sag
nearly column in relation to those prices, and
We bad plenty OF sea room, We would publish BIZ
sayings entire, for they are assuredy a curiosity
in their way. We challenge all the editors il
creation to crowd into the same amount of spac,
as much ridiculous slang, downright flsehooj
and sectional bigotry.
The editor asserts first, that the forfeited lots il
Chicago sold sat rates exceeding the price of rea
estate in New York, Philadelphia or Boston :
second, that the ten per cent of the purchase mo
ncy paid down was paid GIN certificates issued b,
the canal commissioners to contractors, worth bu
/ from 10 to 20 cents on the dollar" (which" he
says, "cOmes near within a fraction of nGiIina
as possible;' third, that 1.-The appraisers in fixing
the value Of these lots at $50 900 acted in good
faith, and came somewhere near the real rahIe in
their assessment and fourth that this sale has
been run up at this enormous rate TO give the ca
nal property fictitious value" in order to deceive
the agent of the foreign canal bondhoders who is
expected shortly to visit this country to examine
the security the canal property will afford for a
loan 10 complete tina, work.
Now, we submi, to the candid reader whether
such assertions would be likely TO come from n
sane mind. First he says the lots sold at enor.
nous ra,es--hgher than New York, Philadelphia,
or Boston property would sell-thcn that, as they
were paid in scrip worth Is to 90 per cent, their
cost Ia the purchasers was "withn II fraction Of
nothing that they were appraised at
what they were really worth, but sold at prices
immeasurably beyond that, and yet if scrip was
worth no more than he says it was the lots real
were appraised at And yet he says they were
run up to far beyond their real WORTH by men who
had no notion ofbuying them, but whose only OBJ
ject was to gull the agent of the bondholders !
Was there ever such a bundle of Inconsistencies
But the editor of the Telegraph states what he
must know to be false, when he says the ''cerllf-
Gates" in which the payments on these lots were
made, were worth hut "irpm Is to 20 cents OH the
dollar" He knows that they were readily sold
during the sales at Chicago at from 80 to 30 cts,
in cash, and that most of the purchasers of lots
were contractors who took these certificates from
the state a, par and would part with them for lit
tie less. But suppose they were worth bu, 80
per cent, Cat which few could now be got,) there
having been over $4,000 of them paid down at
the recent sale, it then fellows that some 80 men
in Chicago voluntarily slept forward and paid
down some $4,000 in cash to deceive the agent
of the canal bondholders. A very likely story
Some four months ago the Telegraph boosted
loudly of the sale in that city Of some State Bank
which brough, double or treble what it
was appraised at, and pointed to it as an evidence
Of the prosperity Of Alton. There too but apart of
he purchase money was paid down, and in paper
worth les, than canal scrip. Might we no, just
rs reasonably infer that some liberal soued Alto.
mans were trying to "comc it over some s,rang.
rs. by deceiving them as to the real value of pro-
,erty in Alton