The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1857-05-20

FnRT DnnGK. MAY {

anu your Ieaucrs may IKE perhaps TO kno'
something of the Public Land sales in pro
gress at the ofce here. They commenced o
Monday inst; and the receipts, for the wee
ending to-day, are something over $l25, 600
being at the rate Of nearly SCI 900 per day
/ The lands are offered, at auction, to the high
est bidder, in so acre tracts and this amour
of sales, daily, keeps the entire force Of bot
Offices (Regis,er's and Receivers, principal
as well as clerks OF the latter there are tw,
in each--very constantly occupied. For ev
cry tract sold an application is signed by tn
purchaser, in the Registers Office, and OF
payment of the money to the Receiver he is
sues his receipt to correspond with it. Thu
number of receipts thus issued, daily, il
about 200 and this, together with the taking
in, and proper disposal of, the $4,000 OIL
more, is a good days work.
The number of bidders present here now i.
not very probably $50 in all-bu,
they represent quite u number Of the differ.
ent States, including some from the extreme
South-"Talladega county, Alabama es.
peclally, hear cried out occasionally, as the
residence of the purchaser, when n tract is
knocked down." New England, New York
and Pennsylvania, have each their fair pro-
portion among the crowd; but the largest
purchasers, think, hail from Indiana, Iii.
nos, Ohio and Iowa.
The bidding has been decidedly brisk, thus
FAR, and competition runs quite high, every
day. think that as much as half the land
sold has gone off ct over 81, 25 per acre-it
runs up, very frequently, beyond 81 so, and
reaches, occasionally, as high figure as
from s., 80 to 1886 per acre--the latter be-
ing the highest price yet paid, during the
present sale.
These sales, be it borne in mind, are for
cash; land warrants being inapplieable for
locations at apubiic sale and only SO for
private entry, after the public sales shall
have been concluded.
The lands, too, sold during the present
week, with those yet to be offered, are by no
means the choice lands of the district. The
nearest of them to Fort Dodge are some
thirty miles off, and the most remote from
seventyto seventy five miles. They lie nerth
east from here; thirty miles north from the
road to Dubuque; and reach quite up to the
Minnesota line. They are almost wholly des-
tltute of timber, and have, AS yet, no settlers
tkaaa IA,
being sold for cash, ut the rates above
named and, after the public sales, all that
may be left Of them viii be swept like an
avalanche, with land warrants--provided
there is not, then again, competition to run
them up to ouer ST. per acre; in which
event land warrants will still be ruled out
Holders of the latter. you perceive therefore,
stand rather slim chance of securing choice
lands, as things now go.
The question is frequently asked, why it is
that land warrants are not received, always,
for the amount Of acres they call for, re-
spectively, and the excess IN price, IL any,
allowed to be paid in cash. Will you please
copy into your paper the enclosed letter, from
the Commissioner Of the General Land Office,
upon that point? II was addressed, rs will
be seen, to the officers at Fort Des Moiues,
where that course was pursued, and many
hundreds of entries made in that way. They
are, according to the Commissioners letter,
all illegal, which will lead to vast amount
of difficulty and trouble, before the matter
can be adjusted. Here, fortunately, we
adopted from the commencement of our du-
ties, the course indicated by the Commits
soner, in the enclosed letter, as the proper
it gave rise to no little com
plant at first.
We are not yet advised when the ''Rai-
road lands" in this district-the alternate
sections reserred by the government, in ma
king the grant to the Dubuque and Sioux
City railroad-will be restored to market
but, in all probability, this will be done
sometime during the coming summer or au.
'umn. Those lands, you are aware, cannot
DC sold, by the terms Of the grant, for less
han $2,5 per acre and have now no doubt
hat many of them will sell for IS, and per-
,aps more.
The magnificent grant of over n million
81 acres to the road, of course gives great
Additional valuAio all lands in its immediate
'icinity. The Contract for building the road
from Dubuque to Fort Dodge is already
made, and the arrangements for money,--as
learn from good authority, all completed
Tor carrying the work ahead vigorously. 1t
8 expected to be finished to this point in
wo years, or three at the utmost and this I
must make Fl. Dodge place Of very con-
siderable Importance. 1t is, think, the
most beautiful site for town there is on the /
pes Moinss, from its mouth here. But more
81 this hereafter.
The weather opened most fayoraby for /
he land sales in the early part of the week,
ina continued so until yesterday, when there
ZANE change such a change With
lot warm day here before during the spring,
Tor anything fairly approaching it, we were
'isited yesterday by one of those sirocco
1iasts from tie south, that come laden with
'welterng heat from the region of the Mexi-
'an Gulf. All day long it continued an in. |
'essant roar, bowling and shrieking hideous-
y. The mir was filled with the fving dust.
Which penetrated every creyice, and limited
'lsion, out of doors, to few rods. II one
ientured outside it was about as much as he !
'ould DO to keep bis feet and we were COM
eeiled TO bar the door TO the Office, which
fronts to the south, aud proceed with the
sales from window in the rear Of the build /