Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-05-12
THE LAND CRAZE AT WINNIPEG.

A Returning Traveller Tells or the
stimula, ed Boon - the Blixxardy
MetropoIis--Exhorb Prices for
Land and InefI1ciear Railroad Man.
aSement.
Sioux City Journal.
Capt. John Webb, of Quebec, broth
er of our townsman, Walter Webb. has
arrived from Winnipeg. Capt. Webb
went to Manatobai with a party of
Canadians to locate colony, and his
experience illustrates the life of the I'M
migrant in the land-crazs belt. The
party left Quebec April 5. On the way
from st. Paul TO Winnipeg the first bad
blizzard was met. The train, or rather
the several trains that ran together, all
loaded with immigrants and their
goods, were three days on the road.
There was little or no arrangement
made for feeding the passengers, or
caring for the live stock brought in by
the Immigrants. One car load of
choice horses, the property of Cana
dian going in to settle, were set out on
side track, and all froze to death.
There was little or no arrangement for
feeding sto, and many lied on this
account. One or two children that
came through died at Winnipeg on &C
count of hardsbips endured.
At Winnipeg the situation was not
much better. 1t was next to impoSsi-
bic to get a sleeping place on the floor
of hotel. Capt. Webb and his friends
being provided for with tents, got along,
but the suffering of poor Immigrants
was terrible. The real estate craze is
at its height. Lots on the main street
sell at auction for 81 400 per front foot.
The property owned by Knox church,
with only half dozen buildings be-
tween it and the prairie, realized the
church $126,000, aad was put up at
auction again and sold for $146 900, and
finally went to a third purchaser for
$4,000. These lots were not on the
principal street. Even the coolest
headed became infected by the craze.
A business man from Montreal, named
Robinson, who went out on the same
train with Capt. Webb, had planned to
go into the hardware business in Win
nipeg, and said that he would take no
lots. Before he had been in Winnipeg
a week he had put $4,000 into lots,
and stopped then because he had no
more money.
The colony of which Capt. Webb
was member came with stock and
tools to found settlement southwest
| of Winnipeg in the Turtle mountain
country. At Winnipeg they first
learned that there chosen location had
been set aside for a company that were
to turn vast tract of country into
dairy farm. A temperance union col
ony had several thousand acres set
apart away beyond the end of the
track. The Canadian Pacific has every
| alternate SETON for twelve miles on
controls the government land for
mile on either side of the track for
town site purposes. The Hudson Bay
Fur company have sections and 2Sin
each township. Numberless other syn
dictates and colonization com pan;es
have their grip on the lands that are
anyways desirable, so that take it alto
gether, land is high and hard to get.
| There is the same craze for investm ent
in lands that there is in lots. Every
body is buying, or trying to buy, and
few are improving.
Having seen sufficient Of affairs at
Winnipeg Capt Webb and his party
went west to Brandon, the end of the
track. On the train We're LOO people.
There was not standing room in the
cars, and policemen had to be called
at Winnipeg to keep men from cling
ing to the platforms after every avail
able inch of standing room WAS occu-
pied. The suffering of women and
children, as may be imagined, was ter
rible. Capt. Webb mentioned particu-
larly Mr.. Winter, who had been when
in England q writer on Chambers Jour
nal, one of the leading literary publica-
tions of the realm, and his tenderly
reared family. But they got through
to Brandon at last, and Capt. Webb's
party sold Mr.. Winter yoke of their
oxen with which to begin farming.
While in camp at Brandon, for the
party wisely took their tents with them,
another blizzard came, six days
storm this time. Satisfied with their
experience by this time the party re-
turned to Winnipeg, and Capt. Webb
came on to this city to visit his brother,
and to look at the country that he
might report to the other members of
the colony.
The management of the Canadian
Pacific is much to blame, Capt. Webb
says, for the sufferings of the immi-
grants that are focking in. The facili
ties for caring for stock and passengers
are totally inadequate, yet every device
that ingenuity can suggest is used to
bring more people to Manitoba. The
facts of blockade by snow, or washouts
interrupting travel were not advertised
so that intending corners could wait
until the road is clear. In dealing
with the snow block ade the manage
ment of the road showed ineficiency,
but excelled in arbitrary, overbearing
conduct to immigrants.