The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-05-25
WASHINGTON LETTER.
eFrom our Regular Correspondent ]

WASHINGTON, d. c.. May %, 1888.
One of the significant faets-signs OF
the times-remarked upon here of late is
the decline of stock speculation and the
increase # investments in land Nearly
all the great operators in stocks are quietly
Withdrawing. A well posted Washington
speculator said yesterday These men
are all drawing out and taking their mon
ey with them. GOULD and Vanderbilt
have both gone, and they are getting out
of everything. Addison Cammack has
quit for the summer, as he sats-but /
think for good-and gone to Europe
w. K Vanderbilt openly announces that
he is going out of railroads as soon as he
can get out. H N Smith is going to
Europe, which means that he and Jim
Keene have unloaded their heavy loads
of stock on somebody. William r., Rock
afeller, who heads the Standard Oil crowd,
has sold out, "clean and clear" To the
question, What does it mean, he re
Piled. 1T means that there win be great
change and some heavy smashes this
summer. The public is Disguised with
Wall street: Manipulations has driven
all outsiders away. Why, the public
won't touch stocks now There will be
less stock gambling this season than in
any since the war. People who have a
little money want to put it where there is
chance to keep it. Western and south
ern lands have chance now. / remem-
Der ten years ago anybody who had
hole in the groundin Colorado or Nevada
could get all the money he=wanted ii he
called his hole a mine. But now If YOU
had mine with gold Jumps as big as half
bricks in sight you couldn't get cent in
New York to get your Jumps to the top
Of the hole"
This is undoubtedly true index of the
feeling here in Washington The hun
dreds OF salaried men here. who for wears
have been putting their savings into
STOCK and mine speculations, and anxious
ly watching the "tickers" from fiay to
day, are now becoming shy. Few have
gained; many have lost, and all are turn
ing their attention in the direction of
something more legitimate and certain.
said my informant: There is more
chance for a boom IN lands than ANYTHING
Else just HOW- 10 you notice the i'm
mense sales of Englishmen In the west
and in Texas? Lord Dunravon started
1t when he bought the beautiful park in
Colorado, and it has been taken up by
many others since then. Last week an
English concern bought 100. 900 acres of
the best cotton land in Mississippi for
$3.50 per acre. The timber on this land
is unsurpassed, and the soil is inexhausti-
bic in fertility. Now, John Bull is slow,
but smart. He knows that times are
changing, and English forms of govern
ment are on the eve of changes too. This
land cannot burn up nor can ano man
put it in his pocket and run away with
it. At low prices. with water competing
with railroads in transportation. there i:
nothing equal in value to good. fertile
lands wherever they can be found, north
south, or west.
The reunion of the Army of the Poto-
mac here last week created some stir hui
~ was not an exciting event. Washing
Ion did not go crazy over the 200 or BOZ
oncers who constituted the gathering, ane
tney nave now all returned home. Rams
den discourses sensibly concerning ths