The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-03-09
The Way to Get Rich.

Perhaps the easiest way to get rich out
West is to buy small pieces of land in
the fast-growing cities and towns of the
West. They increase SO rapidly that al
most any investment pays. / once
served with an officer who was present
1.-THE building up of Chicago. helped to
lay out San Francisco and was present
at the laying out of st. Paul Suppose
this officer had invested months pay
in land in each place (Which he could
easily have done, he would to-day have
been worth millions, instead of living
from hand to mouth on the miserable
pittance the Government allows him.
Another officer, less improvident, in
vested few hundred dollars in Chicago,
from which sprung the great Kingsbury
estate. The old officer of whom l speak
,old me he was offered forty acres of land
in what is now the heart of Chicago for
Sl25, and had the money to buy it, only
he did not think the place would ever
amount to much. One of the finest
estates in st. Paul is the result of small
investment made not many years ago by
an old army officer. Another large estate
in San Francisco is the result of months
salary invested in land by Quartermas-
ter who used to be stationed there. Many
instances of great profit from the invest
ment OF money in small pieces of land
have come under my own observation
during my fifteen years service in the
West.
When the Union Pacific Railroad was
building young man came out from
New York with apparently no end of
money, but he afterwards told me he had
just $40, 600 which his father, very rich
man, had given him, confident he would
lose it in his efforts to make fortune
out West. The young man followed up
the road and watched the towns; when
ever he saw town surrounded by fine
agricultural region or natural commercial
advantages, he bought five, ten, or
twenty acres of land as close to the town
as he could get it, and then passed on
west. He had forty acres at Omaha, ten
acres in Fremont, thirty at Columbus,
ten in Grand Island, five in Cheyenne,
three in Denver, ten in Evanston, twenty
in Salt Lake, and five in Ogden. He
was two whole years in making his in
vestments, and before he got through
some of his first purchases were calling
loudly for attention. They had gone up
in value double, treble, and some had
quadrupled. He sold slowly. and with
his money bought the bonds of the new
counties in Kansas and Nebraska. These
bonds sold low for cash and brought a
high rate of interest. He borrowed
5 900 from his mother, and induced
good-natured uncle to take hand with |
him and furnish $4,000, $4,000 of
which he put into cattle. That was SIX
teen years ago, and the young man to-
day is worth over million. He told me |
that from his $4,000 in land he had |
drawn S240,000 in cash and still had
plenty of land left. From his cattle he
had taken six times his investment, paid |
his uncle 100000 to get him out of the
and he now sells 25,000 worth
of beef annually from his ranges.
l know another young man from
who came to the West a
poor lawyer. He studied the cattle
business, and saw great opportunities to
make money in driving from Texas. He
had rich uncle in Philadelphia, and
visited him to borrow some capital. The
uncle would not hear to it, and he
was in despair, when an older brother.
l partner of the uncle, came to the law
Ters relief. He proposed they should
ointly lone the young man enough
money to make one small drive and see
low it would work, and the uncle
consented. The business
vas success, and the borrowed capital
Don cleared. The young lawyer now
'ffered to return his uncle the borrowed
money with large in crest, but the
Willy old man had got taste of western
'rofits, and doubled his loan with his
nephew. They continued
n business for a number of years and
vaxed rich. The old uncle hung to his
Iephew like grim death, and drew thou
ands year out of him. At last the
lephew compounded with the uncle and
ought his interests in the herds. The
ephew now owns 200 head of cattle.
locks of buildings, bank. and one of
f the richest men of the est.-Nontana
'0r. Chicago Tribune.