The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1888-11-02
ATERRIBlE TALE OF WOE.
Hoto Money Sharks are Robbing a Dakota
Colony of PoEish JstCs.

TfObC ItOJtcU otuThS uTc DOOCtHU u ~
Colony of Posish Jstcs.
Mr.. J. Harpman, sayy = Minneapolis
dispatch, who has returned from a visit
to Ramsey county, Dakota, says of the
Polish. Jew sufferers there: The settle
ment is located about eighteen miles
from Devils Land, and comprises sew
enty families, numbering 239 souls.
TheV came here two years ago last
spring I'm Chicago, st. Paul and other
places, with some household truck and
from 81, 300 to 50, 500 in money, farming
implements, etc. They procured land,
built their modest houses and went to
work with q will to clear the land and
become independent farmers. Those
without money mortgaged their land
and borrowed enough to pay the govern
ment price, about $3.50, and expected to
live on the balance of their loans until
the first crop could be harvested. They
raised a fair crop the first year, and the
prospects were so bright that they mort
gagged their lands and other property to
purchase stock and farm machinery.
The second year they planted a
much larger acreage. The notes
and mortgages signed by them
in many instances bore interest at a
rate of 9 per cent per month on chattels
and 12 per cent on real estate, besides
5 per cent on the loans which they were
to pay the loan sharks who loaned them
the money and charged the ~extravagant
interest. About the middle of August
~ their expectations were ruined in
one -.,u6. A severe frost came and ru-
med their entire crOp of wheat, leaving
them only about as many potatoes as
they used for planting, and barely
enough oats to winter their stock.
Trouble and suffering began at once.
Merchants who heretofore had been
anxious to supply all their wants re-
fused to credit them any more. Seeing
that they could not expect payment for
what had been furnished already, nearly
every creditor became alarmed and fore
closed at once. The situation became
so bad that the sheriff refused to infict
further suffering on the people by
taking their property. He found the
people without fuel or bread, they using
the droppings of cattle for fuel to cook
such few articles as they could get, and
set bread, if they could get any, to bake
in this fire. Their children wero naked,
without shoes or stockings, men and
women in rags and without footwear.
We found everything as the sheriff
stated. To the fearful appeals of these
people we said that we should not let
them starve nor freeze, and they took
fresh hopes, showering many blessings
upon us. For the present, their mos.
pressing needs are bread and fuel,
and these articles must be
had at once, for every day is a day of
suffering and privation. We visited
twenty houses, and found all. with two
exceptions, without a stick of wood or
any other material for fire. On Satur-
day ice vas three-fourths of an inch
thick. and we found numerous little
children with bare feet and legs. The
The minister's wife We found living in a
hut, the floor consisting OF the bare
ground. no fire, o anything TO make
one with one little girl, blue with cold,
and the other in her crib, huddled mp,
trying to keep warm. Their furniture
was in keeping with the rest, and their
entire supply of food consisted of a dry
crust of bread kindly sent by a neighbor
from his scanty supply. Another wo-
was found the same morning with
two little girls with bare limbs and feet
trying to keep warm on the sunny side
of the house. SOM creditor had taken
her COW and left her to starve with her
little ones.