St. Paul daily globe., 1889-06-16
THESE WANT LANDS,
But They Have Curious Styles
Of Making Wants
Known.
Innocent Blunderers Who
Bore a Railroad Land
Office,
Mistaking It for an Intelli-
gence Bureau or Detective
Office.
Samples Of the Information
N n M
Samples Of the Information
Sought at the N. P. De-
partment.

The land Office of the Northern Pa
cific railroad is frequently sought out by
all sorts of remarkable characters look
ing for information. The information
they seek is not by any means confined
to land matters. They apparently
think that Maj. Postlethwaite and his
staff of assistants form general in
formation bureau, a detective agency,
etc. Letters of the most remarkable
nature arrive almost every day from
every point of the compass. Many OF
these documents are hard to read, and
when read, harder still to understand.
Still, they always receive an answer OF
some sort. A gang of Swedes will
enter the office and talk through an in
terpreter in the most v0luble manner.
These men generally want some land,
and as rule know just about
where and how much they want,
and what they are prepared to pay.
Other men come in and talk and ask
questions and waste hours of valuable
time who either don't want anythng,0r
know they want something but OF just
exactly what nature are ignorant. One
day not long ago well-dreSSed appa-
rently well-tO-dO man entered and asked
to see some land. Maps were shown
him, and. as it was evident he really
wanted to buy something, two hours
were taken up in explaining things to
him. At last he was asked exactly what
he wanted. He replied: IL want about
ten acres of sandy land for chicken
no
half the day showing him land felt like
kicking themselves for their trouble.
This sort of thing is not at all unusual.
The idea which is entertained by the
public of the raison d'etre for the land
office seems to be that it is nothing
but an ordinary real estate office:
The notions men have of the price OF
land, too, are rather remarkable.
letter was received last week from
man who asked for good farm land
within few rods Of the railroad and
adjacent to town of $500 or 5000
people. He wanted to pay 10 shilllngs
an acre for this, and was Informed that
the n. P. would like to buy some such
land at that price. Men with schemes
are numerous. A man arrived one day
and wanted to see the land agent on
very important business. Having been
shown into Maj. Postlethwaite's private
Office he propounded his scheme. Ihls
was to lay out town site at some re,
mote point. He wanted the railroad
COMPANY to put in the land, he would
do the selling and they would divvy on
the proceeds. He was politely informed
that the Northern Pacific railroad had
too much at stake to go into any such
booming scheme. This is only single
instance of many similar visitors. Such
men arrive almost every day. and go
away sadder and wiser than when they
arrived.
Besides dealing in land this depart
ment has to handle all sorts of miscel-
laneOus business. One man wants to
buy the grass on certain tract, an
other the timber and so OH. Here is
letter received last week:
Land department N. P. r. R. co. Sirs
in reply to your letter will say to you that
will give you for Sec. q, Town 1873: range
81, for Hay stumpage $1,000 Ten dollars.
please let me hear from you soon L am
poor man and need the hay. Yours truly
VIM. Hardy, Motley MINI.
Similar letters are received every day
asking for prices or making offers for
hay or timber. The lamentable igno-
rance of the English language shown
by some men who ought to know better
is demonstrated every day. A letter ar
rived last Friday from a man who wrote
a good hand, and stated that he was
telegraph operator for the Chicago &
Northwestern railroad. His spelling
was worse than that of school boy in
his second year. The smallest and
simplest words were misspelt. and his
idea of capitals was most erratic. The
sort of stuff that the clerks in the land
department have to decipher is shown
by the following letter, evidently from
a Scandinavian. That the writer wants
a farm in Washington territory is ap-
parent, but what the latter part of the
epistle means and what 'Mr. Nelly'
has to do with it would take Ignatius
Donnelly to decipher. The letter is as
follows:
Salt Wells, p o. Almond, Sweetwater
County, Wyoming Junne, iss9+Cnaries Il safts
down in Washington Ter. and like to bought
farm or piece land of 24O acres: please
send me information a cartes, who the Nord-
wester R. R. LONGS have land to offert SO l
like to have Mr.. Nelly, county carte OF Wash
ington Ter. but I don't was it oors will be.
Your respectfully Ed We'll.
The sort of information asked by some
people is shown by another letter from
man asking if his brother Daniel lived
in Ramsey county. Here it is:
Lexington, Ala, June IL. 1S99.-To the
Land Agent, st. Paul, Minn.-Dear Sir: Per
NIT me to trouble you so much as to inform
me if my brother Daniel is in your county.
as I wish to come out there and buy Land if
he is there I heard that he lives 10 or IL
miles from St. Paul, Minnesota please inform
and oblige Respectfully, Thos. Bergin. di
rect letters to Lexington. Ala, Lauderville
Co.
Maj. Postlethwaite reported to this
man that he had not the honor of his
brothers. acquaintance, and that his
time was so occupied that he had not
time to go out and hunt him up. He
also respectfully reminded him that the
Northern Pacific railroad was not in
the detective business.
The following reply was received
from man with whom they had been
in correspondence regarding certain
section of land in Montana:
'sIf salt were selling in Montana at 2 cents
barrel, you could not sell the land want
for money enough to buy salt enough to
pickle jay Bird
These letters were selected at random
from few received last Thursday and
Friday, but are enough to show the
curious nature of the correspondence
constantly received. The land Office of
the Northern Pacific is good place in
which to study character and human
nature.
The Great American Shaker.
v..1 Cl..Il. oc hoe -,