Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-02-22
MIR. FARWELLS DOMAIN.
A TRACT or lANo IN TEXAS As GIG
As cosNEcrlcur.

% Was Gives n Esshanse for the Lone
sssr sssss's .0rses gsaas House Pes
ssb'''t'ss Bew : lDss Cared sor Ranch.
A Tho~ss~d Slsl6s NJ Fence.
Especial cbrrespcndencel
WASHINGTON. Feb. 20-The most ex.
tensive land owner In the senate Is Mr.
FarweIl, Of Illinois. Senator Farwell
recently had some little trouble with the
president about the Chicago offices, and
IL he should decide to retire from the
senate and set up monarchy Of his own,
wherein mono could question his royal
will, II would mot he necessary for him
to buy domain. Senator Farwcll is al-
ready the owner of an empire Of land.
With his brother, John ", the dry goods
merchant Of Chicago, aud Col. Abner
Taylor, who 10 = member Of congress
from Illinois, Senator Farwcll owns a
tract Of land larger than the states
Of Delaware and Rhode Island combined
and almost as large as the state Of Con-
necticut. 1t Is solid, compact tract,
too, lying along the western border Of
Texns, abutting about twenty five miles
on No Mans Land, and extending thence
southwark about two hundred miles. II
there were railroad running north and
south through this strip, and the trains
thereon made no better time than the
average western railway train, Senator
Farwell could ride from morning till
night without once leaving his own soil.
This empire Of prairie land is sur
rounded by a wire fence. and other wire
fences cut u into pastures, so that there
are in all just 900 miles of fence on the
place. The farmer who has 900 miles
Of fence and two or three pastures, each
as large as the state of Delaware, is q
farmer on the true American scale. But
Senator Farwell does not farm. He is
in stock raising and has on his great
ranch nearly 150,OO head of cattle. In
ten years Senator FarweIl will be very
rich man. providing he holds to this
tract Of land. Already it is worth three
or four dollars an acre, and tho day Is
not far distant when it will be worth
two or three times as much. In ten
years that ranch, land, cattle, fences
and improvements should be worth S4O,-
600. 900, for there are 5000, 900 acres of
pretty good land, and the present herd
Of 10000 head will soon be multiplied
five or six fold.
Senator Farwell was at luncheon the
other day in the senate restaurant. With
him were his boon companions, Senator
Wolcott, Of Colorado, and Senator Jones,
of Nevada. Col. Dan Shepard, the skill
ful political private secretary of Senator
Eurynll nntarn1 hn ant I,n
double quick, and in an excited way told
his chief that an alarming discovery had
been made. On account of an error in
the surveys, n considerable portion of
the Farwcll tract had been located in
New Mexico. and as the Texas patents
would not hold good there all the land
thus located would be dead loss.
And how many acres are we likely
TO lose, DanT' the senator inquired
About l50, ,00O."
"Oh, If that is ALL" said Farwell,
nonchalantly, I'VE don't need to bother
about IL. hundred and fifty thousand
acres is nothing"
And then the senator went on with his
luncheon just as If nothing had happen
ed. II is only in America that a man
can face the prospective loss of $50, 900
acres Of land and regard it as mere
trifle
The Farwell empire in Texas is at
present inhabited by about 500 men. One
railroad-the Denver, Fort Worth and
Texas--runs through it, and another rail
road will shortly be built. There is one
little town, which the senator and his
partners laid out short time ago, and in
few weeks they sold $4,000 worth OF
lots there. 1t is not difficult TO imagine
this tract of land teemng with village.
and towns and prosperous farmers
Were it as dcnsely populated as the
United States it would have a population
of nearly 100000 souls. If as densely
populated as Mr.. Farwell's own state OF
Illinois it would have a population OF
nearly three hundred thousand souls
and if it had rs many people to tn,
square mile as England it would have
populace numbering nearly two and @
half millions. That would be an empir,
worth having. l do not suppose tha
Senator Farwell has any idea of setting
up little republic of his own out ther,
in the Panhandle of Texas, one in which
he could make all appointments without
consultation with the president of tn,
United States, but if he has he will mo-
be able to do SO, for in selling him tn,
land the state of Texas was careful {,
retain political control of it, Just as i
does of all its other millions upon mill
ions Of acres.
II will tell you how we happened t
get that land" said Senator Farwell
"The people of Texas wanted fine new
state house, and az land was the thinl
they had the most of they thought il
would be good idea to trade their land
for a state house. So a party of theil
leading men came down to Chicago and
asked some of us to build them a stat,
house estimated to cost million and q
half of dollars, and take in payment
therefor, three million acres of land
estimated to be worth fifty cents an acre.
There were just two things wanted tc
know before going into the scheme, and
those were it the state house could be
built for million and a half, and if the
land which they proposed giving us was
worth fifty cents an acre. Col. Taylor
went down To Texas and satisfied him.
self ON both of those points, and we took
hold am Not going to tell you how
much money the state house did cost us,
for that is our own business, but it cost us
good deal more than the million and a
half that was estimated by the architects,
must say that we got along pretty well
with the Texas people, though the iob
was not without its difficulties. One of
the first things we discovered was that
the building as planned by the state