The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-11-26

IHoSE AXE NoI 50 BAD, AXE THEY.
wheat and oats that hung against the
walls as samples of the products of the
surrounding country. He was still
gazing upon these magnificent speci-
mems when Mr.. Scraggs brought his
liable editorial to finish and whirl-
| ing about in his chair caught John in
the act. Instantly smile lighted up
the agents face. and rubbing his hands
| together, he said: Those are not SO
bad, are they?"
John recalled his gaze from the sam
pies and, fixing it upon Mr.. Scraggs, re-
piled:
NO, they are not bad"
Il should say not" Scraggs went on;
mot bad for new country cursed with
drought, hot winds, grasshoppers and
all that sort of thing. la. ha! They
| tell terrible stories about this country,
and try powerful hard to scare people
| away from here, but it won't work.
We've got the soil, and we've got the
seasons, and SO long as we can produce
such stuff as you see there, we're all
/ right. l tell You, sir, there amt more
| productive spot nowhere on earth than
you find right here in this county. And
yet lands cheap here. Away down
cheap. l can sell you as good land as
ever lay out door for fifteen dollars an
acre. It's the farm, too, that that corn
grew on"
John listened to this speech in Won
der. Was it possible, he thought. that
the country could be such as Scraggs
said, and yet he not know it? Scraggs
was n very honest, earnest-looking man,
and he spoke in such free, matter-of-
| fact way that it seemed impossible that
| he was not speaking the truth. After a
| short silence John said:
''Do you say that those samples of
| grain grew in this country, Mr..
| Scraggs?''
Il Go, certainly, and there is nothing
remarkable in it to us who know the
country and know what the land is.
daresay You have heard wild stories
| about this section and are i'll prepared
to believe what tell you. However,
ask our farmers and they will tell you
the same story. AS / said, l can sell
| you the best farm in the county for
fifteen dollars per acre, and it's worth
more than that to-day, and in a year
from now it will be worth twenty if
not twenty-five. Twill drive you out to
look at it if you think it would suit you.
/ What you say?'
"Why, l don't want to buy land, but
just came in to see about getting a loan
on claim have out east
Mr.. Scraggs' countenance fell, and he
looked down rather sheepishly. For
once in his life lac had made a mistake,
and by his precipitancy had got himself
into trap. But he was not the sort Of
man to allow himself to be cast down,
and realizing that the best way out of the
difficulty was to put bold face on it,
he quickly rallied and looking up with
hearty laugh said:
"Well, we're all in a bad boat here,
together, my friend, and we understand
each other, so there's no harm done. A
man can't afford to be too particular
about his assertions in this country,
You know. la, ha! you We're rather
surprised that anything like that
corn should grow here, and l don't
wonder at it. That was shipped in
from back east. But about that loan.
How was that:"
Il see you advertise eastern money to
loan, and l wanted to borrow two or
three hundred dollars on my farm"
You have just one claim?"
Eyes, one hundred ;.ld sixty acres"
"And how much did you want on it?'
Three hundred dollars will do"
"Three hundred. Humph, I'm afraid
it's little more than l could advance
my friend"
"Why, it's less than two dollars per
acre, Mr.. Scraggs."
"Yes, know; but you see this land
is not very valuable at present, and the
chances are that it will get to be worth
less. Lands that don't produce any
thing won't sell. You know that"
II thought fifteen dollars an acre was
cheap, and that next year the price