The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-02-02
REAL ESTATE GAMBLING THE WORST
How It's Blight Affected Omaha and Other
Western Cities-The Way Or at Piles OF
Eas ern Money Went

How It's Blight Affected Omaha and Other
| Western Cities-The Way OR at Piles ol
Eas ern Money Went
| Rev Thomas G. Hall ia the Outlook.I
! Tue writer of this began work 10 the city
Of Omaha Just a. 1t started on speculative
career that was not carefully worked up as al
Kansas City or Wichita, but began In the
sympathy IN the gambling crszas there prev.
alent. Almost everybody In Omaha, from
the s0berest bank president to the poorest
day-laborer, was involved In the rise of prices
that commenced the mania. Ministers.
women, an even children at school dabbled
In "town lots," situated In many instances
far out toward the rising sun.
the first marked evil was the withdra wal
from productive work of the most ambitious,
shrewd and active young life of the place.
The turning over Of lots was exciting and
profitable. Every second Office was "Real
estate exchange" The second great evil was
the sympathetic Generalization of the leg,ti.
mate business houses. These also had to
make money fast to keep up with the mer
chant princes in speculative property. Sen
salional methods and unsound finance went
along with this haste to get rich. The third
evil was the enormous increase in rents,
driving useful labor to other places, and com.
peIlIng those who were not sharing IN the
gambling to pay simply exorbi'ant rates for
the poorest kind of house or office. The
fourth marked evil was the rush to Omaha of
The lazy. incompetent and Jiscreuited e.
ments of smaller places. These came feeling
hat In the excitement they might not be un-
lucky. and could not lose, even II they were
they had nothing not even character, to
ose. The fifth woe was the false estimate
'ngendered about success. The only shrewd
nan was the man who Z JXeht today for $1,000
md sold few hours AZ |ard for 5000.
Then ssans the end. - .botsons dropped
'ut" Prices went down; untold suffering re. |
ahulous rates, on part payments, and had |
,usit houses on them. lost all 10 the shrink
lge; and, aft T evictionr and tears, no ode /
!eined, tor the houses are even now failing to
,teces without tenants. Ministers left pulpits
o 60 into the real estate business. and now,
picked up precarious existence that r. f-ct-
d no credit on their calling. Oilers found
so loaded with debt that all fur
her religious rfuence there was Impossible.
The banks in Omaha. uni Ike those In Kan
az City. kept tneir heads fairly well; out
unes reduced to 1.-THE of what they were
ated at. Business stopped. The bauchee,
araly zed and suffering after the mad excite.
nent of the "boom."
The place Is bound to be one of the chief of
be inland centers. Her location, climate.
opulation aid railway facilities are unrivsl-
west OF Chicago; and yet true friend can
ardly wish to see her prosper again, II her
rospertty Is 10 be attended with the awful
pfrtusl and moral losses she has suff red |
ON her last rush toward success. What has
one on In Omaha, Kansas CITY. S.. P ,ul,
'uluth, Wichita and other places In such
Iarked manner is going on In all our great
Il second to none to the rising generation II e
some way gambling In untmprOved real Q
tate could be absolutely stopped. The man I
ho makes money on unimproved real estate
rs got something for sothing. His success a
poison to the whole community, and there '
Re hundreds who lose their all In val. eff
'rts to Initiate him. And the money thus q
ct IL gone. 1t is labor flung into the effort n
bold reproductive land out of the reach OF d
Ose who want homes and farms and factory
tes, until the pressure of population COM ID
,ls them to pay the speculative holder q il
ncy price. The real estate specuiator thus h
simply betting on the time when those ne b
Hoitscb Will COmpei puICuuoes LUG kdIuDicToI Il
! the stock exchange hurt the community d
lly very little; the gamblers at the faro table q
lrt only Themselves and their families; the a,
mblers In real estate inflict q simply intol- r.
able wrong upon the community at large, m
ID, save In few instances. without any sf
IRE pondinR financial return to themselves. nj
IMPAIRED to this evil the lofty and the stock m
change are only gns.s at which We strain al
lille swallowing the camel with hardl, . er
levance.