Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-03-23

tOnly wasted as was wasted in Kansas
between the years 1885 and 1888.
Money came into Kansas literally by
the barrel. 1t came from every quar-
ter of the globe. 1t went into the
hands of all sorts and conditions Of
men for distribution among the peO-
pie. These men were for the most
part not kansanS; they came from
the East, and they came for the eX-
press purpOse OF swindling everybody
with whom they had any dealings.
These ''sharks" have gone now; they
swan out when the first receding wave
of the boom was felt. They went to
Utah, to Oregon, to California. But
the story of their nefarious methods
has not been told. 1t is an interest
ing story, and in justice to the honest
people of Kansas, who are really try
ing to pay their honest debts, the
story should be printed.
A typical Kansas shark, sleek, well
dressed, with the manners of fakir,
swan into Wichita early in 1886, when
everything was booming, and when
money was as plenty as the grass.
After looking the town over he rented
an office in one of the new Office build
ings in the booming town and had
painted upon his door the words,
"Great Western Trust, Loan and In
yestment cOmpany"-Or some such
grand and awful title. He had East
ern correspondents and, in short
time, had bank account that was
beautiful to look upon. Then he hired
solicitors to scOur the Eastern states
for money, going out of the big cities
and into the little backwoods towns.
and to tell the Fasteners of the
glories of Kansas as place for invest
ment. Money from widows; from Or
phans, sent by their guardians; from
old people, who sent their little NEST
eggs" from country capitalists; from
New England farmers; from working
ingmen, the factory girls, from every
possible class and condition of men,
came to the offices Of the Great West
ern Trust, Loan and Investment COM
pany Each person sending money re-
ceiyed in return a beautiful certificate
of stock in the company, emitting him
to share in the profits, which were
to roll up as soon as the money was
| loaned at 8, 10 and II per cent.
| While the solicitors were in the
East, drumming up money, the shark
was aSSiduOuSly engaged in putting it
away. His method was simple one,
as simple as is the method of the
/
or by proxy to the nearest neighbor-
hood Of uplands. The nearest neigh
bOrhOOd of ''bad lands" to Wichita
happens to be the Flint Hills country,
about fifty miles away. This country
is stony, hilly and barren, save for the
short, Stunted grass which barely COW
ers the little flint gravel, and s. an
acre would have been an eXOrbitant
price for it. But there were people
| living there people who thought that
to own land, however poor, meant to
possess riches. The people on these
Mills were not the best citizens. They
were ''drifterS, . who had come in with
the boom; usually single men, OF
young men; men with small families
and with no means"
When the shark came into this
neighborhOOd, he put up at the first
house on the outskirts of it and offer
ed the trusting settler 50 an acre fol-
his land. The settler was only toe
glad to get it. Then the shark said
to the settler: II should like to have
you make au application for a loan
for little more than the purchase
price" The settler wasn't particular
about little thing like that, and the
application for the loan went in tt
the Wichita office, whence it was for
Warded to some investor in the East
who had a thousand or so to lend
The application was approved by thu
@. w. L.. Il. 81 /. Co.. and the amount
of the loan was based upon price pc
acre all the way from So to So above
the purchase price of the land. The
money for the loan came back. Th,
settler got s. an acre for his land. II,
signed mortgage, mOrtgaging TIN
land at SIS or so an acre, and left tn,
country. The difference between tn,
purchase price and the mortgage pric,
the shark put into his pocket. TIL
shark kept up the interest upon tn
loan for perhaps year, in order tina
he might get other dupeS from tn
; neighbOrhoOd where the Eastern in
weston lived.
When the shark appeared in tn
neighbOrhOOd all the neighborS gath
cred at the house of the first man VIII
had sold out. There the shark reapet
a harvest. During the boom days i
was no unusual thing for good SoliC
) itOr to cucumber two or three thOus
: and acres day, which of course mean
hundreds of dollars to him even if h
were only working on commission
Day by day, and week by week, tn
entire Flint Hills country-a count
twenty unIloS HUH odSG 10 WeSU, dn'
sixty miles long, was covered witt
mortgages, that were not made to b
paid, and the result was that that paI
ticular portion of Kansas was in ba,
: repute all through the East.
} The Flint Hills country was not tn
, only country that was plaStered wit
bogus mortgages. Nearly every grou
of half dozen counties in the stat
has few thousand acres of bad Ian
I in it, and these acres were covere
+ with fraudulent debt. The shar
flourished under various aliases a
Wellington, Winfield, Salina, Abilene
4 Garden City, Scott City, Atchisor
Topeka, Goodland, FredOnia, Emporis
and the honest money sellers
there wore hundreds of them win