The morning times., 1895-12-22
SINGLE TAX COLUMN.

fireside in his easy cbaF. to devise in
genlous theories for hast timing the coming
OF the millennium 81 -
There is more of the ar ele. but that will
do for the present. n
The remark quoted tout Hes the writer Of
these articles personalities we ask the
readers pardon that for this occasion we
use the first personal prononn. 1t awakes
| recolections of the time, wien, upon at
tanning my legal majority, with not more
than $50 in my pocket, after having partly
educated myself and assisted in supporting
my aged parents, / started out in life, with
he deIusion that the healthiest, most in
dependent and honorable position in the
world was thatOf a farmer. But the first
step toward becoming farmer was to OBJ
tain a farm. To do this, It was necessary to
pay some fellow-man 81 ,0U0 or $4,000
in order to obtain his permission TO use
enough of the earth's surface to win liv
ing from. True, might have pushed out
farther toward the frontier, where land,
such rs IL was, could be mad on easier terms;
but then would fall out OF the hands Of
the land speculator into those of the irriga-
ton syndicate. AS between the two,
chose the former. ~ A
TEN YEARS OF SLAVERY.
/ found a quarter section OF fine prairie
land in Northern Illinois tina could be bought
for So an acre. With that in view worked
for year. and at the end OF that time had
about $500. During that year the price OF the
land had advanced from So per acre TO SO
per acre; in llabout $50. ! was niathenia.
tician enough to figure that if the land and
both kept on at that rate it would be a long
time before l could pay for 1t. Clearly, my
best policy was to get q hold upon 1t before
any further rise In price.
paid $500 down in cash, and gave seven
notes, for $500 each, for the remaining
81 400, with interest at. 10 per cent per
annum, secured by mortgage. A little
figuring will show that if the notes had been
paid as given, the total amount would have
been So, 2,16O. But they were not. The
gentleman who held the mortgage kindly
permitted the notes TO be renewed at the
end of seven years, practically at COM
pound interest. The aggregate finally
paid was about $4,000; and 1t took ten
years to pay it. .-5----- .- .. %
A PAIR OF DOGS.
i never shall forget the occasion when
l called upon my master TO get the notes
renewed. At the moment l entered his
gorgeously appointed office at the county
seat, he was trying to teach his wife's
sore-eyed poodle TO sit on his (the poodle 81
hind legs on crimson-cushiuned arm
chair. When he, the master, turned his at
tention to me the dog curled up In the chair
and went to sleep. No chair was offered
me. / stood in the presence of his high
mighiiness while we were conducting our
negotiations.
] worked sixteen hours a day; ten or
twelve hours a day for somebody else,
and the remainder on tiny farm" After
two or three years ] married, and 1--WE"
took up our residence oD the land. Welived
in sod house, warm and comfort BILE.
but neither large nor elegant We wore
the coarsest clothing that would keep
the snow and rain from our bodies. We ate
the poorest food; anything flt 10 sell must
he sold 10 pay that debt. There is but one
word in the language that accurately de-
scribcs that way OF living; that word is
slavery"
A NONCONSUMING CITIZEN.
During the dozen years of my slavery /
did not Improve the land much. How could
1? All the money could raise went into the
hands OF my master. Why should /? If
anything should happen TO me- the widow
and ba bIes would never he able to pay the
debt and the land, with whatever i'm
provenents l might have made upon it,
would revert TO the man who held the
mortgage against IT. Besides, sthe more
improvements / made, the higher my taxes
would be. The more did toward building
up the State of Illinois, the more she would
fine me for 1t. - ~
1t may be observed that did not buy
as many thngs-as much clothing, and
groceries, and lumber, and wire for fenc-
ing, and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, and house
hold furniture, and books, ete.-as would
II had not been paying tribute to the land
speculator. / could not let him have
SEQ year and at the same time spend
1t in the stores at the country seat.
HOW TRAMPs ARE MADE.
There were about Thousand of us in the
county. who were slaves to the same man.
Each OF US spent on an average, $500 less
at the lumber yards and stores at the
county seat than we would If the voca-
ton OF a land speculator had never been
invented. That made 100000 year of
depression in business in that one coun-
ty. Somebody, somewhere, kept on saw
ing lumber and making furniture, and
clothing. and baby carriages and things,
Just as II We could buy them; but as we
could not under the circumstances, they
accumulated on the hands OF the makers.
In the course OF the te n years that we were
occupied In paying for our farms more
than two million dollars worth of such
things must have accumulated somewhere.
We needed them badly enough. but we
couldn't buy them. for our money was
diverted In another direction.
In the meantime the same thing was
going on in other parts of the country.
There must have been an accumulation,
according to the most reliable statistics,
OF 81, 500, ,OoO,0O0 worth of goods during
those ten years. AT least, there would have
been but for the fact that before the accumu
lation became so enormous, the manu-
facturers discovered that they were piling
up more goods than We could pay for; so
they dismissed large number of their
employees, and thereby let loose any army
of tramps upon the community.
HOW REFoRMERs ARE MADE.
1t was during this period of my slavery
that began to think; the result OF which was
that by the time / had worked my way out
from under that mortgage I was ''re-
former" Some of the other slaves became
reformers Some of them became by over
work SO stunted and stultified that they
were incapable OF sufficient consecutive
thought to make themselves reformers.
Some of them, after spending n dozen years
of their lives in thinking of nothing else ex-
cept making money enough to pay off their
mortgages, became so rooted and grounded
in selfishness that they never afterward
could think OF anything except making
money.
But to recur to the remark of our coDtem-
porary that awakened these "reminiscences:
Whatever became of us in our later lives,
sat on ..easy chairs.' 1t was the other
fellow and his dog that occupied the "easy
chairs" =
s-
Electrically Heated Water.
In any house equipped with incandes-
cent electrical light wires the water for
a bath may be heated in a most satis-
factory manner. 1t frequently happens
that In case of illness the patient is un-