The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1898-10-04
FORMER LAND "BOOMS."

"Htu tue popuihtlOH Vi Ihe NHlteu
States was hardly three millions, and
It could sparsely settle the State OF
Pennsylvania alone. q land craze
seized upon the people in 1857. Not
content with building up homes where
law and order had been established,
the restless portion OF the community
moved Westward. Hundreds OF fam
lilies moved across the Allegheny
ranges in order to find room. In 1887
over twenty thousand persons entered
Kentucky in order to take up the rich
lands and escape from the crowded
sea coast" as they described 1t. As
the lands were taken up speculation in
them increased, and every purchaser
expected to get an advanced price from
the succeeding purchaser. The ques-
| ton OF actual values was not consid-
cred. What will be the next offer. was
the important question. The produc-
tive value OF the land was entirely
ignored. Anyone who tried to arrest
the wild speculative movement was
regarded as an enemy OF man. In the
end, thousands OF people were ruined,
and the discouraged and the bankrupts
moved on to the West
In 1885 another wide spread land
boom burst. Paper money, the issue
OF wild cat banks, was abundant, and
stimulated speculation. The price of
real estate rose to enormous figures.
Those who suggested conservatism
were denounced. This is what Schouler
says of New England:
lin private tracts of land the craze
corresponded ito the inflated value or
| stocks) not in the new Western coun-
try alone, but towards the remote East
among Names titled forests. The
rustic burg which had taken its little
leap with the rest, was imagined great
city. On the diagram might be seen
it's broad avenues. fianked by imposing
dwellings and public edifices; its wild
lands were parcelled into farms,
mapped out into building lots, all sell
ling by the square foot, when they had
sold by the acre, and all bringing hand
some prices, though rarely from the
settler intending to remain there.
There was "A new phenomena OF travel,
for railways and canals were now
building rapidly--it seemed as II all
things were moving and growing"
The optimists OF those days never
thought for a moment what the history
OF real estate had been in civilized
States. If confronted with it. they
simply replied that their own cases
were exceptions to all rules, and could
not be measured by any Anticipated
were of no consequence to such people.
The higher and more fictitious values
became. the more readily the people be-
lieved that values We're sound, and
would rise still more. A veritable stam-
pede took place throughout the nation.
and the most conservative men risked
all they possessed in wild lands.
II a sober minded person asked
where the population would come
from, that would live upon and cult
vate the lands, there was always
Col. Sellers" who would rise and
frantically declare that the Star of
Destiny was now moving westward,
and those who hesitated to buy land
were miserable traitors to their coun-
try and their God.
After the collapse there was the
spectacle of thousands of families, in
telligent and educated, living in the
most frugal way, utterly deprived of
the luxuries of life, toiIing hopelessly
in the wilderness.
And this took place on the rich vir-
gin soil of great continent, where,
with the ordinary sense OF beaver
a human being should not have heard
the word want" though he travelled
two thousand leagues. That spirit of
speculation still lives.