Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-01-15
I'll, / COULD ONLY HAVE BEEN
LOCKED UP"

day. Just as I left them-On paper. /
was called a boss boomer, and l think
l deserved the title. Although every
body was ready to sell or buy, you had
to furnish a reasonable excuse, so to
say. l was paid anywhere from $4,000
to $4,000 for starting a boom, and 1t
did not require over a weeks work to
set the ball rolling. Climate was the
first thing on the programme. Then
followed natural advantages. Every
town was always hundreds of miles
nearer the great markets of the world
than any other town. There were
scores of reasons why any particular
town should become a great manutac-
turing center. | wonder that l did not
grow weary of organizing railroad,
steamboat and manufacturing cOmpan-
les, cutting canals and locating State
institutions, but | do not recall that
my brain ever gave out. ] remember
that my best days work was in organ
izing three railroad and two steamboat
companies, and turning the first shovel
of earth on the site of factory which
was to employ 1000 men. The next
day we had an auction, and real estate
winch ndu DtGu sleepy DIT PAO an dCl .
sold for $50 a foot front as city lots
There were buyers present from twen-
ty different States, and such as EN- as
found fault with the miserable little
tavern which had never before held
four guests at once, were cOnsoied by
the knowledge that million dollar
caravansary was one of the sure things
of the immediate future.
"But the west, the glorious west, "
sighed the ex-boomer as he made more
pencil-marks on his old map. That
southern boom was a zephyr compared
to the gale which swept over the west.
Eastern men went out in drOves to buy
California acres for vineyards and or
ange groves, and when prices got too
high they began to gObble up the
farms and city lots of the middle
ground. The west never does any
thing by halves. No promoter would
take an order to sell less than 500 city
lots at auction. No prospectus writer
or town boomer was satisfied with two
or three new railroad lines and 100000
inhabitants in the near future. Look
here. Here is about where the town
of Golden City was located. | located
it and l named it. l owned the whole
county. There might have been half
a dozen settlers in it. but there WASH {
even a highway leading through It,.
1t makes my heart swell with pride
when | remember the city map Of
Golden City. There were grand ave-
nues, shady streets and wide alleys.
There were public parks and sites for
public buildings. OF the 1000 city lots
none were selfshly reserved by the
owner. The prospectus which went
with the map had the wood cuts of
the great car shops, the high school,
the various churches and the city hall.
which were to be erected at once There
were four railroad lines hustling into
Golden City; there were three iron
bridges to be built; five street car lines
would radiate from a great public
E-narA, and the cost of the union depot
would be a million and a half. I have
an old copy of the prospectus at home,
and now and then. when l wonder if
life is worth living, | get it out and
read it over and feel holy calm steal
ing over me-
"And that auction. held in a town
fifty miles from Golden City-will I
ever forget it, There were 1000 bid
ders for my 1000 city lots. Million
aires and teamsters slept on the earth
over night side by side, to be on hand,
and nobody was mean enough TO doubt
on question. That land had cost me a
dollar an acre. The pick of the fifty7
foot city lots went for $500. Think d
tlyat. and then cease to wonder why