Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-09-16
Business Conditions
In the Far West

little too regular Iol tnem III TIC
East and so picked up bag and bag
gage end STRUCK; out for the land OF
quick results.
It may be said In a general way
of California, Oregon and Washing
ton that here nature never goes on
a strike. Kansas often looks like q
Garden of Eden In June ard like
the Desert of Sahara in July, but
the Pacific Coast States can be
pretty nearly depended upon to
furnish crops year In and year out
and our mines and forests offer an
exhaustless supply of crude wealth.
| So that one would think that the
men like the crops would get to
lpeggipg along In a regular sort OF
fashion and grow rich just as quiet
Ily and naturally as trees grow big;
but they don't.
Most every ore out here Is pos
sessed with a conviction that the
West Is the only place for a man to
enjoy life and liberty, and pursue
happiness, so half of us are acting
as advance agents for friends back
East and urging them to follow us.
The Western hustle Is a fact which
begins to show up big soon after
you cross the Mississippi, aud by
the time you reach the Coast you
almost believe such stories as that
of the man In Seattle who was seen
staring at a six story brick block
and on being questioned said that
he had about decided to buy a
couple of lots three days before but
took a run down to Portland and
when he got back they were all
covered up with that building, and
every store and Office rented. But
we are so strenuous In Our efforts
for today that we sometimes over
look the value of yesterday as
chart by which to avoid the reefs
on which yesterdays ships were
wrecked.
know q dry goods clerk here
In Seattle whose vile Is working as
a stenographer and the two of them
are paying 500, a month on a
home about three times as dig as
they have any use for. Cases like
this remind me Of the bull which
charged down the railroad track at
IA locomotive going about mile a
minute, and as the fireman was
cleaning up his engine at the next
watering tank he remarked that he
admired the brute's nerve but didn't
think much of his judgment.
Then know q man who came here
about four years ago with a little
money and after calmly surveying
the field, picked up some vacant
lots cheap for cash sold them at an
advance and bought a house for
|$3, 500, cash. He lived In
lit six months and sold It
for 81 500, and then he bought a
house tor about $4,000, and has
lived there ever since In very
quiet woy. all the while keeping up
his careful speculations unit! he Is
now probably worth about $40, 900.
In the boom of ten years ago
real estate went skyward like a
rocket and then dropped back, com
mon mud. A suburban lot which
brought $500, ten years ago was
recently sold for $3.50, and the
chances are that a year after the
slump you could have gotten 1t for
ham and a sack of beans. Just
consider the loss of the man with
the $500, and the possible gain of a
hard times purchaser. But the
West learned her lesson at the same
time the East did and the first
note OF warning that things
were Stacking down has taken
most of the speculative elt-
ment there was out of the market
and present purchasers OF real es-
tate are buying for actual use. l
am speaking of Western Washing
ton from personal knowledge as I
have recently made trip to all her
principal cities to study conditions,
and found them In healthy
growth. The average man Is easily
stampeded. 1t takes cool head to
keep money In your pocket when
every one else Is engaged In wild
speculation, and a cooler one to buy
when times are unsettled and near
lily every one else Is scared. But
H the ,nao uho fnIloUs the verv