The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-04-04
Borrowers Moved.

Borrowers Moved.
The borrowers had usually moved to
Oklahoma or the Pacific coast. The
disguised mortgagee found that he pos
sessed a waterless piece of prairie,
miles from railroad, for which he had
paid three times it's value, or would
do SO when he had gone thru foreclo-
sure.
The settlers who remained went into
the cattle business, for which the sec
ton was fitted and in which they have
made themselves Independent. They
started barbed wire fence at the cor
ner of the cattle shed and ran it four
or five miles across the plain, then
turned to the right a few more miles,
and SO back home. .. =;
- understand that you have fenced
my land inside your pasture, an in.
dlgnant mortgagee wrote to one of
these .cattlemen. cit must stop!"
elf you don It want. your land inside
any aHXd R Eake It ont was the reply "come
Gould the eattlemen, be compelled to
remove the fence? It is possible, tho
tlemen. There are no others to act as
jurors. Shrewd lawyers and specula-
tors buy the old mortgages of eastern
investors for song, sometimes at 10
per cent Of their face value; hunt up
the original makers of the mortgage
and get dec d, for, say, $40 more; com,
promise. the taxes and have the land
dozen "quarters' Of 100 acres each
together, they have a, t"tranch' and it
sells for profit. "a.
~ A. favorite form of draining money
out of the east in frontier communities
was by the bond method. More than
one town has obtained funds for sugar
mill, gas we'll, or other experiment I'M
ger the ,gP uise of voting Improvement
on the experiments. ,Later the bonds
have often been defaulted. ~
If the bondholders, threatened to take
possession of a town when the place
response was: ssxM Fl rig i?''s We viii viii
move our houses off the townsite,. and
start another CITY; q half-mile away.
h zinc S"A nave 'Ne4 ! i0'S'>"e leave De-
= Schoolhouse on Her Hand
| Such bonds are generally compro.
missed, but somebody loses. One woman
| did assert her, rights and seized a
100000 schoolhouse,si in "a town once
promising, but which, owing to changes
!
| families. She does not know now what
to do with it. /
Probably the most costly experiments
for individual investors have been those
connected with irrigation enterprises
Irrigation in theory is beyond criticism
The project Of turning; rivers over arid
acres and so insuring large crops, ap
peals to every one; it seems simple and
profitable: But in a frontier country
with all the complications Of hasty and
lax, legislation, to say nothing Of riva
claimants for water supplies, it become:
a bewildering undertaking for any ex
cept an expert.
Thousands of miles of bitches and lat
erals were constructed at vast expense
in the Arkansas valley without consid
Grafton that the river is frequently al
expanse Of drifting sand across which
a lady might walk without soiling he,
shoe. The bondholders in eastern in
vestment centers finally. applied for re
ceivers or charged off tens Of thousand
Of dollars to profit and loss.
The St.. Clair Bonds.
Sometimes the residents themselve
are deceived. St. Clair county, Mis-
souri,, thirty-fve years ago issued $3.50,
900 in bonds for a railroad. The roat
never came, and the county refused t.
| pay lie DOHuS, WHICH are ue1u LII Ill
east. -.
The bondholders have obtained iudg
ment and the courts have ordered tn
county judges to make "a levy to pa,
it. But for twenty years every judg
has REFUSED. They have spent years ii
jail for contempt or have hidden in tn
wilds of the woodland townships, avoid
ing officers from the federal courts: A
the expiration of a judges term he i
released, if in jail, and then it become
necessary to catch his successor. TIL
debt now amounts, with costs, tt
100000, and is growing year by. year
but st. Clair county declares that It will
never pay nor compromise. The count.
Judge, who makes levy for the deb
may just as well make his will at thu
same time. =, -,
To two causes may be traced tn
losses fasteners have had in their west
ern ventures; lack Of investigation an
anxiety for large returns. The: MAJ
who lent his money on an unbroke1
quarter section Of the high plains shoul'
have known that he was takin
chances; were the loan large, he shoul'
not have been disappointed If til
settler took the money and Departed.
TO Southern Texas, $2E75 Round Trir
Galveston, Fort Worth, Houston an
Beaumont. To Mexico City and. return