The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1906-08-18

/ this important acquisition the more
| difficult it will be 70 them. Land
prices continue to rise and the popu-
lation IS fast increasing. There are
now I7I,447 $40 acres OF land and
j about 100000 people within the i'm
its Of Texas. If these lands were
equally divided among the people theN
would have only about IS acres each
| Twenty-one years from today the
youngest living child will be grown
| Keeping up the ratio OF increase III
the past two decades there will be at
that time only about twenty acres of
land per capita in this State. Thus
it will be seen that the longer man
waits the less the opportunity he will
! have to get home. More than TWEEN
! ty years ago l called the peoples at
/ tenton ito this proposition and many
Of them wisely availed themselves of
! the cheap lands in their nelghbor-
hoods. Many of them bought thirty
! acres, some fifty, and others more, for
I their homesteads.
AT that. time it was in the power
of every man to buy a home and pay
! for it from the rents, which he has
since paid, if he occupied one. Good
81 to $40 an acre; whereas, the same
lands now will cost from $40 to SIS
an acre.
| ANY healthy, industrious man in
| this State can yet procure and pay
| for a home in the city or ccountry
! easy enough. Suppose he is farmer
J with a wife and once hid. Ordinarily
| he could not cultivate more than
twenty acres Instead of buying he
rents and pays in money or its equiv
alent about S. an acre. Say that he
occupies thirty acres, worth about
$50 an acre, or in the aggregate 5000.
For this land he pays annually 10 per
cent. of its price without any benefit
from the increase of values caused
from good cultivation. Within ten
of the land Would it not be better
for him to buy this tract on time and
pay seven or eight per cent. interest
on the purchase price? If he owned
the land he would get the benefit of
his rainy-day improvements of it a.
a home Here he could rear his fam
lily, form his social, religious and po-
litical associations, which compose
tYfe essence of civilization and hap
piness Here he would become per-
rnanent, known to his neighbors, and
profit by the good character for prob
ity, punctualty and loyalty that he
should form AS he prospered and
accumulated wealth he could buy
other lands and pay for them to meet
such necessities as might arise from
the growth of his family. Should he |
be so unfortunate as to lose member |
of his family, he could have a grave
ground in which to bury the dead. !
AS insignificant as this may first ap
pear to the average man, it has more |
Inf tha nf he
characters of people than most any i
other property or incident of their !
their lives. Let tenant lose his |
flrst-born and bury it upon rented |
premises or in "a strange woodland |
or churchyard nearby. His family |
are newcomers in the community, |
and the neighbors, unacquainted with |
them, do not feel at liberty to make |
the calls to solace them that they |
would on older settlers. Grief-strick-
en- over the loss, and heart-broken /
from what appears to be the indiffer- I
ence of the people, the mother cannot
tolerate it another year in that COM
munity There is no inducement save
the child's grave for them to remain
there longer and they decide to leave
it. They move, they drift, they go
from cabin to cabin upon the lands
of others-discontente unsatished,
and continue to move year after year.
As three moves are equal to fire,
these people, once gon wheels, con-
tinue rolling down the hill of disap-
pointment until they believe the hand
of man is against them, and conse-
quently are transformed from good |,
citizens to misanthropes, If not gov
eminent haters.
This IS an extreme picture, but IT
IS the common condition of migratory
tenants. 1t applies as we'll to the
town as to the country tenant. When
he fails to buy home he stands in
his own light, he inf1icts cruel
wound upon his family, brings oil
himself severe burdens OF distress.
loses the opportunity Of better citi-
zenship and fails to educate and refine
his children. In times of sickness.
when rents are due and cannot be
paid, he may not find neighborly IN
diligence and sympathy, but instead
thereof the cold hand of heartless, /
avaricious landlord AT this momen.
of his darkest gloom threats of dis
possession and snar1s and growls OF
bill collectors take the place of neigh
borly visits and the night songs OF T
cheerful friends. These suggestions
must unfold on the one hand the |
many pictures of horror and distress
that must hover over the unsettled
tenant: and on the other hand, they
should furnish the pictures of con- /
tenfment, of happiness and prosperity
that light lip every well regulated /
home
Home. the center of civilization.I
Home, the pivot of constitutional
government. Home, the ark Of safe
tn to happiness, virtue and Christian
ityl Home, the haven Of rest in Bid /
Z, where the higher elements If /
betlkr 111anho hood en- 81 tang III rising /
SPLENDID eksnzples