Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1908-08-08
WAS ONLY PAPER TOWN
AN EAST TEXAS CITY
ST. LOUIS BUYERS ARE GREATLY
DISAPPOINTED IN A TEXAS
INVESTMENT.
Trip Made 10 Investigate
Hotel Man Found Option Had Ex-
pired and on His Return Forced
Promoters to Disgorge.
Was Disappointed.
From St. Louis Globe-Democrat:

From st. Louis Globe-Democrat:
Michael Kanter, proprietor of the
Green Tree Hotel, 30S South Second
street, returned yesterday from a ten
days trip to Texas, where he went to
investigate a land scheme in which
| he and family and several of his rela-
tives and friends, on his advice, in
vested $1,000. When seen yesterday
he was indignant at what he termed
a gigantic fake that he said had been
worked on him and his friends by the
enterprising agent of a railroad con-
struction company.
According to the story told by Mr..
Kanter, the land agent was man
whose imaginative and descriptive
powers were unlimited. In his enthu-
siasm he had pictured this embryotic
city as modern Utopia, beautifully
located in East Texas, where there
ore in the United States. When lots
in the heart of this thriving metropo-
lis were offered at $3.50 each, with ten
acres of fertile farm land and few
other things thrown in with each lot,
the victims money fairly burned in
his pocket and he fastened to invest
in choice lots for himself, his son-in-
law, Sam Goldstein, ST., and his grand
son, Sammy Goldstein, Jr.
Mr.. Kanter was SO delighted that,
after securing the interests of his own
family, he induced a number of his
hotel guests to go into the scheme. |
gag upon the business iuGgN
of their friend, Kanter, seven of his
guests gave Kanter carte blanche"
as to the amount to be invested. One
man was willing to go in as much as
$4,000. The rapidity with which the
money came in excited Kanter's sense
of responsibility in the matter, and he
determined to take a trip to Texas
and investigate the scheme for him.
SELF
Upon his arrival at the proposed
town site all his enthusiasm and ex-
pectations vanished. No automobile
met him at the railroad station, as he
had been led to believe. The 500 pop
ulation, churches, schools and other
improvements, all vanished, and moth |
ing appeared but a barren waste, re-
lieved by three small stores, whose |
proprietors had arrived ahead of the |
town and its population. Suspecting
him of being one of the officers of the |
company, they were about to raid |
him, when he made known the fact |
that he was a fellow-victim. They in
formed him that the company did not |
own the land it was selling" but had
secured an option on it, which had ex-
pired. Not finding the railroad, Mr..
Kanter hired a horse and buggy and
went in search of it. After driving
twenty miles he met the attorney for
the railroad, who told him the railroad
would be built as soon as the pro-
moters secured the concessions of
land and money necessary to COM
plete the line.
After Tearing enough to satisfy him.
self that the scheme was a gigantic
fake, Mr.. Kanter returned to st.
Louis, and, by threatening to prose-
cute the land agent criminally, COM
PEELED him to disgorge. The latter
not only refunded the money paid by
Kanter and his friends for lots, but
also paid Kanter $50 for the expenses
Of his trip to Texas.
Mr.. Kanter was registered at Pal
estine' hotel on the first day of the
present month.