The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1910-08-26
Homestead Fake Plans.

Dustin, Neb., Aug. 22.-Editor
News: The preceding articles on
demonstrating related more to the hon
est and industrious homesteader,
whose intent is not to shirk honest Ia
Dor, but to cultivate and improve his
land and give value received to Uncle
Sam in return for real estate and a
home.
This article will deal with the fake
homesteader, man or woman. married
or single. who tries TO cheat the govern
ment. or who comes as near as the
law will let him, and not lose his right
or land in the federal courts on charge
of collision or intent to violate the
homestead laws.
The least of these offenders is the
| homestead bum, the rural hobo, who
does not really understand his Obliga-
| tions, but wants piece of land free,
without paying the required price
| self-denial and hard labor. He does
not know there is such a thing as
thieving from his government. He is
simply following a lazy, sluggish in
stinct, unframed and ignorant, to get
something for nothing. That he owes
his country debt for furnishing him
| land never enters his mind. Among
these rustic buns are as many women
as men-and they are usually unmar-
| ried. A homestead bum files on
piece of land and puts up shanty,
in size and workmanship the pattern of
| Sta Hiru nd
up. Ii will barely hold a cot, a chair
and mimic stove for frying eggs and
pancakes. But few meals are eaten
in the shanty. The bum does days
work here and there, eating and sleep
ing with the neighbors, catching rides
to town, and enjoying himself at in
tervals by the day or week.
One of these women takers filed on
a homestead in Brown county a few
years ago. Time went on. The dry
goods box" held down the land A
few seeds were planted each spring
A man was hired to pillow twenty-five
acres or more. He ran a furrow the
required length, skipped five rods or
more, and plowed another furrow.
Seed corn was listed in the row. She
let the place to pasture to the man
for putting up two rows of wire fence
on two sides. She expects him to
swear on the day of final proof that
she has so many acres under cultiva.
ton" and so much invested in i'm.
provements. She is bright and physi-
cally strong, able to earn, clear, from
$50 to $45 per month, the net income
of which she could invest in improve
ments. But she dawdles away her
time, coming and going to town, eat
ing off the neighbors, and has not
spent enough in three years to pay for
her living on the claim solid month.
She stays all night in the shanty once
or twice in several months. She is
fighting contest suits, cumming her
way as much as a railroad hobo and
keeping industrious applicants from
improving the land.
Men Takers, Too.
There are men today in Nebraska,
able bodied, good natured, well inten-
toned fellows, who live the same life
as the women fake homesteader. and
who spend their small calibre assid-
iously planning how TO get along at
the least possible expense and how
to avoid performing honest labor.
They are not built on a model big
enough to defraud the public like a
Morgan or a Rockefeller, but they de-
liver the goods in intent as far as their
meagre abilities and laziness will al
low. They get a meal and lodging
wherever they can and debit it to ex-
pense account.
Another lady homesteader has held
down her claim for four and One-half
years, by moving onto the land a
shack not much bigger than a pine
MI hnr N hnr -.