The farmer and mechanic., 1910-08-16
How the Preacher Became :. Success
fuI HOmeStcader

For the benefit of any Of my aged
brethren (not too aged-say fifty or
so), who may be tired of precarious
existence as book agents or insurance
solicitors, and to suggest a way of
escape to any clerk, teacher, book
Keeper, cashier. stenOgrapher or other
mere male tOiler who has been crowd
ed to the wall by "WOman's invasion, y
l viii set down just what man with
out reference to age, race. color or
previous condition of serVitude may
do on homestead land in the state of
perpetual sunshine, says William
Justin Harsha in an article entitled
The Preacher and a Potato in the
August Success Magazine" Of
course, if you are SO constituted that
city life is the only life for you; if
as a New Yorker once said to me,
You love the very mud of the Streets -
or if, as a clergyman, the breath Of
your nostrils is to argue learnedly in
your church councils on predestina-
ton or infant salvation or falling
from grace the simple life | am to
describe will have no attractions for
you. If you are able to purchase i'm
proved land-an eighty in Illinois, an
orange grove in California, a peach
orchard in the valley of the Gunnison
or an abandoned farm in New Eng
land-this may be the thing to do.
But if you possess but slender means
or practically none at all Cthe walk
ing is good from the East, and for
health considerations or any other
reason you wish to come to the play
ground of the nation and grow up
with the sagebrush, | viii relate my
experience to you in the hope that
it may be helpful. For we'll ] know
from letters Of inquiry sent to me
and from less direct sources. that
many dealine fellows on whose heads
H..
it blossoms would be far happier if
they We're to follow the sensible trend
Of modern taste and get back to the
soil.
Something more than five years
ago, then, we found ourselves with an
invalid son, two dependent daughters,
a sizable bit of worry and about
twelve hundred dollars in available
cash Ny wifeAhad often said that
to live, just as in the days Of blush
ing maidenhood sch had asseverated
that she never would marry a minister
though every hair OF his head was
hung with a diamond-Which made
it morally certain that both of these
contingencies would fall to her lot
this is to say. minus the diamonds. In
the crisis gripping up she was the
first to suggest q homestead. Accord
ingly, after looking around care
fully, we decided on q hundred and
sixty acres in one of the beautiful
parks Of the mountains Of Colorado.
For this we paid Uncle Sam sixteen
ollars as initial payn ent and the fl
nal payments will amount 20 fourteen
dollars more. We can prove up now
at any time, the proof consisting IN as
suring the government commissioners
| through competent witnesses, that we
| have resided continuously for five
! years on the land and have shown an
! intention to make it our home. The
homesteader is allowed absences OF
not longer than six months at time;
! he is also allowed six months from
| the date of his entering the land to
| actually move upon it. But the days
! of the old too-easy frauds on the gov
ernment in grasping land under pre-
! tense of homesteading it are over.