The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-12
THEY ARE BUSY.
Contractors Making Effort to
Catch Up With Work.
More Skilled WOrkmen Could
Be Used Just Now.
ARE ALL THE RAGE.
Bungalows Are a Popular Style
of Dwelling Here.
Farm Property Is in Great De-
mand in County.

This is the period Of the year when
in real estate circles busin ess is in
clined to become less active. Many
buyers, in order to avoid paying taxes
on the property they purchase, wait
until the new year, and those who con-
template building are just as likely as
not to defer operations until the spring
when the work of construction is not
so likely to be hampered by adverse
weather conditions.
The contractors are now making a
great effort to "catch up in their
work, and they are making excellent
Roadway towards that end. However,
this does not mean that there is not
an immense amount of building going
on at the present or that there is likely
soon to be a dead Iull in construction
activity.
Il was rather expecting" said
Frank Squires, the architect. "to find
more leisure time, but the calls for
plans continue to come in"
Out of Town Buyers.
1--WE have been receiving letters
from all over the country from people
who want to live in Topeka" was the
statement Of a realty man, land it
might be noted that among the in
quirers there are few who desire to
invest purely for speculative purposes.
1.-THE letters we have received from
Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and
western Kansas have been particularly
we nave h6NCT n1O 81
many calls at our office on the part of
those who are interested in property,
but it is not large per cent of them
who are actually buying. In the last
ten days there has not been a day
when we have not shown farm prop
erty to some one"
Another dealer said: at look for a
good business in farm property be-
tween now and spring. The prices of
land in Shawnee county are abnormal
ly low at the present time but are go
ing up, and farmers are realizing that
now is the logical time to buy. There
is a great demand for small tracts of
land from five to twenty-five acres in
extent adjacent to Topeka
due to the election and the APP
proach of the tax paying time said
w. A. Neiswanger. there has been
slight lull in the activity of the mar
ket. A good many people buy before
November l and there is less activity
until towards spring. The law is that
owners must pay the taxes after the
first of November, but until Deem
Der 20 a great many of the owners
compel the buyers to pay them"
THE contractors are not handi-
capped because they can not obtain a
sufficient force of skilled workmen,"
said Frank Spencer, but few more
expert carpenters could he used to adj
vantage"
There are at present few of the
less skilled workmen out of employ
ment in Topeka, but that is not be-
cause there is not a great deal of
building activity in the city, but sim
ply because the contractors do not feel
that it pays to hire an incompetent
class of men.
There is always a demand for men
at the Santa Fe shops, and just now
superintendent John Purcell can
handle an extra force as a result of
the recent fire which destroyed 657
freight cars. One hundred 1aborers
will be put on the job of clearing up
the debris, and then, of course, an in