The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1912-05-15
CHAPTER XVl.-continued.

you see, ! give the value to the
iand by building the roads. Then l
sell the land and get that value back,
and after that, there's the roads, all
carrying folks back and forth n
earning big money. Can't lose. And
there's all sorts of millions in 1t. I'm
going to get my hands on some OF that
water front and the tide.lands. rake
between where I'm going to build my
pier and the old pier. It's shallow wa
ter. | can fill and dredge and put IN
a system Of docks that will handle
hundreds of ships. San Franciscos
water front is congested. No
room for ships. With hundreds OF
ships loading and unloading on this
side right into the freight cars OF
three big railroads. factories will
start up over here instead Of crossing
to San Francisco. That means factory
sites. That means me buying In the
factory sites before anybody guesses
the cat is going to jump, much less,
which way. Factories mean tens OF
thousands of workingmen and their
families. That means more houses
and more land, and that means me-
for III be there to sell them the land.
Then there's the water. I'll come
pretty close to owning the watershed.
Why not the waterworks too? There's
two water companies in Oakland now.
fighting like cats and dogs and both
about broke. What a metropolis needs
is a good water system. They can't
give it. They're stick-in-the-muds. I'll
gobble them up and deliver the right
article to the city. There's money
there. too-money everywhere. Every.
thing works in with everything else.
Each improvement makes the value OF
everything else jump up. It's people
that are behind the value. The big
ger the crowd that herds in one place,
the more valuable Is the real estate.
And this is the very place for a crowd
to herd. Look at it. Just look at 1t!
You could never find a finer site for a
great city. All 1t needs Is the herd.
and I'll stampede a couple Of hundred
thousand people in here inside two
years. And what's more, it won't be
one of these wildcat land booms. 1t
will be legitimate. Twenty years
from now there'Il be a million people
on this side the bay. Another thing
is hotels. There isn't a decent one in
the town. I'll build a couple of up-to-
date ones that'll make them sit up and
take notice. l won't care II they don't
pay for years. Their effect will more
than give me my money back out Of
the other holdings. And, oh, yes. I'm
going to plant eucalyptus. millions Of
them, on these hills"
But how are you going to do it?"
Dede asked. You haven't enough
money for all that you've planned"
I've thirty million. and If | need
more l can borrow on the land and
other things. Interest on mortgages
won't anywhere near eat up the in
crease in land values. and I'll be sell.
ing land right along"
In the weeks that followed, Day.
light was a busy a 1t meant quick
work on a colossal scale, for Oakland
and the adjacent country was not
slow to feel the tremendous buying.
But Daylight had the ready cash and
it had always been his policy to
strike quickly. Before the others
could get the warning Of the boom, he
quietly accomplished many things. At
the same time that his agents were
purchasing corner lots and entire
blocks in the heart Of the business
section and the waste lands for fac
tory sites, Daylight vas rushing fran
chises through the city council, cap
turing the two exhausted water com.
panies and the eight or nine indie
pendent street railways, and getting
his grip on the Oakland Creek and
the bay tide-lands for his dock system
The tide-lands had been in litigation
for years, and he took the bull by the
norns-buying out the private owners
and at the same time leasing from the
city fathers. By the time that Oak
land was aroused by this u~nprecedent,
ed activity in every direction and was
questioning excitedly the meaning OF
1t. Daylight secretly bought the chief
Republican newspaper and the chief
Democratic organ. and moved boldly
into his new Offices. Of necessity, they
we're on a large scale. occupying four
floors of the only modern office build
ing in the town-the only building
that wouldn't be torn down later on
as Daylight put it. There was de