I Say Second
Choice, Because The Preemptor Has Had The First Choice Long Ago, And
It May Be Before The Land Was Surveyed.
What I would recommend to
speculators is to purchase in some good town sites.
Buy in two or
three, and if one or two happen to prove failures, the profits on the
other will enable you to bear the loss. I know of a man who invested
$6000 at St. Paul six years ago. He has sold over $80,000 worth of the
land, and has as much more left. This is but an ordinary instance. The
advantage of buying lots in a town arises from the rapid rise of the
value of the land, the ready market, and withal the moderate prices at
which they can be procured during the early part of its history.
To such persons as have a desire to come West, and are not inclined to
be farmers, and who have not capital enough to engage in mercantile
business, there is sufficient employment. A new country always opens
avenues of successful business for every industrious man and woman;
more kinds even than I could well enumerate. Every branch of mechanics
needs workmen of all grades; from the boy who planes the rough boards
to the head workman. Teaming affords good employment for young men the
year round. The same may be said of the saw-mills. A great deal of
building is going on constantly; and those who have good trades get
$2.50 per day. I am speaking, of course, of the territory in general.
One of the most profitable kinds of miscellaneous business is
surveying. This art requires the services of large numbers; not only
to survey the public lands, but town sites and the lands of private
individuals. Labor is very high everywhere in the West, whether done
by men, women, or children; even the boys, not fourteen years old,
who clean the knives and forks on the steamboats, get $20 a month and
are found. But the best of it all is, that when a man earns a few
dollars he can easily invest it in a piece of land, and double his
money in three months, perhaps in one month. One of the merchant
princes of Boston, the late Col. T. H. Perkins, published a notice in
a Boston paper in 1789, he being then 25, that he would soon embark on
board the ship Astrea for Canton, and that if any one desired to
commit an "adventure" to him, they might be assured of his exertions
for their interests. The practice of sending " adventures" "beyond the
seas" is not so common as it was once; and instead thereof men invest
their funds in western prizes. But let me remark in regard to the fact
I relate, that it shows the true pioneer spirit. Col. Perkins was a
pioneer. His energy led him beyond his counting-room, and he reaped
the reward of his exertions in a great fortune.
I have now a young man in my mind who came to a town ten miles this
side of St. Paul, six months ago, with $500. He commenced trading, and
has already, by good investments and the profits of his business,
doubled his money. Everything that one can eat or wear brings a high
price, or as high as it does in any part of the West. The number of
visitors and emigrants is so large that the productions of the
territory are utterly inadequate to supply the market. Therefore large
quantities of provisions have to be brought up the river from the
lower towns. At Swan River, 100 miles this side of St. Paul, pork is
worth $85. Knowing that pork constitutes a great part of the
"victuals" up this way, though far from being partial to the article,
I tried it when I dined at Swan River to see if it was good, and found
it to be very excellent. Board for laboring men must be about four
dollars a week. For transient guests at Crow Wing it is one dollar a
day.
I have heard it said that money is scarce. It is possible. It
certainly commands a high premium; but the reason is that there are
such splendid opportunities to make fortunes by building and buying
and selling city lots. A man intends that the rent of a house or store
shall pay for its construction in three years. The profits of
adventure justify a man in paying high interest. If a man has money
enough to buy a pair of horses and a wagon, he can defy the world.
These are illustrations to show why one is induced to pay interest. I
do not think, however, money is "tight." I never saw people so free
with their money, or appear to have it in so great abundance.
There is one drawback which this territory has in common with the
greater part of the West, and in fact of the civilized world. It is
not only a drawback, but a nuisance anywhere; I mean drinking or
whiskey shops. The greater proportion of the settlers are temperate
men, I am sure; but in almost every village there are places where the
meanest kind of intoxicating liquor is sold. There are some who sell
liquor to the Indians. But such business is universally considered as
the most degraded that a mean man can be guilty of. It is filthy to
see men staggering about under the influence of bad whiskey, or of any
kind of whiskey. He who sends a young husband to his new cabin home
intoxicated, to mortify and torment his family; or who sells liquor to
the uneducated Indians, that they may fight and murder, must have his
conscience if he has any at all cased over with sole leather. Mr.
Gough is needed in the West.
Minnesota is not behind in education. Ever since Governor Slade, of
Vermont, brought some bright young school mistresses up to St. Paul
(in 1849), common school education has been diffusing its precious
influences.
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