MICHIGAN ROADS AXD FORESTS. 



BUY OREGON TIMBER. 



Horatio X. Hovey. of Detroit, a former lum- 

 berman of Muskegon and still president of 

 the Muskegon Savings Bark, has just bought 

 a large tract of Oregon timber in partnership 

 with T. C. Starret. also formerly of Muskegon, 

 now living in Detroit. It was one of the big 

 timber deals of the Mason at Portland. The 

 tract comprise* 'Jn.OOO acres along the Siuslaw 

 River, in L:u:e County. It is valued at about 

 m acre. 



The timber is of fine quality Douglas fir, 

 and nearly all of it clear. Although not as 

 tall as Washington cedar t othe north or Cali- 

 fornia redwood to the south, it stands 200 feet 

 high, and the trees vary from twenty inches to 

 five feet in diameter. 



The Douglas fir is a darker wood than white 



pine. It has a greater tensile strength and is 



especially adapted for bridge timbers, sills and 



-. and the better quality is also used as 



finishing lumber. 



The Siuslaw River, where the tract is situ- 

 au-d. lies about 130 miles south of Portland. 

 There is no railroad there at present, but it is 

 expected that ore will be put through within 

 a year or so in order to connect the towns 

 along the coast. Most of the lumber from the 

 Hovey-Starret tract will probably, however, be 

 shipped out by water, as there is a good harbor 

 at the mouth of the river. Two or three mills 

 are already operating there. The new tract 

 lies about ten miles from the mouth and ex- 

 tends twenty- live miles farther up the river. 



It has been purchased, however, as an in- 

 vestment, as Mr. Hovey and Mr. Starret are 

 rot at present in the manufacturing business, 

 only buying and selling timber. 



'If I were again to go into manufacturing 

 lumber." said Mr. Ilnvey. "I know of no place 

 I would rather be in than Portland. It is a 

 fine city ami the lumber business in that re- 

 gion has a very good outlook. Besides ship- 

 ping some of their product to the east and a 

 good deal to California, they also have a large 

 field in Asiatic ports. When I was out there 

 two boats left Portland one day carrying 3,000,- 

 000 feet of lumber for China." 



Mr. Hovey said that it is only within the 

 last few years that timber lands have advnced. 

 The tract which he and Mr. Starret have just 

 bought was homesteaded five to eight years 

 ago. Mr. Hovey was in the west three weeks, 

 going over the property with Mr. Starret, and 

 returned a week ago. 



SAVINGS BANK IDEA. 



The savings bank idea was born just a cen- 

 tury ago. The man who was responsible for 

 the birth of great institutions was Samuel 

 Whitbread, a member of the British parlia- 

 ment, who during the session of that body in 

 February. 1807, outlined what he believed to 

 be a workable system of safe and profitable in- 

 vestments of the savings of the poor. He 

 told of various isolated attempts to take care 

 of the hoardings of working girls; of schemes 

 devised by country parsons for investing the 

 savings of their parshioners in such a way as 

 to secure for them a return for their thrift. 

 Out of these erratic undertakings he was cer- 

 tain that a great national S3-stem could be de- 

 vised; and he argued at length the reasons for 

 his belief. 



That address of Samuel Whitbread's a cen- 

 tury ago was the beginning of the modern 

 savings bark, a system which, successfully 

 carried to its logical conclusion, has resulted 

 in there being on deposit today in institutions 

 for savings in the United States alone more 

 than three billion dollars a sum equal to 

 more than three times the total indebtedness 

 of the United States or to one-half the total 

 assessed valuatipn of Xew York state, the 

 richest of America commonwealths. 



Whitbread's proposal was favorably re- 

 ceived. Savings banks, open to the whole 

 general public as depositors, began forthwith 

 to be organized throughout the length and 

 breadth of Great Britain. Particularly in 

 thrifty Scotland where the rame of Henry 



Duncan, a clergyman of Dumfries, is associated 

 with the correct working out of various prac- 

 tical details, the institution that watches over , 

 the pennies while the pounds take care of i 

 themselves was early developed into an im- 

 portant fature of the national life. 



Into Ireland, too, the new scheme, of banks 

 for the provident penetrated quickly though 

 the Irish institutions for savings, such as the 



' celebrated one at Stillorgan. founded in 1815 ' 

 by Rev. John Reade, had for many years a i 

 peculiar arrangement -by which each deposi- 

 tor's account was kept separate. The Irish* 

 depositors at the outset were so suspicious 

 that they felt their money had been stolen ; 

 unless they could at will see in a box bearing 

 in the individual's name either the coins and ' 

 bills he had deposited or the stocks and bonds 

 which had been bought with these. 



Savings banks, as all the world knows, grew ; 

 rapidly into popularity in Great Britain, until. 



j about the middle of the nineteenth century, 

 special departments for handling ordinary 

 savings as well as annuities and life insurance 

 were taken over by the British postoffice. 



The newly formed American republic was 

 only a little behind the mother country in 



; adopting this beneficient scheme for the en- ] 

 couragement of habits of thrift and industry 

 among its plain people. As early as Xovem- : 

 ber, 1816, the Philadelphia Savings Fund As- 



, sociation began doing business even before it 

 had been incorporated. The first savings bank 

 to be legally empowered to open its doors in ' 

 the United States was the Provident Institu- : 

 tion for Savings in Boston which a number 



i of philanthropically inclined gentlemen of that 

 city started shortly after their articles of in- 

 corporation were taken out on December 15, 

 181G. 



Modest success was achieved by the Provi- 

 dent from the start, and -by numerous other ! 

 banks which were opened shortly after, though 

 it was not expected that any institution could 

 handle the very large aggregate of deposits 

 that are now common in all our great cities. 

 James Savage, for example, secretary of the 

 Provident Institution and its guiding genius i 

 of the early years, once announced that it 

 would be time to wind up the bank's affairs 

 if ever the deposits should reach a total of 

 $10,000,000. Xo institution, he thought, could 

 possibly handle so much money as that to a ; 

 profit. Yet in Xew York city the Bowery 

 Savings Bank, the biggest of all institutions 

 of its kind, has today deposits aggregating 

 in the neighborhood of $100,000,000, and there 

 are in every city of note in the country sav- 

 ings banks that have exceeded the limit Mr. 

 Savage imposed. 



The stability of the American savings banks 

 has frequently been commented upon by stu- 

 dents of financial history. At the outset their 

 field of investment was not limited as it is 

 now and there were consequently some fail- 

 ures during the panic of 1837. But even then 

 the losses to depositors were comparatively 

 small, and in the succeeding periods of finan- j 

 cial disaster very few institutions for savings I 

 have failed. It has been stated that in Mas- 

 sachusetts, which relatively to its population | 

 has always been the best supporter of the : 

 savings banks among American common- 

 wealths, the losses in the first sixty years 

 amounted to less than $75,000 during years 

 in which more than $750,000,000 were handled. > 

 In other words not a tenth part of a mill on 



' each dollar deposited was lost and this, too, j 

 in an era when the proper state regulation of j 



I such institutions was not so well understood 



; as now. 



THREE SPLENDID NOVELS 



THE MYSTICS. 



By Catherine Cecil Thurston. 



Author of "The- Masquerader." 

 A young man whose fanatic uncle wills 

 away the family estate fo a secret brother- 

 hood, discovers the secrets of the society, and 

 plans a daring coup to recover his possession. 

 He appears as the Mystic Prophet, whose advent 

 is daily awaited, and is accepted as the head 

 of the secret order. In this precarious situa- 

 tion the hero falls in love, and at the peril of 

 life and all, boldly chooses to play the lover's 

 part. Romance and mystery are delightfully 

 mingled throughout. The tale has the same 

 persistent excitement and breathless fascina- 

 tion which marked "The Masquerader." 

 Illustrated. Price $1.25. 



THE GIANT'S STRENGTH. 



By Basil King. 



Author of "The Steps of Honor, Etc. ' 

 The "Giant" is no less than America's rich- 

 est man, Paul Trafford. who has built up a 

 great monopoly. Among the many competi- 

 tors whom Trafford in earlier years had forced 

 to the wall was a mine-owner named Winship. 

 Winship's son has grown up. a poor young 

 artist, and by chance he meets at Monte Carlo 

 Paula Trafford. the daughter of th/ man who 

 wrought his father's ruin. Winship is engaged 

 to paint her portrait, and during the sittings 

 at his Paris studio, a romance begins which 

 runs a gamut of intensely dramatic scenes and 

 thrilling situations. 

 Price $1.50. 



SAMPSON, ROCK OF WALL 

 STREET. 



By Edwin Lefevre. 



Author of "Wall Street Stories," Etc. 



In Wall Street Mr. Lefevre has found all 

 that goes to the making of the most exciting 

 kind of a story of love and adventure. There 

 is an American girl and American millions to 

 be won, and the hero makes a daring fight for 

 them. 



The feverish life of Wall Street and the 

 ''wheels within wheels" of the stock market 

 operations have never been so graphically re- 

 vealed. The reader watches the fascinating 

 game from the inside view-point of one of the 

 great captains of finance. The story is packed 

 with incident, and culminates in a tremendous 

 climax such as only Wall Street could produce. 



Illustrated. Price $1.50. 

 HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers, New York 



Genesee township, Genesee county, has voted 



i to raise $400 to be used in graveling the roads. 



| to be apportioned $100 to each of the four road 

 di-iricts. in addition to the good roads tax. 

 Also a tax of $1.50 on a thousand valuation 

 for the good roads fund. It is hoped that by 

 tin- system now in use in the township the 



i roads will be in much 'better shope than in the 



past. 



I Can Sell Your Real Estate or Business 



NO MATTER WHERE LOCATED 



Properties and Business of all kinds sold 

 quickly for cash in all parts of the United 

 States. Don't wait. Write today describing 

 what you have to sell and give cash price on 

 same. 



If You Want to Buy 



any kind of Business or Real Estate anywhere, 

 at any price, write me your requirements. I 

 can save you time and money. 



DAVID P. TAFF, 



The Land Man, 



415 Kansas Avenue, 

 TOPEKA, KANSAS. 



