ARKANSAS. 



people. The bonds were squandered in the 

 most reckless and inexcusable manner for use- 

 less or unlawful works, and paid out at the 

 rate of about ten to one for what the same 

 work could have been done by private con- 

 tract. These contractors then took the bonds 

 to New York and other cities and sold them 

 f,>r a song to capitalists who were buying at 

 greatly reduced rates Southern securities, 

 knowingly and deliberately taking the chances 

 of a desperate speculation. To say that the 

 purchasers of these bonds were innocent pur- 

 chasers is a travesty on that term. They 

 knew that all Southern securities, issued under 

 the carpet-bag governments, werem%; and 

 especially did they know that these levee bonds 

 were extraordinarily risky. They knew it 

 from the fact that the press of Arkansas from 

 the very start had denounced them as a fraud 

 and a swindle ; and they knew it from the ex- 

 traordinary low price at which they were 

 offered. At all events, all these facts were 

 sufficient to put a prudent man on his guard, 

 and they should not have invested their money 

 in them at all, or certainly not without first 

 closely inquiring into their legality. 



It was charged more seriously that the people 

 of the State, in repudiating these levee bonds, 

 were acting dishonestly and in bad faith. It 

 was urged that the bonds were issued with all 

 the proper formalities of law, and sold in the 

 open market to bona fide purchasers. The 

 funds received were not stolen or squandered 

 by carpet-baggers, but honestly applied to 

 works of great public utility to the State. 

 There was no trickery of any sort pretended, 

 and there is no pretense that such is the fact. 

 The State got the money from the purchasers, 

 and spent it for public purposes. To these as- 

 sertions on the part of the bondholders it was 

 replied on the part of the State thus : 



These bonds were never sold by the State in open 

 market or any other way. ' The State never realized 

 one cent of money out of them, and never handled 

 a dollar in connection with them. They were issued 

 out directly to contractors, by a Commissioner of 

 Public Works appointed for that purpose, who made 

 such contracts as he saw fit with his own pets and 

 favorites, and paid therefor in bonds the price 

 agreed on. The contracts let out by the Commis- 

 sioner (who was a carpet-bagger) were of the most 

 bogus character, the works generally being of no 

 practical utility, and paid for at the most enormous 

 rates. It is supposed that the Commissioner made 

 a percentage on every contract ; and the fact that 

 nobody would take a contract except at the most ex- 

 tWfigant rates is proof that the contractors them- 

 elveii regarded tlie legality of the bonds as of ex- 

 ceedingly doubtful character. Again, railroad com- 

 panies, that under another law were receiving a 

 State bonus of $15,000 per mile for building their 

 roads, would make a contract for building levees, 

 and those they built, or the old ones they utilized, 

 were nothing more nor less than the embankments 

 necessary for their road-beds, for which they re- 

 eived enormous sums. All manner of contracts 

 were let out without any regard to their necessity or 

 utility, and at the most enormous and extravagant 

 .rates. The truth is, that the issuance of these bonds 

 i a perfect carnival of peculation, speculation and 

 fraud. The entire work done for the whole three 



million dollars' worth of bonds is to-day perhaps not 

 worth one thousand dollars. Now, if any of these 

 bonds ever got into the hands of innocent pur- 

 chasers, it was only through the contractors, who were 

 particeps eriminis to the fraud of their issuance, and 

 not through any direct agency of the State. The 

 fact that these bonds never sold on the market for 

 more than twenty cents on the dollar, and for a long 

 time before the decision of the Supreme Court were 

 held on the market as being worth only about five 

 cents on the dollar, is conclusive proof that there 

 was a settled conviction in the public mind that 

 they were illegal and worthless. There never was a 

 more fraudulent and unjust debt contracted by a 

 government in the name of any people than these 

 levee bonds. They were a fraud and a swindle in 

 their inception one of the most contemptible swin- 

 dles in the wide range of villainies that characterized 

 the corrupt rule of carpet-baggers ; issued without 

 the sanction or the authority of the people, whose 

 hands were at the time tied ; disposed of without 

 anything like an adequate consideration, and for 

 works of no practical or permanent utility ; a shame 

 and disgrace to the party that controlled the govern- 

 ment of tlie State ; and for which the tax-payers of 

 Arkansas are no more responsible in law, justice, or 

 equity than the people of Illinois or New \ ork. \V e 

 should never pay one cent of these worthless, bogus 

 obligations ; and we don't intend to do it, regard- 

 less of what our enemies may say or think on the 

 subject. 



The case of Hot Springs, as it is called, ex- 

 cited unusual interest, and became of serious 

 importance to its inhabitants. The town of 

 Hot Springs is located in the southwestern part 

 of Arkansas, about fifty miles from Little Rock. 

 It is located in a wild and picturesque country, 

 nestling in a series of short and narrow valleys 

 inclosed by lofty and irregular hills, constitut- 

 ing a branch of the great Ozark Mountains that 

 divide the waters of the Ouachita and Saline 

 Rivers. It lies mainly in a narrow valley, famil- 

 iarly known as "the Valley," running north 

 and south between two short and precipitous 

 mountains, from the sides of one of which, 

 and on an average height of about eighty feet 

 from the little creek that ripples at its base, 

 flow the famous hot springs that give to the 

 town its name and celebrity. In this narrow 

 valley, through which runs only one and the 

 main street of the town, called Valley Street, 

 are located the principal hotels, bath-houses, 

 stores, shops, and offices. At the lower end 

 of the Valley, the two mountains inclosing it 

 abruptly break off to the east and west, expos- 

 ing a comparatively level country, broken only 

 by gentle and undulating hills, over which the 

 town spreads out to a considerable extent. In 

 this part are located the residences of the mer- 

 chants who do business in the Valley, besides 

 many hotels and boarding-houses, shops, mills, 

 the gas-works, and railroad depot. The resi- 

 dent population of the town is about 4,000, 

 with a transient population, consisting princi- 

 cipally of invalids who come for the benefit of 

 their health, ranging from one to three thou- 

 sand. It is estimated that as many as 20.000 

 people annually visit the Springs in pursuit of 

 pleasure or for the benefit of their health ; and 

 the number is yearly increasing. This town 

 was built up on what was supposed to be pri- 



