100 CHEAP LAND. HIGH BATE OF INTEEEST. 



and Norwegians. From this point there has been a water 

 connection formed with the Mississippi. 



I was glad to learn that the Scotch settlers bear a high 

 character in the west. They and the Germans are the most 

 industrious, prudent, and successful. The Irish are met with 

 everywhere, but generally improvident, hewers of wood and 

 drawers of water, hanging on about the towns, doing all the 

 dirty and hard work, and the menial offices at the hotels. The 

 English or Scotch are never met with in such situations, the 

 Germans often, the Irish and Negroes always. 



There is abundance of land to be had in Wisconsin. I 

 was offered 6000 acres of prairie, 300 miles west of Lake Mich- 

 igan, on a river which flows into the Mississippi at Lake Pepin, 

 for 125. an acre ; and woodland, near the north-western shore 

 of Lake Michigan, may be had at the same price. Farther 

 north and west, there are thousands of acres to be had at 5s. 

 an acre. But these out of the way places are only seemingly 

 cheap. The cost of transport, so long as there are no railways, 

 renders the crops of the settler valueless. A man will make a 

 better bargain who pays 505. an acre for his land, when he can 

 sell his first crop for much more than the difference of price. 



The interest of money lent on mortgage of real estate, is 

 from 12 to 18 per cent. There is no doubt the risk of having 

 the property thrown on one's hands, but the legitimate profits 

 in this vast new country afford a very high rate of interest. The 

 credit of the State has been also somewhat damaged by the 

 shameful conduct of its public men. I had heard rumours* of 

 this before, but did not believe it till it was proved to me on 

 the spot. The governor of the time, and the majority of both 

 branches of the State legislature, were convicted, on their own 

 confession before a committee of investigation, of having been 

 systematically bribed by a railway company, who thereby se- 

 cured a vast grant of public land ! The governor got 20,000, 



