invested in United States bonds or the bonds of this and other states, and that the interest 

 thereon should be forever dedicated to the support of the public schools. Including the bal- 

 ance due on contract lands, the State school fund aggregates, in round numbers, $3,500,- 

 000, on which the annual interest is approximately $ 1 60,000. In addition to this sum 

 about one-fifth of the revenue derived from State taxation is applied to educational purposes. 

 Each district is separately taxed for the erection and maintenance of its school buildings. 

 The result is an efficient educational system comparing favorably with that of any other 

 State. There are country schools wherever five pupils reside within a district; graded 

 schools in the towns; one high school at least in every county, culminating with 

 the State University, State Normal School and Agricultural College at Reno. Many of 

 the recently-erected public school buildings are models of their kind. No people have 

 evidenced greater sincerity and generosity in supporting and improving the efficiency of 

 their public school system than the citizens of this arid-land commonwealth. 



Roads and Highways. 



The roads and highways of the State are kept up by the counties, and while varying 

 from poor to excellent, have a good general average. The dry climate is advantageous 

 to good roads, and it may be stated as practically true that all roads in Nevada are more 

 or less satisfactory, except where there are occasional stretches of sand, and excluding 

 some little-traveled mountain roads. A "good-roads" movement is on in the State, and 

 many counties are spending considerable sums in road improvement. The State itself is 

 engaged in constructing a fine highway from the California to the Utah lines, with convict 

 labor. The system is voluntary instead of compulsory and is giving good results. 



Political System. 



The State and counties are governed by a thoroughly organized political system, 

 preserving law, order and good government. One is ordinarily as safe in Nevada as he 

 would be anywhere else. Election laws are stringently enforced protecting the purity 

 of the ballot. The police system is effective and the State's judiciary is of a high order 

 of ability and probity. 



The People of Nevada. 



The tourist who seeks for types such as **Alkali Ike*' in present-day Nevada, may 

 find such in remote places, as well as other opportunities for frontier diversion. It is a 

 big State, with a population that is essentially cosmopolitan, and human nature is here 

 found in all its characteristics from the highest to the lowest. But social lines are drawn 

 as clearly in Nevada as elsewhere. One may find about any kind of society he seeks, 

 and the choice is not forced upon him. He will find the substantial majority of the 

 people wholesome, temperate, hospitable, generous and self-reliant. A people, in the 

 main, accustomed to the comforts and many of the luxuries, who travel much and are 

 well informed. Their home and social life is as refined and the conventions of good 

 breeding observed as habitually as anywhere else. 



CHAPTER III 



Opportunities in Nevada Requiring Capital Carey Act Reclamation Projects Subdividing and 

 Colonizing of Large Ranches Industrial Openings 



The National Government granted the State of Nevada, under what is known as the 

 Carey Act, for its selection from any part of the public domain within the State two 

 million acres of land. The lands subject to selection must be "desert in character." 

 That is to say, they cannot be forest or mineral lands but must essentially be reclaimable 

 arable lands. 



Excluding the railroad land grants, forest reserves and all other lands held in private 



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