Vol. LXX. No. 4109. NEW YORK, JULY 29, 1911. weekly, $i.oo per year 
“THE LAND OF HEART’S DELIGHT.” 
A Sucker in Southwest Texas. 
Part I. 
I have lived over three years 184 miles south of 
San Antonio, Texas, in the famous Artesian belt 
country, where real-estate agents are inducing people 
from all over the United States and parts of Canada 
to buy land. The inducements to secure purchasers 
are so misleading and the disappointments so griev¬ 
ous in many instances, that the actual experience ac¬ 
quired by over three years’ residence in this so-called 
“Land of Heart’s Delight” ought to be of some inter¬ 
est to anyone contemplating an investment in this 
country. I was raised on the frontier of Iowa and 
have almost all my life kept on the outskirts of civili¬ 
zation, and have helped to develop the successes and 
the 'failures of several 
new countries. At the 
age of 55, being badly 
afflicted with catarrh, 
living in a high altitude 
of New Mexico, where 
the cold winds during 
seven months of the year 
pinched harder and 
harder as I grew older, 
and hearing of the heal¬ 
ing virtues of the Gulf 
winds, I decided to move 
to a country where I 
would not be obliged to 
spend all I made in 
Summer for clothes to 
wear and fuel to burn in 
Winter. 
FIRST APPEAR¬ 
ANCES.—My wife and 
I arrived in Starr Co., 
Tex., November 1, 1907, 
with $5,000, two fairly; 
good teams, household 
goods and some other 
property. The country 
had had a fine rain 
about two weeks before, 
and the fields certainly 
looked lovely. A real 
estate man very kindly 
got interested in us, pro¬ 
cured a two-seated car¬ 
riage and proceeded to 
show us around. He 
showed us beautiful 
fields of snap beans just 
beginning to yield, a large patch 1 of ripening tomatoes, 
fields of cabbage recently transplanted for Winter 
cabbage, large seed beds of the famous Bermuda 
onions, to be transplanted in November and Decem¬ 
ber, orange trees three years from transplanting with 
about 25 oranges nearly ripe on each tree, beautiful 
roses in bloom, and other flowers. We visited the 
flowing wells, some of which were flowing nicely and 
others were being pumped by windmills or by gasoline 
engines. Several of these had fine reservoirs filled 
with water, some of which covered about three acres 
of ground and had many varieties of wild ducks on 
them. We had read of these things, and that the 
average rainfall here was about 36 inches, and after 
observing the vast amount of mesquit trees, prickly 
pear and other vegetation growing on most of the un¬ 
cleared land, we concluded that it must be true. Wc 
saw that the soil seemed very rich and the land lay 
nearly level, just sloping enough to drain. While we 
were enjoying these sights the gentleman was telling 
us about the famous crops that were produced here, of 
Bermuda onions, cabbage, beans, watermelons, sor¬ 
ghum, and other crops, and especially that it was one 
of the finest countries for cotton, in the whole United 
States. He also told us of the great advantage of the 
cheap Mexican labor, to do the truck farming and to 
raise and pick the cotton. He did not forget to tell 
us that he had been in California, in the orange and 
vegetable producing localities, where land was worth 
several hundred dollars per acre and that, in his opin¬ 
ion, this country was far ahead of that. Well, the 
sights that we saw and the talk that we heard were* 
enough to deceive “the very elect.” 
AN UNLUCKY SELECTION.—We priced various 
tracts of land in or near town, selected 7j^ acres in the 
suburbs and bargained for it at $500. It was all in 
the wild state, densely covered with mesquite timber, 
brush, and prickly pear, so we could only see three 
sides of it. The agent told us that there was a Mexi¬ 
can buried on one corner of it, but when we went to 
look at the place we found 10 or 12 graves, and a few 
months afterward when the land was cleared we 
found two graves on another corner. In this case we 
got more than we bargained for. The former owner 
had a written agreement to the effect that as soon as 
the cemetery land was cleared and fenced, he would 
have the bodies removed, but this had been done about 
a year, and _still they were there. It took about 18 
months to get this done, and then I had to attend 
to it myself, but the former owner paid the cash ex¬ 
pense of the removal. We selected two 40-acre tracts, 
on our first day’s inspection, and agreed to buy them 
at $52.50 per acre. This land had had the timber and 
the brush cut and piled, the grubbing done, and there 
was about 100 cords of wood on the land that the 
agent informed us was worth $2.50 per cord, but in 
fact was not worth 75 cents per cord. We deposited 
$2,000 in the bank to be paid as first payment on this 
land as soon as the vendor deposited a good title for 
us, but the trade was to be consummated in 30 days. 
Within two weeks from the time of our making this 
contract, there was a financial panic on, and banks 
refusing to pay drafts most everywhere. We had 
paid for our 7j4 acres, and on this we intended to 
make our home, and immediately had the clearing 
begun and began to build a house. We began to be 
panicky too about the other land trade. Like the 
nigger’s pups, we began to get our eyes open. We 
found that we could do 
nothing without a well, 
and that would cost 
about $1,200, and it 
would be impossible to 
improve our home prop¬ 
erty and pay for those 
other forties. I went to 
the agent and told him 
that the money panic had 
changed things to such 
an extent, that we 
would very much rather 
not take but one of those 
forties and requested 
to be let out of half the 
contract. Well, he just 
could not, as it would 
be such a disappoint¬ 
ment to the other man 
selling the land, and he 
lived in California. I 
did not sleep very well 
for thinking about how 
badly we were in for it., 
but waited patiently for 
the 30 days to expire, 
and the next day after 
they did expire I anx¬ 
iously asked the cashier 
if the title had been de¬ 
posited and he informed 
me it had not. Glory, 
but I was happy! I 
sent for the real estate 
men who' had sold us 
the land to come to the 
bank, and gently broke 
the news to them, that as the title was not there 
and the 30 days was past, I did not have to take the 
forties. The agent who had done the trading then 
wanted me to take one 40, but I kindly but finally 
declined. Those forties are not sold yet. 
STILL MORE EXPERIENCE.—People usually 
want to buy all the land they think they can pay 
for, when they are shown around and listen to the 
agents’ talk about the wonderful products, and how 
soon they are going to raise the price of land $10 
per acre, but if they would just take the time to hire 
a team, ride around the country and talk to the old 
settlers who are not in the land-selling business, they 
might find out a few facts upon which to form a very 
different opinion. As soon as I got moved into our 
house I began to look for a well driller to drill for 
me, for I was hauling water a mile from the town 
IRRIGATING THE FARM TEAM DURING “THE HOT WAVE.” Fig. 292. 
