Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1893 — A Shrewd Easterner. [ARTICLE]

A Shrewd Easterner.

“There are devices practiced in the far West,” observed an Omaha man recently, “for making money; devices that appeal to the enterprising and ingenious citizen, that are, by a long way, more ingenious than commendable. “Every now and then,” he went on, “a shrewd Easterner sees an unlookedfor opportunity to get ahead in the West. He generally intends to remain just long enough to got a big bank account and then to return home and spend his money. Oftener than not, ho does not return, and the West, particularly tho ‘new West,’ is recruited with just such Eastern adventurers. “There is a man living on a claim near tho frontier town of Hecla, Wyoming, whoso career so far has been pre-eminontly successful. Less than a year ago ho took out a land claim for six hundred acres. He had his eye upon the land adjoining his own, where an old frontiersman lived along with his daughter.

“The shrewd Easterner gained the favor of the old man by winning his way into tho daughter’s affections and afterward marrying her. He thon put his father-in-law into the way of stealing shoep that had wandered from neighboring ranches, claiming that thoy were communistic property. Both were arrestod, as tho ‘business’ tnan knew and intended they should be. Tho latter then turned State’s evidonco and was ret free.

“That was part of tho well-formulat-od scheme. While his father-in-law was serving out his sentence in prison tho Easterner jumped tho old man's claim, hired an unscrupulous neighbor to run away with his wifo and obtained a divorce on the ground of desertion. “Ho now smokos the pipe of peace as lie surveys his broad acres and congratulates himself upon his shrewdness. Ho will probably return East somo day. No doubt ho'll poso as a Western cattle king or something of tho sort when ho does.”