People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1895 — THE LANDLESS POOR. [ARTICLE]

THE LANDLESS POOR.

WILD RUSH TO THE KICKAPOO COUNTRY. Millions of Acres of Good Landa Still Open for Settlement in the South — How to Get It. The wild rush for homes in Oklahoma and the Strip has just been duplicated in the opening of the Kickapoo country. This is a small strip of land lying near the center of the Indian territory, and containing something like 400 or 500 quarter sections of land. It was thrown open to settlement May--23, on conditions of actual settlement and the payment to the government of $1.50 per acre within five years. It is said that much of the land would not sell in the market for the government price, $1.50. A correspondent from there says "it has not rained in that country for a year, the soil is as hard as a rock, and vegetation is almost as sparse as in the middle of the road.” However true this may be, it is a fact that there are millions of acres in Arkansas alone that offer better inducements for settlement than either the Kickapoo country or the Strip. Other states in the south also offer better inducements, so far as natural resources are concerned, than those places. In nearly every state in the south there

are not only millions of acres of public land still open for settlement, back of the railroads several miles, but land can be had cheap, convenient to railroads and towns. The south has never been advertised like the west, yet it possesses natural advantages which the west does not. The climate is mild and healthful, the winters short, and the summers are not exceedingly hot like most people in the north suppose. We are prompted to write this article from the knowledge that millions of people in the United States are without homes or the hope of homes unless they can be had for the settlement, or at a very low price. The wild rush for the lands In the territory indicates the rapidity with which lands are taken when once open to settlement and known tor the people. We do not exaggerate when we say that millions of people can still get homes in the south, eithei upon government lands or for from $1 to $5 per acre. And no part of the country possesses more undeveloped natural resources or has a brighter future. We have none of the cold, bleak winters of the north or drouths of the west. Its lands are. adapted to a greater variety of grains, vegetables, and fruits than any other country on the globe. Most of the southern states have boards of emigration which will furnish all information desired on application, and letters addressed to the “Board of Immigration” at the capital of any state will likely receive attention. So far as Arkansas is concerned, while we cannot undertake to answer all letters of inquiry, we shall take pleasure in mailing such printed information as we have, or can get, on receipt of two 2 cent stamps. This ar-' tide is not written in tbe Anterest of any railroad company- or of any particular section of the south, but is prompied by the hope that It may assist hundreds and thousands of the homeless to secure land while it is yet out of the hands of the speculator.

W. S. MORGAN.

Hardy, Ark.