Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1904 — CURRENT COMMENT [ARTICLE]

CURRENT COMMENT

One hundred and seven thousand persons sought homesteads on the Rosebud Indian reservation in South Dakota this summer, when It was opened for entry at four dollars an acre. As there were less than twenty-seven humdred claims, more than a hundred and tour thousand applicants were disappointed. They sought laud in South Dakota largely because the opening of the reservation to settlement had been widely advertised. It may safely be assumed that tens of thousands of them would b« willing to take up desirable land in any part of the country. Millions of acres of public and private land are awaiting them, and it can be had tor less than four dollars an acre. It is fertile Land, too, and can be brought under cultivation as cheaply as the Indian Lands recently opened. Foil information about all government lands may be obtained from the Department of the Interior in Washington, which gladly assists all homestead seekers. Many States also own land which they are anxious to sell to settlers at a small price. The home seeker who first learns through the State or national land office something about the character of the vacant lands, their nearness to market and the cost of bringing them under cultivation, and then buys where the conditions are most favorable, will seldom bs disappointed.—Youth’s Companion.

The pneumatic tube eventually will become —and that within a few years—the only method of handling letter mail in Large crtie-9 between the railway station and the central postoffice, and between the Latter and the postal sub-sta-tions, scattered over the city. In many cities, the time taken to carry the mail hi wagons between the railway termini and the postofflee is out of all proportion. The pneumatic tube reduces hours to minutes. New York has had such letter conveyance for several years, and recently Chicago formally opened such a system. It embraces 8.9 miles of tubes. The carriers are Aarge cylindrical boxes of leather, metal mounted, which are driven through the tubes by compressed air. Hach carrier may contain 500 letters, and they oan be sent at the rate of six per minute. Ti>at gives 180,000 letters an 4>°lir, or 3,600,000 letters each way in a day off twjenty hours. At present the Chicago postofflee handles a total of 2,000,000 letters and postal cards each day, outgoing and incoming. This is less than one-third of the total capacity of the pneumatic tabes. —Toledo Blade.