rest;
and it certainly looked as if the long-nursed scheme was about to be
realized. In a few years the unearned increment was at least 100 per
cent.; rents also went up surprisingly, and also, alas! the taxes.
Unfortunately, within a year after completion of the building, and while
I was in Caracas, Venezuela, an incendiary, a drunken gambler who had
been running a "game" illicitly in one of the rooms, and who had been
therefore turned out, deliberately used kerosene oil and set fire to the
building. Result, a three-quarters' loss! Luckily I was well insured;
even in the rentals, to the surprise of many people who had never heard
of rental insurance before. The insurance settlement and payment was
effected between myself and the agent in less than half an hour, and
just as soon as I could get at it an architect was working on plans for
a new structure. With the three months' loss on account of my absence,
it was more than a year before the new building was ready for occupancy.
It was, and is, a better-arranged and handsomer one than the old block,
and its total rental is much greater. The town has grown very much and
seems to be permanently established. The building, and my affairs, are
entirely in the hands of a responsible agent; and I am free to go where
inclination calls. Nothing shall be said about the worries, the delays,
the wage disputes, the lawsuits, etc., seemingly always in attendance on
the erection of any building. Well, it is over now, and too sickening to
think about! Nor shall much be said about the frequent calls on the
property-owner to subscribe, to "put up," for any bonus the city may
have decided to offer to secure the placing in "oor toon" of a State
Methodist College, a State Hospital, a State Federal Building; or to
induce a new railroad to build in; not to mention the securing for your
own particular district of the town the site of a new court-house, a
new post-office, etc. etc. The enmity caused by this latter contest is
always bitter. But always anything to boost the town! This little town
actually last year paid a large sum to the champion motor-car racer of
America to give an exhibition in Amarillo. Even a flying-machine meeting
was consummated, one of the first in the whole West.

In this plains country, such as surrounds Amarillo, during the land
boom, immense tracts were bought by speculators, who then proceeded to
dispose of it to farmers and small settlers. They do this on a
methodi