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LAND SPECULATIONS AT THE WEST. – A native of Massachusetts thirteen years ago sold a lot in St. Louis, Mo., for $1,500. Today it having become a business center, it cannot be bought for $400,000. Another gentleman went to Kansas in 1854, taking with him $7,000. The property he has acquired there from this nucleus is now worth $200,000. Property in Leavenworth which sold in 1854 for $300 or $400, is now worth $15,000. The same is the case in St. Joseph, Kansas City, Lawrence, and a few other prominent points. Men in those places have become wealthy, not from any superior sagacity, but from having invested a little money in the early history of the Territory. In 1856, an Ohio gentleman paid $100 per acre for a tract of land adjoining Leavenworth, and within six months got an advance of $1,000 per acre. But a change has taken place. In 1857 paper cities sprung up in great abundance. Shares in them sold readily from $300 to $1,800. In one of them a lot 25 by 150 sold then for $1,000. They would not any of them now bring $40 per lot. A great deal of Eastern capital was sunk in these embryo cities.
