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TO COLONIZE COFFEE COUNTY (Continued from First Page) “The price of lands certainly ought to be attractive, providing Ihe clearing of it is not too much of a job. “The advertising of the land opening proposition on a certain date should command considera ble attention, and this should prove a strong drawing card for your section. “Will you kindly advise me whether or not I can see you when in Atlanta on the above mention el date, and oblige. “Yours vqi truly, “Field Manager.” The proposition was so striking to this gentleman that he sent my letter •gether with a copy of his to me, o ihe General Manager who writes me from the home office under date of the 27th, as follows: “My Dear Mr. Smith:- “1 am in receipt of a letter from Mr. O. O. Blank, at Pittstown, in which he encloses me a copy of your letter dated August 23rd, and a copy of his response to you. “YOU ARE THE FIRST MAN IN THE SOUTH who has propos ed a proposition which 1 HAVE LONG CONTEMPLATEI) MIGHT SOME DAY BE PUT INTO EFFECT WITH VERY GRATI FYING RESULTS. I am Vice President of this Development Company and am in charge of the colonization work. Mr. Q. M. Pearson, another Vice President of the organization, is assistant ohjactor and has had from the be ginning, direct charge of the re cent activities of this organiza tion in the state of Georgia in or ganizing the- Georgia Branch. Mr. Blank is in charge of our field offi es. Both Mr. Pearson and Mr. Blank were recently in Geor gia and 'expect to return about the lflth of September. I am shewing all this correspondence to Mr. Pearson and am asking Hint when he returns to Georgia, which will be about the middle of next week, to keep In dose touch with you. “Now, your proposition as put up to Mr. Blank amounts to this: You are going to throw open an “Ring Me Up, Little Girl.'” (Dedicated to TERESA M. HOFFMAN.) Sung by JOHN PARK, of Richard Carle's great success, “Mary's Lamb.* ) («' Words by A. R. BALLINGER. jjSSp***' Music by STANLEY JADWINL jy^S-T-t—r- fif r r I r J M a - 0 -- -0- Modern to. - fi -i 1 1. It hurts me to leave jau but don’t let that grieve you, For part-ingsare noth-ing to-day, The 2. Don’t let LYn-tral jol -ly tr cut you off, Mol-ly, The line won’t be bus-y to you, Til 53 l; T^lgh^^^L4lL~ip^:::== t s L=J^ mail bringsa let - ter but there’s a way bet - ter With on -ly a nick-el to pay When welcome your voice, dear, twill make me re-joice, dear. No mat - ter what I have to do, You -* ~ F Zj* *. < m J -- • 0 —*—w m 9 « —* ——■ — I —> ev -e» you’re lone -ly and long for me on - iy. Jua' ;et in a booth all a - lone, And the*' can’t in - ter - fere with my bus -i - ness my dear. My busi-ness is just lov-ing you, And V I *• jg^ 1 Copyright, mcmviii, by MURRAY MUSIC CO., New No. 52. area of land to settlement and ad vertise it. You are going to ap proximate what the United States did with respect to her public lands, and most particularly with respect to her abandoned mili tary reservations and Indian res ervations when no longer needed for or used by the various Indian tribes in a tribal .manner. “I was for a number of years connected with the United States Public Land Service; a part of the time as its executive officer, and am, therefore, familiar with the laws and with the actual prac tice of the United States in the disposition! of her public domain. This was the method generally followed n the opening of an In dian reserfation. When Congress decided tribal relations should be severed and each Indian member of the tribe should, therefore’ be come an ‘individual,’ so to speak, it proved for the survey of the reservation into townships, sec tions, and sub-divisions into lf»0 acre tracts of ‘four forties.’ It then arbitrarily allotted each in dividual allotted each individual Indian to some particular farm. All the surplus lands were then thrown open to entry. In the early days this used to be done by what was known as the ‘rush’ method, such as was used in the opening of what was known as the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma. At 12 o’clock noon on a given day, the army having held out pros pective settlers, withdrew, and it was a case of the first man on a particular property acquiring rights. This led to so many con flicts, bloodshed, scandals, etc., that it was abandoned, and there was afterwards substituted the present method: “A registry office is opened and every qualified citizen is entitled to register himself. When the registration is closed, each appli cant’s deserption, name, and data having been placed in an envel ope and sealed, all the envelopes are placed in a ‘wheel’ and are then drawn by a blindfolded boy or girl, and the first drawn has first choice and so on until the entire sub-divisions are disposed of. If there he charges upon the THE DOUGLAS ENTERPRISE, DOUGLAS. GA., SEPTEMBER 4, 1915. land respiting from treaty made with the Indians of say, one, two, or three dollars per acre, this, of course, has to be met before the titles can be secured from the Government, and there is coupled • with it actual settlement, culti vation and improvement. There art always anywhere from five to fifty applicants for each sub-di vision. “When the public lands were known as ‘straight’ public lands, of course, these were open to set tlement at all times. Take for instance Kansas and Nebraska; any man qualified could go upon the ground and pick out what suited him and enter it in the proper United States Land Office. It would cost him 514.00 as a fil ing fee and he w r as required to live upon it for a period of five years and improve it. “It seems to me that if you could place an appraised value up on the various sub-divisions, sur vey it out, place a price at a fig ure that would carry the value of the land and the expense of disposition, then prescribe your terms, open a registration office, advertise it thoroughly, and up on a given date hold a regular ‘opening,’ that you ought to focus the attention of the whole nation upon his. It is certainly a hew and novel proposition and one that w'ould be fraught with great ben efits and one that would focus nation-wide attention upon your activities. “My office, Mr. Pearson, Mr. Blank and myself are at your ser vice in an effort to assist you to work out a plan of this kind as rapidly as our time and needs and other engagements before us would permit. “Yours very truly, “CHAS. G. RUCKER, “Director of Colonization.” Before going further I wish to say that all the names except my own are ficticious and are being used by me for a purpose. I feel that such a gigantic scheme as this is worth while protecting from the general public in other sections until we get ready to turn it loose o the world. Should these names be given out in public print it would be an easy matter for another section to start a similar scheme and in a measure draw from our work. After our work has been completed, then we do not mind as- sisting any section to do likewise. This is my own idea and is the sole reason for substituting these names. The original correspondence is in my office and is open to any man in the county for inspection. Now the idea can be readily seen : from the foregoing and the intention of this article is to call for the co operation of the land owners of this .section to assist me, if they wish to dispose of their wild lands and to pop ulate the county—to develop the lands ar.d put them in a state of cultivation without ary cost whatever to the pres ent owner, and to run the value of cleared lands up to a hundred dollars or more per acre. It is not my desire nor intention to sell a foot cf cleared lands. I want every man owning a farm to hold on to it like grim death, for the time is not far distant when he will be able to realize a bonanza for it if he cares to sell it. There are tens of thousands of peo ple in our country and Canada today who stand ready to stampede to such an opening as described already. It is not guess work, but has been prov en time and again in the past. When the United States opened up the lands in Oklahoma there were simply thou sands who would not get a foot of land, as there was nothing like en ough to go around to the crowds. Hundreds of these settlers would pour into the sections, days before the “opening,” and would camp at the registration office in line and await the “great day.” Special trains were run to take the crowds to the regis tration office, and towns were built overnight out of tents which later be came cities. One of them now being the city of Tulsa, one of the largest in the state. Enid was another, and there are scores of other towns equal ly as large. There are today and wiil continue to be thousands of acres of land in this section lying idle year in and year out, during all the time, that could and would be developed if such a move was made. Y'ou, the land owner, risk absolute ly nothing. You own the land and it will not effect you any way or an other, unless it is developed. If you will turn it over to us and let it go in in this idea it will be cleared and put into cultivatible condition, at no cost and possibly sold for you before the end of the three year clause at a much higheo figure than you are now [ offering it at. jin - gle the bell and love's sto -ry I’ll tell. To you o - ver the tel - e - phone Ring me I’ll nev -er tire if you keep the wire On fire the whole day through Ring me > fp jf ( .rpjMi s=l=fi|pw .Jfß: e^e=£ CHORUS. —J-| *~g .-I |-~zl^q=r4f *• :. .TF— *l..tsp- \-wztz_ |_ L—— Hr ■ m up, lit - tie girl, ring me up Just as soon as you get in -to town, For you'll -fl-JL 1 1 t—i —l 1 1. =1 \-t— l 1 4-t—l 1 1 — r- fi ji] *cr • rrt -c=r. z=t •=*• • zzt -<=r • rt «- • O- • -S'- • -0- 53 - * —J '-jp —o—*—JlJ-i— 0 —*—JIJ-i LL- LT-p-r 1 — ... I F nev-er re - gret it, be - fore you for - get it Why just put the right number down; Ev-’ry Wf jf-Ntni. CLJI-J -JF= s3r . •■■ 1 K l ': . ~^~sfFr3r^t=^=I —i —r —rl -j—q=id —l time the bell rings, lit-tle girl, ’Tis your voice I'll be wait- ing to hear For I shall he \ * -I I I - I . Tjri: ' ' ' ' * ' l " I 1 )- — _— -»—!- =d= -1■ • I h i a • I'i. H E 1 '1 j 1 -f. -1 ji i I z=t z=t -+ -+ • ♦' -i-7 rH r; ;L'.i with heart pal-pi- tat- in g, For you to ring up Mol-ly dear Ring me dear. . u J j |J 1 —l_. | | | jfLlx r ELi A \ '* * i * L “ qg. & I | • V Ring Me Up. Little GirL J pp— 2d p. No. 52. The papers covering each piece of land will of course be handled by your attorneys and there will be no release of any kind on your part ex cept as herein shown. You will not have to advance any settler a penny. On the other hand, should either of the men drawing your lands fail to develop fifty percent of it in the first three years, he would automatically become dispossessed and the land would revert to you and that portion that he did develop would be opened for you at no cost. The Chamber of Commerce, since its organization has not had the moral support of the farmers of Cocee coun ty as it should have; the reason is unknown to the writer, but I sincerely trust that when this article comes be fore you that you will wake up to the siuation, come to see me ami talk it over with me, so that when I go to Atlanta on the sixteenth of Septem ber I can show Mr. Blank that I have at least a hundred thousand acres of land that we can put on the market in this method and let us go into the project and bring old Cocee into prom inence and the lands into their true valuation. This scheme should have the en dorsement of every citizen of the county whther a wild land owner or a city man. With the development j of the farming lands, the real estate in the city will correspondingly rise. The County Commissioners should! also take steps to assist the move. The Board of Education cannot over look it. Let me ak you to talk this over with your attorney, get his legal ad vice on the matter, reason it out with yourself, and if you then feel friendly toward the idea, come to Douglas and tell me about it, and tell how much land you would want to enter, and the location of it. ROBERT A. SMITH, See. Douglas Chamber of Commerce. Douglas, Ga., September, 1915. SSO. SCHOLARSHIP FREE. I have a SSO. Scholarship to the Meridian College—Conservatory of Meridian, Miss., which I am to'award to some one in this county. Any young lady wishing to attend this in stitution may please advse me if scholarship is desired. J. GORDON FLOYD. ROOMS TO RENT WITH PRIVATE family. J. M. Jardine, 311 Colum bia Avenue. 9-4-4 t UNCLE JIM* FREEMAN FOR NEXT ORDINARY Editor Enterprise: It is a little early, but without his consent, and without knowing who all would be in he race for Ordinary next year, it may be mentioned that Uncle Jim Freeman would make a good man for that place. He is old and needy, but hone t and competent to fill the office. He has done a great deal of hard work for us and our children and has never asked or re ceived anything from tiie people of the county at large. His ambition has been to help others with his work and counsel, and it seems that vve should not wait until after he is gone to show our appreciation, bg do some thing for him now. HeVan’t live long, and if there are yj Anger as pirants for the office they can easily wait until he is gone. I have written this letter without his knowledge, but not until I had seen influential men in all parts of the county, who voice my sentiment and will use their efforts for hfe suc cess, if he announces. OLD CITIZENS. Douglas, Rfd. No. 1. A REUNION AFTER 41 YEARS. Forty-one years ago. Wullima Stew art taught a singing school at old Bethel church, midway between the old home of Dunk Douglas and Dan Lott, about 12 or 13 miles east of Douglas. Those now in life, who were members of that old singing school, so far as I can ascertain, are as fol lows: Dr. Jefferson Wilcox and Mrs. D. E. Gaskin, Willacoochee; Mrs. Law rence Newbern, Ocilla; Mrs. Rebecca Thompson, Mr. John M. Lott (Bud), Mrs. Marjorie Kirkland, Nicholls; Mrs. Frank Hinson, Hazlehurst; Mrs. Thomas Davis, Douglas, and W. P. Ward. I am quite sure there are others whom I hope to find and invite to our reunion at the Singing Convention at Douglas on the second Sunday in Sep tember. We expect to get our friends to help us sing some “Old Time Songs” for the Convention. W. P. W. YOU WANT GOOD AUTO SERVICE and best rates. You can obtain same seeing me in front of Sapp’s Pharmacy, or telephoning 144. J. Greene Wilson.