Chapter 13
The Centennial YearI returned to Texas early in January. Quite a change had come
over the situation since my leaving home the spring before. Except
on the frontier, business was booming in the new towns, while a
regular revolution had taken place within the past month in land
values. The cheapness of wild lands had attracted outside capital,
resulting in a syndicate being formed by Northern capitalists to
buy up the outstanding issue of land scrip. The movement had been
handled cautiously, and had possibly been in active operation for a
year or more, as its methods were conducted with the utmost
secrecy. Options had been taken on all scrip voted to corporations
in the State and still in their possession, agents of the syndicate
were stationed at all centres where any
