Show the old settler my dear san Jua ners now I 1 am not unaware that what was happening in san juan was a s just a little sz segment ment of what was hap happening penine all over the west but that spells for its favor nothing ing in in the least wise people could see ee that the country in general and the forests in particular would have to be supervised and controlled for their sane preservation and through the arrangements to meet this necessity the schemers discerned their opportunity to do all they had wanted to do and do it under the shelter of law As a result no new towns have been started in san juan for 50 years for when this newfangled new fancied concoction concoction of laws got into swing it had all land withdrawn from entry all the wide area which had hitherto been open to the pr program for new settlements was left to gravitate into the hands of a grasping few cw to the hindrance and discomfiture of tile the many the gunman gun man had been considered bold indeed when nhen lie he declared that the prairies must be left to raise grass for his cattle instead of being made into homes formen for men women cind and children but now the law had been inveigled into demanding that very thing the springs and water sources from which the gunman gun man forbade anybody to make a ditch di were now no longer reachable by the settlers and builders who would have gone on with the town making program in in san juan but they were to be left undeveloped for stock to drink the land and water which is now low the life lifeblood blood of blanding Blandin gand and monticello with their hundreds of good homes and happy families once served only to sustain the cattle or sheep of a few individuals if the settlers of these towns had not got hold of the land and water before the present embargo it would still be serving a few men only as other places are which were intended to have become towns considering the good start that the settlers of san juan made to and build up the country in the short period while it was free and open to their plans and intentions it can not be doubted that there would have been other to towns wn s in the county before this if that freedom had not been curtailed look at a map of san juan county which has been marked to show the great areas which are owned or controlled by individuals and compare it with the areas to which the main population of the county are restricted areas where the land is set apart to raise only the thin and doubtful provender that it can raise in its native state instead of being cultivated and improved to produce what we know it can be made to produce by intelligent manipulation no one can doubt that the children of the pioneers would have carried on here what their fathers began to be continued ALBERT ABERT R LYMAN |