m land you can always go to the nearest bank and
borrow from sixty to seventy-five per cent. of its value.

Real estate is the true basis of wealth, and if you want to play a sure
game, buy land that produces things.

When you buy vacant property in a large city, it is mere speculation.
The land does not bring in any remuneration, and you are simply betting
that the prices will increase.

Every large city has abundant instances of vacant property that is not
worth as much now as it was ten or twenty years ago. Real estate booms
come in cycles. Prices go up and men get the fever and buy vacant
property. The boom explodes, property goes down and you can't get your
money back. The chances are you have bought the property on two or
three years' time, and it certainly is paying for a white elephant when
you are paying for land that is worth less than what it cost you. You
cannot get out, however, because the original payment has already been
made, and your only hope is to save something on your investment.

Notwithstanding the fact that certain business sections and certain
residence sections in any city steadily increase in price, yet the
average real estate in the city increases by very slow percentage. The
same amount of money, put out in mortgages, with the interest added and
compounded, will develop wealth greater than the average vacant
property investment, for where one lot soars up to a high price there
are a hundred that don't increase at all, and the picking out of the
lot that is going to increase in value is as hard as picking out the
horse that is going to win the race. It is because the vacant city
property has only speculative value that the business man should not
touch it.

Buy farm property that you can rent. It will bring you interest on your
money right along, and the tendency of farm land is and always has been
steadily forward.

Mr. Yerkes, of Chicago, was a speculator who made millions in the
street-car system. He was thoroughly familiar with Hydraulics, and he
soaked the stocks as full of water as possible and then unloaded on the
investors who speculated in street-car stocks. These speculators are
now holding the bag. When Mr. Yerkes closed out his holdings in Chicago
he granted an interview, and one truth he uttered in that interview has
ever been remembered by the writer. It is so valuable an expression
coming from such a successful speculator that we are going to give it
to you. It is as fo