Montgomery County Sentinel

A gentleman of high standing residing in Iowa, in a letter to the Lexington (Ky.) Observer, presents a sad picture of affairs in that State. He advises his friends against making investments in real estate there; has just sold lands himself, at $1 per acre, and that in trade, for which he paid $10 in 1857. He considers unimproved land anywhere in the State dear at over $1.25 per acre, except in counties bordering on the river—and further adds:

"No man living out of this State can have anything like a correct idea of the utter hopelessness of the state of things in Iowa. Speculation has been the ruin of the State. The river towns are so flat that they never can get up again until there is an entire change of population. This place contained a population in 1857 of 40,000; is now reduced to 18,000, and people leaving just as fast as they can get money to get away upon. The place is in debt one million and a quarter! and she, as well as Dubuque et al. along the river are now talking of repudiating! So do not own lands in Iowa if you can avoid it. It will make you that much poorer."