The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-03-19


Especial Correspondence OF the Press.l
wssHrxoroN, March II.
Mr.. Holman has little faith In the abb ity of Con-
gross to got away from Washington before August.
III we keep on at this RATE, he said yesterday to
your correspondent, 'it viii be we'll into August
before we possibly get away from here Tn 80
months and a half gone ADD not an appropriation
bill through botn Houses. 1t seems impossible to
control the dJod of talk. This is the largest Con-
gress we have ever had, and of c9u SO the INST
laxative e. The Larger the Ho Sc, the more talk.
1t seems rs II every in the House Is under the
impression that he alone i. posted upon the ques-
ton at ssue and that is his duty discuss and
rediscuss the whoe subject for the benefit of every
body Else, 20 the nry i gone over aud over again,
and the tim is wasted"
what is the RENE y, Mr.. Holman?'
IT'S pretty hard tn answer" he replied zone
remeiy, and one which l should be ,ad to SEQ
applied, would be to eliminate all private bu-iness
from the work of tie House. Congress ought not to
DO expected or required G. legislate upon private
claims Every clam which Comes TO us here Is one
which the aw does not allow. If 1t old IL would be
allowed in the courts aud not sent here. A very
small proport IA of the claims set here are just.
ana yet We are expected 10 rpend days and Gays
discussing them. calendar Is numbered up
WIN them and the bi Is of private nature report
ed to the Housr have begun to be numbered by the
Holman, "my first exp rience in Coz gress with hese
private cl4ims. 1t was long time ago, Wbeu first
came here. We were as niush troubled with private
claims as we are now. They then were tevolul ion-
ary claims. The room WAS full Of them. There
were great packages Of continental money sent for
redem tiun, and heaps and heai OF pap-rs OF IeVo
lutionary war claims. One claim OF 5 O,uoO was
sent 10 me. 1t was for the heirs Of some
tDnary cl ltimant a ID seemed to me Just aim. /
set to work earnestly In It's behalf and the bill
passed. After us passage 1t w-nr7to the White
House, and the preident sent for me and asked me
if thought he ought TO sign the bill. / told him
that thought the claim a just one aud should be
paid He sa d the precedent was a dangerous one
but H0altY he consented and signed Ihs bill. The
money paid to the attorney who lad been press
ing the claim and reports were received showing
that the oney had been distributed TO the heirs,
and / supposed everything settled satisfactorily.
But to my astonishment few years later a
man turned up claiming to be the legal and
only heir of the person ia whose behalf the claim
had Oeen made An inVes igatiOn Of the who mat
ter showed that the claim, as presented and pa d,
was without authority; that the pretended division
of the money among she heirs was fraudulent; that
the Signatures of the heirs showing The receipt Of
the money, were forgeries; and that the attorney
Gho presented AID preset the claim. and got the
money. had, with perhaps one associate, pocketei
the whole 500 -, while the original heir, who was
entitled 70 the moneS, If anybody was got nothing
That pretty well cured me Of private claims. An-
other reason which have for doubling the genuine
OF most of those claims Is that The claimants do
not appear, either by letter or otherwise. ltreems
TO me that II the claims were gehuine and the work
OF genuine claim tnts we should receive great
many more letters In pers N ffom them than We do:
DO you look for this Congress TO pass any tariff
bill before lis jouIument?
j think we shall, he said, something; / don't
know what 1t will be- hut think shall agree up
ON some sort of tariff bill, which will be aeeepta-
Bile 10 almost all the members Of our party, and
pass it.
EJECT OF THE LAND FORFEITURE BILLS.
The effect of the attempts of the pu lie lands
committee to forfeit the land grants TO all the rail-
ds in the country is already percepiblein check
ing the tide of emigration TO the north and NORTH
west. Many persons who were preparing to 90 to
these sections, in which the lands in question le
with the view of purchasing homes from the rail-
road companies on long time p p'yments, are afraid
to do so now, and have decided TO postpone indeh-
nitely their efforts at establishing new homes The
officials of the ways affected by these hills are
now receiving letters from parties OF this
character, announcing that they will be Obliged to
postpone their removals until the roads can give
clear titles TO the lands viii h they propose 70
buy. The general impression Is that many Of these
lis will not be acted upon at this on. they
should be, not until late day th 4t it would be
i'm pOss e for thOre desiring 10 establish homes up
on these lands 10 do so this year.