The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-05-16
STILL KICKING At K1MBALL.

ago it published in it's columns an arti-
Gle relative to proving up before a
Probate Judge away from the county
seat, and straightway a certain clone
at Kimball who have undertaken to
dictate the affairs of Brule county
against the honest good of the people,
published long letters and long argu-
ments that the PLAIN letter of the law
did not mean what it said. The
Commissioner of the U. S. Land Of
flee has again settled the matter.
We clip the following from the
Waterte3n Courier:
Commissioners Mcfarland in a
communication to j. b. Eaton, of
Devils Lake, Dakota, Feb. 18th, 1884,
writes as follows:
Gin reply to your letter Of the 4th,
relative to the authority of probate
Judges in Dakota to take final proof
in homestead and pre-emptlon cases,
/ have to state that as probate courts
are courts of record, the judge of
probate Is authorized in his capacity
as aJudge" to take atidavits in final
homestead cases, and that probate
judges, acting as clerks of their own
courts are authorized, as such clerks,
to take atfidavits in presumption and
committed homestead cases. They
HAVE, MowEvER, Nc AUTHORITY TO
TAkE UGH AFFIDAv1Ts IN EITHER
CASE AT ANY OTHER PLACE THAN THE
COUNTY SEA AT WHICH TIE COURT rs
HOLDEN"
No farmer can afford to cloud the
title to his land to please a set of
howlers in a high and dry prairie
town, without wood, water or navi-
CATION. The safe side is always the
best side.-Chamberlain Register.
No farmer in Brule county has in
any way clouded the title to his land
by proving up before the Probate
Judge in kimball. The Secretary of
the Interior has repeatedly decided
upon this point The Register knows
this, but is contemplate enough to
convey the idea to the farmers of
1'rule county that there is a cloud to
the title to their land, all of which
must be laid to the door Of a scertaln
clique at Kimball. If there is a
ting or clique in this county it Is in
Chamberlain; a ring hat has tried,
and in some cases successfully, to run
the county for the sole benefit OF that
town without the slightest regard to
the rights of others. The Register
would see every farm in the county
covered with a mortgage of twice its
value, if Chamberlain and Its own
interests could be i'll anyway benefit
ed thereby. That paper exhibits
more than it's usual abundance of gall
when it blows about cliques outside
Of its own town.
Dispute the ruling of the Com
missioner referred to by the Register,
the Graphic maintains that We're the
matter in question properly presented
10 the Secretary of the Interior, the
ruling would be reversed and final
proofs be allowed to be made before
the probate judge IN Kimball as here
,oforc. For i'll a recent ruling under
date of April 10th the Honorable
Secretary not only SAID that final
proofs could be made before a pro-
bate judge, but that:
Il think the same is pcrmlssive and
beneficial, its purpose (the law being
to facilitate the BONA Eide settlement
of the public lands. 1t should there
fore be CONSTRUED LITERALLY
and so as not to hamper or embarrass
applicants whom it is intended to
benefit.
The Secretary, in the same ruling
quoted from the Probate Code of Da-
kota Chapter ! Sec. G as follows.
"a Judge of the probate court as
contra-lstinguished from the probate
.cosnt may exercise OUT OF COURT
I'LL the powers expressly conferred on
him:as a judge"
The probate court is Is thing
the probate judge another. What
does "out of court mean unless any
mhere in his jurisdiction? The clerk
of a supreme court, or OF. a district
court or county court cannot act out
side of his court in his Official espaci-
ty. But a probate judge is Ex-oFfI-
Go clerk of his own court, and as long
as the law clearly implies that he
4smay exercise out of court, all the
powers conferred upon him as Judge it
implies as much for him in his clerical
capacity, which if 'out of court
means anything extends to the limit
OF his jurisdiction.
While custom, not the statutes, has
Fheld the probate judge at the county
seats it does not follow that the pro
bate Judge must exercise all his pow
1ars there, and were a test case made
before the Secretary of the Interior
he would SO rule, AS loa,g as due not
ice is made in all final proof notices
for SIX consecutive weeks ewher sale