The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-02-14
OUR HELENA T
The $1,000 Reward Bill Speech Of
Fergus In Its. FavOr-Its Defeat by
to 4-Fergus Offers q Re-
ward - House Bills and
Committee Work.
HELENA. Feb. IL. 1885.

Committee Work.
HELENA, Feb. IL, 1885.
The resolution appropriating s ,00(
to the three men who captured Con
Murphy. which passed the House
was placed on Its fiual passage In the
Council to-day.
In committee Of the whole yester.
day many objections were raised,
which the friends Of the bill oonsld.
cred extremely technical. MI. Fer.
gus spoke In its favor to-day. Like
all of his speeches. this was unique.
He said
Mr.. PRESIDENT: l do not impugn
the motives Of any gentleman here.
1 believe all are actuated by the best
motives, but I also believe that the
refusal of the Governor on a mere
technicallty to pay this reward, and
the discussions in this chamber sus-
tanning him, by the aid and comfort
they will give to house burners about
Helena, to horse thieves on the Mis-
souri, river, and desperadoes on our
frontiers, will outweigh the benefits
of this whole session of the Leglsla.
ture.
1t is all well enough for members
living In our towns to talk about re-
spect for our laws and about Mon
tanians being law abiding people,
but the fact remains that a loaded
rifle or revolver has more authority
and is more respected in some parts
Of our frontiers than all the statutes
you could get into q freight train.
Where I live we have seen our prop
erty melting away, but We have paid
our taxes without q grumble, and
then. driven by sheer necessity, we
have taken our lives In our hands,
and Notwithstanding our respect for
the law have, at Il own expense,
taken the lives of desperadoes. W.
know better the necessities of the
case than gentlemen who have never
been driven to extremitles. Had I
been a citizen of Helena I would have
taken q subscription paper and raised
the paltry sum of $1,000 promised,
aud not have allowed the matter to
come here. But as this has not been
done, l hope members will not sta nd
on mere technicalit,es if they think
it Is right otherwise.
don't ask this for myself or those
who live near me, for we have taken
care OF ourselves SO far and caa do so
again, but for the general welfare of
this Territory. -.
But the resolu!ion7was lost by a
vote of 4 to 2.
Speer, who was the only man in the
House to voted against it, considers
himself fully indicated by the action
of the council.
Mr.: Fergus now offers to pay a re-
ward of 500 to any hfghwaymen
who will "hold up'' the seven mem
bers who voted against the resolution
aud ar additional 500 to any who
will do the same to the governor.
thinks a little personal experience
of this kind would remove the tech
nicalitles from the minds OF these
gentlemen.
Just how the captors of Murphy
are to get their reward now is not
seen.
A bill introduced by Buck to
chapter s, fourth division of.
revised statutes, defining the degrees
of burglary, was read third time and
The bill passed by the house requir-
ing county commissioners to trans
NIT their reports to the Territorial
treasurer before the adjourn ment Of
the county commissioners, was read
third time and passed in the council,
THE HOUSE.
Taylor presented a petition from
500 citizens of Lewis and Clarke and
Choteau COUNTIES for the creation of
the county of Dearborn,
Nichols presented a petition from
259 residents Of Gallatin against the
the ere ltion of the county Of Br'dger.
Bridger county is the name substi-
tuted for the proposed county of
The pre-: ent feeling is to name the
new counties after the old timers and
pioneers.
Page gave notico of a bill to pro-
hibit the retailing Of intoxicating
on Sunday.
The rest of the day has been occu-
pied in committee work.
The jumbo committee are consider
ing the subject of licenses. The dis
position is in general to increase the
present licenses. In solae ca les the
rates prop sed are 200 per cent. over
present figures.