Morning journal and courier., 1885-07-15
OORRESPONDENC CE.

Letter From Minneapolis-Buildin
 Overdone-The King-Rem1ngtonS Suit -The Peculiar Liquor Law of NIinne- apoIfs.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: It is now the season of vacations and ex- cursions, and while many visitors come hith CT, many citizens go elsewhere. As a result the streets are less thronged than at any time previous during my residence here. And yet there is great deal of building going on and the prices of desirable pieces of real estate seem to hold firm. There appears to have been a conviction h ere that it would be i'm possible to erect too many houses. The in evitable consequence has been that the sup ply now exceeds the demand, and there are at least thousand vacant houses. There are, however, sanguine predictions that they will all be in dema nd by winter. This prophecy is based on the fact that the har vests of the Northwest were never finer than they will be this year, while in Kansas and other localities the prospects are discourag ing. The Canadian scare has tended to hin- der immigration into Manitoba; ergo, there will be tidal wave of immigration into the favored Northwest. This kind of reasoning may be rather selfish, but it helps to keep people cheerful in dull times.
 The leading sensat on here just now is the famous King Remington suit, which has been argued for the last ten days before the District court, and that threatens, whichever way it may be decided, to be carried by ap- peal to the higher courts. The vast amount of property involved, the effect that a decis- ion fort ha Y11ai iCrbt how 5r of titles to valuable city lots, the high standing of the litigants and the able array of legal counsel engaged, combine to make ! this, perhaps, the most celebrated case ever tried in Minnesota. The plaintiff, Colonel William s. King, one of the early settlers of Minneapolis, has held numerous offices and done much to build up the city, and his | warm, generous disposition has won many friends. Mrs. King, who became surety for her husband, is also plaintiff. The princi- pal defendant is Philo Remington, of Ilion, N. Y. whose guns, sewing machines and type writers have made his name familiar every where. Associated with him in the defense are Messrs. Innes and Menage, agents and manipulators of the properGy in question The lawyers are: For the plaintiff, Hon. John Van Voorhis of New York, Hon. N B. Bry- ant of Boston and E. M. Wilson, Esq.,, of this city; and for the defense, Hon. Francis Herman, of New York, and Judge J. M Shaw and A. L. Levi, Esq, of this place. Such wealth of learning and powers of argument have been brought to illustrate the law and explain the facts that your correspondent is glad he does not have to settle the merits of the case. But so far as I do understand them you shall have them, or at least sum- mary of them.
 Colonel King was a member of Congress and held certain other official positions, and in some way got into trouble and found it convenient to reside in Canada for season. He was likewise farmer. and had built the finest farmhouse and stables in the land located about two miles out from the limits of Minneapolis as at that time fixed, but now included within the limits and cut up into city lots. His political troubles brought on financial ones, and it became expedient to place his property, temporarily, in the hands of his friend Philo Remington, to whom he also was largely in debt. A mortgage was therefore given, and yet at the same time it is clear that Remington was Kings trustee. Presently Colonel King went into bank ruptey, ,and the property had to be sold There were few bidders, because 1t was understood that the property was to be bought in for King, Remington offering but S25 for what was then, before the great boom in Minneapolis real estate, worth $25O, 900, and which is now fully a million dollars. At this absurdly low figure the property was sold, in 1877, and two men, viz, Colonel Innes and MT. Menage, were sent
 
 estate market. They did their work well, Colonel King also assisting. The theory of the defence, however, is that in reality Col onel King abandoned all claim to said prop erty, and lost all right to it by virtue of that forced sale But, on the other hand, it is claimed that, although creditor, Reming- ton was also trustee of Colonel King, and therefore had no legal right to buy in the property for himself when it was sold. Col onel King made fair proposition to MT. Remington, that, after deducting the entire debt originally due to him, with interest, he should take $100 GOO for his services, or if that was not enough, take $200,000, and then turn over the balance to Col and Mrs King This offer was declined and hence this great lawsuit. The sympathy of the people seems to be with Col. King, and the facts, if I have succeeded in stating them correctly, also ap- pear to be in his favor. But the stake is heavy and there will be hard fight for it. Legal importance is attached to the forth coming decision, on account of it's bearing the limitation of the rights of trustees. It surely seems hard that, at 8 bankrupt sale, where there is a chance to make million dollars, the trustee of the bankrupt should alone of all human beings be forbidden to avail himself of the golden opportunity; and yet if he does so, does he not thus betray his trust:
 I have been repeatedly asked to explain the somewhat peculiar liquor law of Mime
  revert to the "wide-open" policy Of our for mer Mayor, who tried to run affairs to suit the saloons and gambling dens. By some very strange sort of reasoning, the Prohibi- tionists took sides with this liberal Mayor arguing that, to secure the best final results, you must first allow things to get as bad as possible. Their motto was ''No middle ground between free rum and prohibitionl" Things grew to be so very bad finally that the people, regardless of party, buried the
 'wide-open" administration under 8 majority of 6,O00 votes. The Mayor-elect, on being inducted into office, not only adopted high license ($5OO, but also hit on capital idea of his own, namely, that the police need not go out of their way to hunt up the saloons, but the saloons must be brought within certain off cially designated patrol limits. The plan has worked splendidly although of course not accomplishing what is sought by prohibition. The patrol limits are sufficiently large to meet actual requirements. But there are en- tire wards where not a saloon of any sort can be found. The number of saloons is reduced from 600 to 400, and these are directly under police surveillance. There are no sa- looms in the outskirts and suburbs And, as 8 natural consequence, there are large areas of the city where there are no du- ties for policemen to perform, for nine tenths of the misdemeanors and crimes of our cities spring up from those hotbeds known as saloons. Of course this last state ment will be taken an argument for pro- hibition, and very justly. am in favor of bipartisan prohibition; but the old adags runs, "Half a loaf is better than no bread" and the existing restrictions the liquor