Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-11-26

kindly human sympathy between two openly
confessed scamp, than there is in that calm,
respectable recognition that YOU and |. dear
reader, exhibit when we happen to oppose
each other with our respective virtues.
and yen get the oppalel1
Il will"
And he did! And bya singular coincidence
| got the district attorncyship also And
with n deed for onc-haf of the "Rcd
| Rock rancho" in his pocket sent brother
lawyer in court to appear for his client the
United States, as against himself Roscom-
mon, Garcia, ct al Wild horses could not
havc torn him from this noble resolution
There is an understandable dclicacy in the legal
profession which we literary folk ought to
initiate
Tho United States lost! Which meant ruin
and destruction to the "Blue Mass Company y
who had bought from paternal and bcncfi-
cent government lands which didn't belong to
it. The Mexican grant. of course, ante-lated
the occupation of the mine by Concho, WilcS,
Pedro, ct al, as well as by the Blue Mass
Company and the solitary partners, BiCgs
and Thatcher. Moro than that, it swallowed
up their improvements, 1t mado Biggs and
Thatcher responsible 10 Garcia for all the
money the grand master of avaIico had made
out of it. Mr.. District Attorney was APP
parently distressed, but resigned. Messrs.
Biggs and Thatcher woro really distressed and
combatve
And then, to advance "A few years in this
chronicle, began real litigation with earnest
ness vigor, courage, zeal and belief on the
part of Bgss and Thatcher, and technical
ties, delay, equivocation and general
Faban-lilio policy on the part of Garcia,
Roscommon, ct al OF all these tedious pro-
cesscs | note but ono, which for originality
and audacity Of conception appears to me to
indicate more clearly the temper and civiliza-
ton of the epoch. \ subordinate officer of
the district court refused to obey the man
date ordering Il trans, ript Of the record to he
sent up to the United States supreme court.
1t is to be regretted that the Eamo of this
Ephesian youth, who thus fired the domo of
our constitutional liberties, should have
been otherwise SO unimportant as to
be confined to the dusty records of
that doubtful court of which he was
a doubtful scrvtor, and that his Csaim
to immortality ceased with his doublc-fccd
service But there still stands on record
letter by this young gentleman, arraiGning
the legal wisdom of the land, which is not en-
trclv devoid OF amusement or even instfuc-
ton to young men DESTROYS of obtaining pub
licity and capital Ilowbcit, the supreme
court was obliged to protect itself by rrocur-
ing the legislation of his functions ont of its
local fingers into the larger palm OF itf own
attorney.
These various processes of law and equity,
which, when exercised practically in the af-
fairs of ordinary business, might have occu-
pied a few months time, dragged, chung, re-
trogradcd, or advanced slowly during a
period Of 5tt or nmc years But the strong
arms Of Big, aD1 Thatcher held possession,
and possibly, by the same tactics employed
on the other side arrested or delayed eject
ment, and SO made and sold quicksilver, while
their opponents We're spending gold, until
BigGs, sorcly hit in the intcracng of his ar
NOR, fell in the lists, his check growing
waXen and his strong arm feeble, and finding
himself in this sore condition, and passing. as
it were, made over his share in trust to hi,
comradc and died, Whercat, from that time
hencclorward Royal Thatcher rcigned in his
stead.
And so, having anticipated the legal record,
we will so back to the various human in
tcrests tina; helped to mako it up
To begin with Roscommon: To do
justice to his later conduct and OK
preston, it must be remembered that
Wien he accepted the claim for the /
"Rel Rock rancho" yet unqucstioncd, from
the hands of Garcia, he was careless, or at |.
least unsuspicious of fraud 1t was not until |.
he had experienced the intoXication of litiga-
ton that he felt, somehow, that he was n
wronged and dctrauded man, but with the |
of defrauded men, preferred to ar
raign some one fact or individual as tho inn |
polling cause of his wrong, rather than the
various circumstances that led to it, To this /
simple mind it was made patent that the |
''Bluc Mass Companyn We're making money
out Of a mno which he claimed, and which .
was not yet adiud5ed TO them Every dollar
they took out was fresh count in this gen
eral Indictment. Every delay towards this
adjustment of riShtS-althouSh made by his
own lawycr-was a personal wrong Tho
mere fact that there never was nor had been
any quid pro quo for this immense property
that 1t had fallen 10 him for Il mere song
only added zcst to his struggle TArpo-,ihility
If his losing til, mere speculation affected
lim moro strongly than il Ac Lad already
paid down the million unexpected to got from
he mine. don't know that have indicated
as plainly as might that universal prefer
ence on the part of mankind 10 get something
from nothing, and to acquire the largest re-
urn for the least possible expenditure, but !
question my right to say that Ro,nommon
was much more reprehensible than his fell
ows
But it told upon him as it did upon
Ill over whom the spirit of the muir
Tered Con"ho broodcd upon all whom
.yaricc alternately hattcrcd and tortured.