Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1889-05-04
$4,000
This, With Five Acres Of Desert Land
Tilford Offers Meade County.
a BOND WITH A STRING ON IT.

An Absurd Proposition Without Weight
Force or Legality. Compare This
With sturgis' TWO Offers.
on, GAZE ON THIS AND WEEP !
The supplement to the Tilford Times
made its first appearance in Sturgis yes
terday morning. 1t comes bristling all
over with ground plans, front and rear
and minute specifications Of
every article down to the character Of
the hair in the plastering used for the
court house and Jail to be built in Til.
ford for the benefit of the county. The
building is to be a cheap wooden struc-
ture that, if built according to plans and
specifications, would be more suitable for
a grain elevator than a court house.
The plans and specifications are a
slightly changed and modified copy OF
the plans that were devised for the
famous Tilford wooden mill, which, like
many other well laid plans, failed to ma
terialize.
But, as the building will never be
erected we will pass it and look at the
which the '.people of Tilford''
make. Who these people of Tilford are
we do not know. The proposition, as
near as we can get at it, is to give war
ranty deed for forty acres, and a deed for
two other tracts scattered over about two
miles of ground outside Of the townsite
Of Tilford to trustee of their own choos-
ng whose duty it shall be to sell this
LOO acres at sum not less than $50 per
lcre in order to realize $4,000 with which
70 build this remarkable structure. In
other words, Hale, Vancise of Deadwood,
md R. A. Childs have placed in the hands
If the cashier of Pennington county
bank deeds to 100 acres of rocky bluffs
around Tilford, the title to some of which
s still in the United States to be deliv-
,red sometime in the indefinite future to
James A. Howard, trustee Of. Meade
county, an office not known to the law
o be disposed Of by him for $4,000.
The land which J. D. Hale SO gener-
'usly conveys to the 'trustee of Meade
county, is not all conveyed, but only an
one-half interest in it is con-
eyed. Here is where Jack gets in his
work.. Owning one-half of each and
very foot OF the ground decided by him
very acre sold by the trustee for $50
will put $40 into Jacks pocket. Gun
ling, amt he? don't propose to get left
wen by Meade county.
Gentlemen, before you get your court
louse you must sell Jack land and turn
'ver half the money to him. Now many
armers in Mead county would willing
ell better land at the same price and on
he same terms.
Now we come to the bond signed by
men whom we presume are good for all
hey undertake to pay, which is nothing.
As legal document it is unique. James
|. Howard, the trustee, now becomes the
principal, and Hale, Morse, Childs, Lo-
anger and Miller don't enter into bond
0 do anything or pay any money them
elves, but that Howard, the trustee
principal will. The bond is not for pay
aent to the county, or to even the county
commissioners of the $4,000, but the
ond is conditional to pay, or construct a
uilding. The bond runs to "the county
commissioners" which is merely de-
criptive of certain unnamed men who
ometime in the future will hold Office
f the county; men who have under the
aw no legal authority to do anything
ct strictly defined by law in behalf of
he county. All bonds of this character
. have any validity must run to the
ounty. There is no bond given to the
ounty, and the county can bring no suit
gainst either the principal or the sure
les. The men who happen to be county
commissioners cannot bring suit as indi-
iduals, neither can the suit be brought
\ their name or for the benefit of the
ounty, for all suits where the county is
be party in interest must be brought in
ne name of the county and not in the
anne of county commissioners in order
, have any standing in court
We are at loss to know whether this
ond was drawn by man who had ssrun
Or a lawyer and been defeated" or by
lawyer of great shrewdness who was in
bructed to draw up an instrument SO
nat it would bind no one. In either
vent he succeeded in rendering it utterly
'orthless and not binding upon anybody.
The situation now stands: Tilford has
lade out deeds for one hundred acres of
md not worth at the highest possible
aluation more than ten dollars per acre
'hich would make the property worth
1000. This is to be turned over to a
riyate citizen Of Tilford to sell for
loney enough to erect an az. ()(l caurt