The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-08-29
TRAPS FOR UNWARY.
How Swindling Land Locators
Work Victims.
WOLVES AT LAND OFFICE DOORS.
Crooked Timber Cruisers who Rob IN
suspecting Settlers Under the Pre-
tence OF Aiding Them.

been given the right to secure with slight
cash expense, enough land to make home
for himself and his family, and in many
instances the exercise of this right has
made the citizen the possessor of acres
from which comfortable living could be
gained not only, but which have yielded
in few years a fortune in enhanced value
of the tract or the products which he was
able to turn into money.
The opportunity and privilege offered
under the homestead and presumption laws
are well understood throughout the West,
and the further advantage OF the provision
allowing the purchase of timbered land in
the wooded portions of the new states has
been well advertised, still there are many
newcomers to the rapidly-developing dis
tricts of the Coast country who have only
an indistinct IDEA of the application of the
statute
The newcomers are here with slender
means, it may be. and however careful and
well-meaning, they find, often to their sor-
row, that what was intended to be benefi-
cence to them, has been the means of ex-
hausting their little store and bringing ex-
periences that are bought all too dearly in
time and trouble.
Tie characters who prey upon the strang-
ers and the uniformed find rich field in
the middle place between the officials of the
government and the public and with the
pretense of assisting the intending settler
to use his rights 10 advantage. swindle him
in dozen ways, and usually with such
craft that no legal hold can be gained upon
the rascals.
Many individuals OF this class, wolfish in
nature and often in appearance. infest the
neighborhood of the United States land
Office in this city and mark the approach
of every person whose actions indicate
that he may be made victim. The new
conner usually has little knowledge of the
surrounding country, slight information
concerning the location of the tracts sur
veyed and open to filings, and in most in
stances is entirely ignorant of surveyors
marks and boundary lines. The profess
sional land-iocator or timber cruiser
pounces upon the would-be settler, and
discovering the extent of his knowledge
easily perfects scheme to get his money
and make no good return.
1t should not be understood that all en-
gagged in the business of locating settlers
upon government land are designing
scoundrels. There are many reputable
men who do this work honestly and carry
out their agreements to the letter. Happy
the settler who puts himself in their hands
and thus secures the advantage of exper-
fence. good judgment and fair dealing. The
reputable land agent is one who conducts
his business on business principles, holds
out no glittering prospects of extravaganza
gains certain in a few weeks, sets fair
price upon his services. to be paid when his
work is fully completed and accepted, and,
most important of ALL is known and re-
spected by the officials in the land Office.
The crooked agent is the one who meets
his intended victim on the street or in the
hotels. and fastens upon him like a leech;
who makes confidential disclosures of
"snaps," promising great returns in
little time, and who asks for money before
the settler has been made certain that the
services rendered have been of any value.
The plans upon which the sharks work
are multifarious, and though they have
been exposed over and over again, they are
worked successfully every day and the har-
vest is ever ripening.
The intending settler may be taken out
and shown piece of land which is in
every way desirable, and his application to
enter the land for purchase may be received
and filed at the land office, and then when
the time comes for proving up he may
find that the tract described in his filing is
situated miles away from the land shown
him; but the willy locator has secured his
pay months before and cannot be found,
The locator may give the settler written
contract agreeing to carry out many good
promises, and then delegating the work of
exploring and locating the land to a third
party, claiming when discovery comes and
complaint is made that he is innocent and
no party to the deception.
1t is almost impossible to secure direct
evidence of fraud against the scoundrels
who make this work a speciality. They
make for themselves dozen loopholes for
escape in case their victim desires to pros-
ecute them and is financially able to do so.
The law requires the settler to make aft.
davit when offering his filing that he has
been on the land and examined 1t. The
INSCRIPTIONS land agent assures the settler
that this is mere matter of form and in
duces him TO accept the statements made
to him about the land and sign the oath.
Then, if any trouble ensues, he threatens
the settler with the consequences of his
perjury and evades punishment by making
his victim believe that he is equally guilty.
Some of the dishonest locators claim to
have inside knowledge OF certain tracts.
gained through collision with clerks in
the land office, or state that their influence
with the officials is sufficient to secure i'm
portant advantages, and these claims are
sometimes accepted as facts. That there ia
in reality no foundation for any such
claims any settler can easily determine by
inquiry among land agents of reputation
and standing.
The practices of the swinders are well
known by the officials at the land
office, and some OF the individuals engaged
in the infamous work are spotted, but the
lack of evidence that will convict prevents
any summary action. The officers. how
ever, are doing what they can to oppose
the operations of the swindlers, and in adj
dition to the attention of special agents
from the land department the aid of local
detectives has been invoked to expose the
schemers, and IT, possible bring them under
the law.
Receiver Ogden said to Posr-IyrELII-
GEscER reporter yesterday that the audac-
ity and cunning OF the rogues was as sur
prising as the unsuspecting innocence of
the settlers who give up their money to
strangers, with no assurance that they had
been benefited in the least.
lone of the most notorious land swim
dlers here" said he, was seen at pleas
ure resort at Lake Washington a day or
two ago by detective, and asked if he was
not afraid to return to the city just after
one of his swindling operations had been
shown up in the press, two of his accom-
plices arrested, and his name used freely
in connection with the affair, but the land
shark laughed at the officer. and declared