The Portland daily press., 1893-08-09
SOME ODD STORIES.


Realty-A Story of Litigation In the
Adirondacks-The Tug-of-war by Oppos-
ing Boats.
copyright, 1898, by American Press Associa-
ton.
We were sitting one summer night few
years since about campfire by the shores
of beautiful lake in the heart of the Adj
rondacks. Our party of eight was com
posed of six lawyers and two newspaper
men, and as might be expected the legal
gentlemen did most of the talking.
The question of the exact difference be-
tween realty and personal property was be-
ing discussed, and the opinion of all except
Judge Robinson, a shrewd backwoods law
yer from St Lawrence county, was that
land was realty because it was immovable
and fixed.
But is land always immovable and
ixed?" asked the judge as he knocked the
ashes from his pipe and Strengthened up SO
as to be ready to down the man who said
"Yes."
"Well," said one, when land is moved
in the form of ore or building material the
element of labor enters into it, and this,
with its portability, makes it personal
property"
mot always" said the judge, with the
assurance of man who knew what he was
talking about. Seeing the surprise in the
faces of his professional brethren, he went
on to explain. 'sRight north of here is
Cranberry lake. guess most of you have
been up there? I thought so. Well, there's
some state land on the shore and a lot that
is in private hands. Five or six of the own
ers, whose real names L cannot give, have
summer camps along the shores, and let
me say it is to my mind the best fishing
ground in these mountains.
''Ten years ago this August the Adiron-
dacks were visited by rainstorm SO heavy
and continuous that it might be called phe-
nomenal Cranberry lake rose five feet
within week, and the most veteran fly
fisher was disguised. George Blount of
New York, one of the shore owners, had to
move to higher ground with his family,
and he was just planning to go to Saratoga.
where the visitors, If not the climate, are
always dry, when he was amazed on wax
ing up one morning to see between his
camp and the lake, where the night before
there had been an expanse of flooded reeds,
forest of large trees growing and an ex-
tent of solid land covering several acres.
Doubling the evidence of his own sight,
he aroused his family and visitors, and they
confirmed the actuality of the phenomenon.
Had this happened 200 years ago Mr.. Blount
and his friends would have promptly at
tributed it to witchcraft, but in the light
of the close Of the nineteenth century they
soon came to the conclusion that the trans
ferred land was moved by natural agencies.
There had been a landslide at some point
along the shores of the lake. The knotted
roots of the trees and underground had not
only held the mass together, but also gave
it buoyancy, and the wind acting on the
trees had blown the island to its present To-
cation. This was their belief.
"Mr. Blount being thorough American
proceeded at once to annex the island, and
to avoid its going to sea again he and his
friends made lot of long, strong stakes
and drove them down through the island
so as to pin it to the terra frma beneath.
There said Blount when he had finished
his work, if any man comes round here
claiming that island, I'll tell him to take
it away at once, and if he doesn't do SO I'll
sue him for damages and salvage
1.-THE next day scores of people came from
the camps about the lake to see Blount' S is
land. Among them was a brewer from
Troy, who swore that the island just fitted
q vacancy in his land on the other side of
the lake, and he claimed the property on
the strength of this strong but by no
means conclusive circumstantial evidence.
Blount had never liked the brewer, and
now he saw a chance to show his feeling
You claim the islands? he said to the man
from over the lake. Now, take it away at
once, but first pay me for the trespass and
damages
1.-The brewer said he would leave the case
to their respective lawyers. Then he char
tered the little steamer and all the row.
boats on the lake. and they worked all day
trying to launch the island, but it wouldn't
bulge. The brewer knew nothing about
Blount's underpinning.
although it still continued to rain, the
brewer put in an appearance the next
morning with stronger force, but when
he reached Blount's the island had van
ished as mysteriously as it had appeared
Some thought the island had drifted out
with the higher water, but Blount, with his
own secret, felt sure that some lake pirate
had stolen it. After long search this
opinion was confirmed on finding the island
moored before the cabins of a ban9of lin-
bermen whose reputation didn't stand
high, though they were the best guides in
all the country. When discovered these
men were ballasting the island with stones.
1.-THE brewer paid them to desist and to
tow the island down to his vacant lot but
Blount swore he would impound the realty
till he was paid for the damages it had
done him. The men who stole the island
towed it into the middle of the lake, where
they were met By a fleet of boats under
Blount, who proceeded to make fast and
pull in the opposite direction.
Talk about tugs-of-warl Why, the great
est one ever recorded was simply child's
play compared with the tug of the oppos-
ing boats for that island. Right in the
midst of the struggle the steamer came
down with state officer on board, and
claiming that the island belonged to the
state as fotsam the officer made the YES
sci fast, signaled to put on all steam and
started for the head of the lake.
with so many claimants for this piece
Of portable realty it ought to have risen,
but to the surprise of every one when the
strain was the greatest the island lurched
30 leeward, as the sailors say, and went
down forever out of sight. need not add
that after this Blount and the brewer