The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-09-19
MORE ROBBERY.
The State School Fund Again Des-
poiled by the Pine Land Ring.
From the St. Paul Call.

| 1t does seem to be almost time that
| the people of Minnesota were tearing
| themselves loose from the clutches of
| the insatiate pine-land ring.
| The committee appointed by the
| last legislature did much to expose the
| systematic workings of this gigantic
machine, but that the expose then
made has not had the deterrent result
may be understood when The Call an
nounces that no longer ago than May,
1894, this greedy devilfiSh reached out
another Of its tentacleS and took pos
session Of another slice of the states
property without paying one-tenth of
| it's actual value, The story as related
| to The Call is substantially as follows:
When the Duluth & Winnipeg rail
road was under construction, Mr.. J A.
Bowman, a banker, of La Prairie, es-
tablished the village of Deer Creek, in.
1tasca county, on the line of the road.
He owned four forty-acre pie ces of
land on the north side of the line,
while on the south side was section SO,
which of course, was the property of
the state, and held in trust for the
school children of Minnesota under
the guardianship of Mr.. Buell's ideal
state auditor-a gentleman known as
Adolf Biermann.
Naturally enough, Mr.. Bowman de-
sired to secure the four forties lying
adjacent to his town site, as some of
the property was available for town
lots. He visited the state auditors
office and asked the price of four GER
tain forties of the aforesaid section SO.
Here he was informed that those par
cells of land were marked as having
standing pine timber upon them. and
that the laws of the state prohibited
the sale of the land in fee simple until
all the pine had been sold and re-
moved. Then he offered to buy the
pine (there being in fact but little
standing pine upon the lands in ques-
tion), but was again informed that
the laws stood in the way of the sale
until all the cedar timber. and, in
short, all the timber of any possible
value had been sold and the pur-
chasers had been given sufficient
length of time to remove it.
Here the matter rested for time.
Last winter, however, Mr.. Bowman
learned that this particular section.
36. was advertised for sale at public
auction on certain day in May, 1894.
Having had some dealings with the
state audi or on various occasions, Mr..
Bowman did not care to personally
forties he desired to purchase, so he
deposited in the hands of a friend
sufficient sum Of ready money to pay
spot cash for the lands desired. His
instructions to his agent was to bid
as high as $25 per acre for the most de-
srable, $50 per acre: for the third, $15;
and for the fourth, $40. All of these
purchases, if the property was knock
ed down to him, were to be paid for in
cash.
The day Of sale came around and
Mr.. Bowman's agent was duly on
hand. He soon learned that he was
not to be the only bidder, but that
there were various other gentlemen
present who had also determined to
bid upon the land named. Time
passed. The hour for the public sale
arrived. The doors were thrown open
and the bidders entered. But the
four desired forties were not included
in the list.
The bidders grew clamorous. What
had become of this town site land w.
ing contiguous to the growing village
of Deer Creek-a village with rail-