The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1894-01-26

feorporatlons have been s0At1ed and
abetted by the decisions fthe general
land Office that the menstons despet-
ism exercised against hoiest SETTLERS
IN Western states has been squaled only
by the barbarities which the French
mobiles perpetrated on the peaoantry
for the long black years which preced-
ed the red years Of the revc luton. l
call BLEEDING Kansas" did worse
bleeding Nebraska to witness against
these daughters of the horse leech, -
the private railroad corporations that
disgrace our civilization.
In the early eighties the senate COM
mittee on public lands, OF which Sena-
tors Morgan and Blair constituted q
sub=c0mmittee doing all the hard work,
Began an exhaustive investigation of
this infamy They found, enough to
warrant an American Revolution. TN
fortunately, within the prescribed linn
its of these articles, l can give but a
glimpse of these wrongs Yet, per-
haps, the one case 1 select odt Of n.aEy'
Will afford an insight into the
Machiavelian methods of the villain
railroads.
The Denver & St. aoseph road had
laid claim to 1000, 900 acres, worth at
that time perhaps 81 per acre. On
these lands, here and there. bofia Iide
settlers had made entry under govern
mental sanction. The railroad OBJ
tanned a decision id lower court; pre-
sun1a bly, by bribery, to authorize the
railroad to seize the settlers quarter
section, on which he and his family
had put ten years of his labor and had
also invested those affections that al
ways grow around the work of our own
hands-the home we have builded as
rest and a refuge.
These entries according to all the
testimony before the committee, were
made In good faith, NO susp cion attach.
ing TO any one of the settlers or to the
officials who handled the papers; and
when the Denver & st. Joseph applied
to the interior department to cancel
the entries, the secretary decided that
the entries were legal and that patents
should issue to these settlers. In this
the treacherous railroad anaconda
seemed to acquiesce, for it stopped
pressing the claim. Patents were is
sued. lands were sold, resold and inn
proved, taxes were paid, and in many
cases the value went up from 81 to $50
and S25:
Nay, more, that public robber, the
private railroad, actually acquiesced,
for it began taxing in lieu of it's de-
feated grant, what are called 'indem-
nifty lands. j." and continued to do SO spo-
radically up to December. 1881.
Now the unsettled lands in contro-
versy likewise were not claimed there
after; no patents demanded, no taxes
paid and no offerings for sale made by
the claim-all corporate anaconda and
hog.
Presently the Denver & st. Joseph;
never bona fide railroad. but bunco
game from the start, passed into anoth-
er organization-for private railroads
have trick of swallowing each other
in the nick of time like Aaron's serpent
who swallowed all the rest. The real
estate of this all-round swindler went
into the hands of the trustees For
trifing consideration these trustees con-
veyed to Sherman w. Kneavels, Mitchell
and Parker, the lands that had been in
controversy, which are in southern Ne
brasha. Nearly ten years had elapsed,
suit the limit in that state for commenc-
ing for real estate. The owners and set
tiers had all these years received no
hint of any adverse claim or possible
cloud on their titles.
Suddenly one Hyde-ominous word,
suggestive Of DR.. Jekyll-and this
Hyde appears to have been a profound
err scoundrel than even StevenSon'S
monster-came on the scene. This
mysterious stranger wished to pur-
chase some improved real estate. He
bought d quarter section Not long
after suit was brought in the district
court, Kneavels VS.. Hyde. There were
many owners that had paid taxes ten
years, many settlers who had spent
years of work to make valua BILE farms
Odd wasn't it, that the suit should have
been brought against this mysterious
recent purchaser who came, no one
knew whence and vanished, who knew
whittier?
The case of Kneavels VS.. Hyde soon
evolved into a judgment, demurrer,
and Judgment overruling the de-
murrer.
Then the other settlers were served
with notice to quit or pay the railroad
for the farms they had made valua BILE.
This notice, with a certified copy of
the judgment in Kneavels VS.. Hyde,
was the first intination of an adverse
claim these farmers had received after
ten years of possession.
Hyde was urged by them to plead
over or carry the case up higher, but
he, being of course, the mere puppet of
the swindlers, abandoned the field and
melted away into the mystery from
whence he came.
Suits were at once begun against all
the settlers who had patents from the
United States. Some of these were
tried in the district court and were de-
cided by following the KneaveA VS..
Hyde decision-for law is largely a mat
ter of precedent, and judges of small
courts are rarely of sufficient penetra-
ton, originality and force, even when
not owned by corporation, to decide
a case contrary to an esta blished prece-
dent; hence justice is not only blind.
but halt and lame as we'll. So the
fraudulent, railroad-made decision in
the Kneavels VS.. Hyde case has decided
all these other cases which, with one ex-
ception. were not appealab BILE by statute
from the court, since they lacked the
property qualification of $1,000.
The equality wicked supreme court
of Nebraska, in 1888. confirmed the de-
cision of the district court Against