Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-08-03
A WASHINGTON LETTER.
Editor Jewell Writes Interestingly
From Washington on Various
Matters.
Tells of Matters in Washington and
Touches q Little on North Da-
kota Affairs.
The School Board Selects a Principal
To Take the Place of Prof.
Wheaton
Miss Livermore Gives q Creditablt
Recital at the Atheneum Last
Evening.
Various Items of Local News Gath
cred In and About the Capt.
tai City.

WASHINGTON, July 90 Especial il
K. Wetherby and wife we're in the city
a couple of hours Saturday. They are
visiting friends neal Baltimore and came
over to pay a visit to the old homestead
OF the "father of his country"-Mount
Vernon. Meeting Mr.. w. brought up
some interesting recollections of the past
-recollections of 'boom" times in Bis
marck, where Mr.. Wetherby was shrewd
enough to clean up a fortune variously
estimated at from $4,000 to 100000
by selling town lots at a time when
fabulously excessive values were placed
upon them and the crop of eastern
suckers" was good. Mr.. Wetherby now
owns some valuable Minneapolis prop
erty, has a large income from rents and
interest, and Mrs. w., a most charming
lady, the two little ones and Mr.. Weth-
erhy travel a good deal and they ENJOY
life.
I was somewhat ohagrined to read in
one of the papers here that the attor-
ney general of North Dakota had coun-
seled ~violators of the law--the fellows
who held up the United States deputy
marshals-to ''skip" in order to avoid
arrest on warrants being issued in Bis
marck. The comments Of the press on
this matter we're anything but pleasant
for a North Dakotan to read. To all
who spoke to me about it, I denied the
t%ruthfulness of the report. I hope there
was no truth in it. The incident of the
governor and President Debs of A. r. U.
was bad enough-the attorney general
incident is too rank to believe.
I fully expected to get home before
the Grand Forks convention, but I was
s%ubpenaed to appear in the United
States court at Buffalo on the 18th inst,
to testify in a case of the government
against one George B. Smith, an al
legged patent broker who is charged with
using the United States mails for the
purpose of %defrauding inventors. This
is a case growing out of information
filed by me with the postoftice
department some time ago. The
Inventive Age" is exposing these
fraudulent patent and pension
sharks, and although it's Investigations
have just begun, at least a dozen fraud
ulent concerns have already succumbed
and many more are surrounded. One
who has never had occasion to investi-
gate the subject cannot realize the ex-
tent and the cleverness of the schemers
to defraud the American inventor. From
4OO to 500 patents are granted each
week, and just as DOR as the printed
list is out, giving the name and address
OF each inventor, this grand army of
frauds swoops down upon each ~patentee
aud with words of encouragement and
advice, dazzling pictures of wealth and
happiness, inveigle him out of $40, 800,
or $50 advance fee" for services never
to be performed. The headquarters of
these INSCRIPTIONS persons it is not
always easy to find, fer the most of them
have simply a p~ostotfice box and desk
room IN an office where personal vista
ton is ingeniously warded off.
But this, of course, is of little interest
to TRIBUNE readers.
Occasionally, I meet the Carrots, Will
and his father; also Busted and Joe
Miller-all old-time employees of the Bis.
marck TRIBUNE. Shelby Smith, former
ly OF Sargent county, is out of the gov
eminent printing office, and now owns a
paper, the Herald Advertiser. at Hyolls-
vile, a suburb of Washington. P. P.
Ortiz, formerly of Mcintosh county, was
one of the prints recently let out Of the
government print shop, when the new
public printer, Benedict, took charge. T
learn he is now out in Colorado. The
boys move around good deal. Bows
field, I learn, is doing we'll with his
paper. Bowsfeld is a money-maker,
however, who will have no trouble what
ever with the swolf."
I see IN some North Dakota paper that
Senator Roach's secretary, Fred Mclean.
is paying the state a visit, and that it is
rumored that Fred would like to be
nominated for congress by the demo-
Gratis. l guess he will hardly want to
run against Mi. johnson after he looks
the field over. Speaking of Mclean re-
minds me Of the last session of the lepis-
lature and his elevator bill--substitute
for House Bill No. 2. This was a bill
fixing elevator charges, and during the
last hours OF the session went 20 the
governor but minus the signature Of the
presiding officer Of the senate. Fred en-
deavored to fathom the reason Of this.
omission at the time, but couldn't. That
official was y. D. Wallace, Of Steele