The evening times., 1897-02-06

j OOAeg ITlenus OOl. AlDeft Il.
RedstoDe, is about to get a little pile of
money from the government. He is won
dering whether they will want TO pay him
in gold, silver or greenbacks. He is little
eccentric, but not so much so as to prefer
metal when it comes TO moving $1,000 in
claim on Wednesday.
4 Col RedstOne has been known about the
capital and the Capitol for good many
! years. He is little, old. sunburned, dressed
in a rusty o.d suit, with damaged silk hat
and half-polished shoes. But from the set
ting OF bushy hair and beard, gray. like a
/ 'coUnskin on a cabin door, gleam pair OF
eyes whose fire age has not tanned, and he
can talk for what he holds to be popular
rights like a mill race after a thunder storm.
He used TO publish the Tocsin in little
shop on Four and-a-half street in front OF
the Lincoln statue, and before that he pub
Iished other papers in the West; and be-
! fore that he was a Populist candidate
with antecedents of honorable public con-
nection running back to the war. Along
there somewhere he settled some land in
California, and there is where his claim
comes in. He had already then brought up
q tAAlhls ANSiNNbuile lNO DT
three of them in life.
The report from the Committee on Public
Lands 10y Senator Tillman asks that the
bill giving the old man 81 500 do pass
1t passed the Fifty-third Congress, but was
sent back by the President on account Of
a clerical error. The land is. 60 acres
near the Mount Diablo meridian, in South
ern California, and Col Redstone pre-
{
1889. Then the government established
the Sierra forest reserve and it took in the
Redstone ranch. A claim for damages was
filed, and the complainant says in his
sworn statement:
THAT from the day of filing my declar-
atory statement, No. 1O164, on the 9th day
OF April, $50, until the reservation was
made, myself and my family resided there
on continuously; that during the time OF
my residence thereonI built a frame cottage
! i by SO feet, containing three separate
rooms, with porch att ached: also a frame
storehouse 10 by IL feet; also log
stable with hay loft, 20 by "a feet, two
miles OF post and rail and picket fence,
an oyershot water wheel to drive a mill
(mll was not quite complete and fin
ishedD. l planted and had growing about
1000 vines and trees OF different vare
ties; also 10000 hills of choice strawber-
Ties, and a great number of other va Tie-
ties OF berries. l built and dug an irri-
eating ditch fully a mile in length; also
an improved water power; had all neces-
sary farm and garden implements, and
wagons, mules, horses, cattle, chickens,
etc.
In some way in the bill, as passed, the
reservation was miscalled the Sequoa Park,
and SO President Cleveland refused the
justice that was already overdue. The
report is made by Senator Tillman. but
OF course has back OF il the Public Lands
Committee as organized by the Republican
party in the Senate.
Col RedlstOne SAYS in his letter in S93,
when he had begun asking for his money:
Il had worked ON the place two years
as hard as any man ever worked, and had
nearly everything improved to suit us
for a homestead, when this, with 1000
other sections. was taken for a reservation
for no benefit to the people of the United
States. and to the detriment of many
actual settlers"
He counts up 81 500 worth OF actual i'm
provements on the land, and says he would
not take So 600 for his claim il put
back where he was.
This is a test case and other claimants
will probably follow for losses by the
same act OF reservation.