Gilpin observer., 1900-03-22
DOINGS AT DENVER.
Items of Interest From tho City and the
State Capitol.

named lake. while the former was out
duck hunting. Iakle claims that it was
an accident.
A person convicted of n crime less
than a capital offense may have re-
course to only one writ of error, says
the Supreme Court. This statement is
made in connection with the refusal by
the court to consider the case of I'D
ward Caviness. The crime of Caviness
was murder in lie second degree. AS
his counsel applied for writ OF error
n year ago, then refused to prosecute
it, the court denied him privilege OF
again attempting Il similar action.
Mrs. Harvey Payne was reused from
her sleep last Saturday night to find
man bending over her holding Il pistol
to her head. He ordered her to get up
and give him all the money she had in
the house. With threats he made her
go to her hiding place. n sugar bowl.
She handed him 500 which she had
saved and had hidden there. She stag
gered to a neighbor's and fell senseless
on the steps. Hearing her fall, the oc-
cupants of the house hurried out and
found her.
The coming census may increase
Colorado's representation In Congress
by two. Governor Thomas predicts
this. Another congressman should
have been allowed in this state when
the last apportionment was made"
says the governor, 'if the census had
been accurately taken, and l am con
ident that the new census will add at
least one and in all probability two
congressman to our representation in
the lower house"
John Jacob Astor Powell attorney,
is alive, well and practicing law in
Virginia. However. he is not the John
Jacob Astor Powell of Ouray, who
disappeared from Denver not long ago.
John II. Barnett, n lawyer is sponsor
for this statement. He thinks the
Ouray lawyer used the Virginians
name. Friends of the missing man
think that he is in South Africa, and
one of them says he has letter from
Powell, under recent date, from Jo-
hannesburg, where he says Powell is
protecting his South African mining
interests.
Captain Cecil A. Deane, custodian of
the war relic room at the state capitol.
has received the first flag made in Gil
pin county. Its dimensions are 1OX14
feet and there are thirty-four stars on
the field of blue. The original size of
the flag was 10X2S feet, and it was cut
in two at some time not exactly known.
The other part has been destroyed or
lost. The ladies of the Gold Dirt min
ing camp made the flag in 1861 and
when the camp went down the emblem
was taken in charge by ]. Q. A. Rol-
lins, whose widow now presents the
flag to the state.
The sale of 100000 feet of state
timber, scheduled to take place last
Monday, was postponed because OF
the discovery of an error in the adver-
tisement of the timber, which makes
readvertising necessary. The adver-
tisement read 1.-The south range" when
it should have been 'the north range"
Bidders appeared in plenty. The re-
advertising may cause n delay of Il
month. This mistake in advertising is
not the first of recent date. A similar
error was made in the sale of the 600
acres of Otero county land to the Ok
nard Beet Sugar Company Senator
Swink discovered this mistake and
came to Denver for the purpose of hav-
ing it rectified. To J. w. Vickers, 1O6.-
600 feet of Park county timber was
sold mt 81 n thousand feet. This tim
Der is on school land near HartZell. Il.
Nj. Harsin bought eighty acres of Otero
county land at SO an acre. This land
is where he has made his home for
several years, leasing it from the state
and improving it at his own conven-
ience.
The National Rural, an agricultural
paper printed in Chicago, has under
taken TO locate colony of eastern
farmers on tract of about 100000
acres. situated in the Bijou valley in
Arapahoe county, about thirty-six
ct nf hn,t
acres has been purchased from the
Union Pacific Railroad Company and
will be sold to settlers for 125 an
acre, or they may purchase the alter
nate sections from the government
under the desert land act at the same
price, or locate them under the home
stead law, all getting their water from
the promoters of the settlement The
water for irrigation 1t is proposed TO
get from the underfiow of the gravelly
bed of Bijou creek. The gravel and
the whole irrigation scheme have been
examined by civil engineers, whose re-
ports to the promoters show that forty
per cent. of the rainfall sinks into the
soil. Bijou creek drains 1,50O square
miles, though little water flows in the
visible stream beds. The original
stream beds, of impermeable clay, are
at an average depth of seventy feet
from the surface. Tests show that
within few feet of the surface the
sands carry thirty per cent. of moist
ure. while from five feet from the sur
face to the clay the gravel carries
forty-iive per cent. of moisture. A
system of draining galleries will
be constructed to collect this water
from the gravel. The creek falls
twenty-three feet to the mile, so that
bringing the water to the land Is not
n difficult problem. In addition to the
under-drainage system. the company
will have an outfit on the ground In "a
few weeks for the construction of sew
eral large reservoirs In natural de-