Arizona republican., 1900-09-10

announced in June, 1887, that the clpi'-' was a fraud and that Reavis Vas rare impostor That checked tre col lection of money for releases by Reavis and his several incorpora lions. But | Reavis never. missed day :n his | schemes and worked in fortifying his evidence in support of his claim. He went to Mexico and Spain half dozen | times and he hastened to New York and Boston every few weeks. He was | always busy with lawyers.
 The surveyor general had no sooner denounced the Ecavis claim to the Per alta grant than Eeavis brought to Ari- Zona a young wifi whom he introduc d as the only blood descendant of Don Miguel de Paralta de la Cordoba. That altered the complexion of the ReaVis case and brought fresh believers in the legality of the pretensions.
 Reavis told romantic story of hoW' while h. WIS ii.es. .iCatin.5 he PtIal- ta grant, h. accidentally met a poor young woman living in hamlet lA i Mexico. She sin wed him SomH papers concerning her birth, christening &nd parentage. and he was astonished to find that she was a survivor of old Don Peralta. Reavis said she had assist l 
 ta chronology and that he married her. From that time h signed himzelf James Peralta Reavis. and he prosecuted his claim in his wifa's interest. He insti- tuted a suit during 1889 in the United States court of claims in Washington for Camages done his wife by illegal | disposition on the part of the govern ner,- of lands within the Peralta grant. He asked for damages to the extent Of ten and one-haIf millions dollars. For two years the case went forward slow lv. The government established the court of private land claims to settle the long standing disputes about Span ish and Mexican land grants in the re- zion ceded t. the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe. The Reavis-Pe- ralta case came up in that court in the spring Of 1895.
 As the trial of the case progressed a very formidable array of evidence was presented. It showed the indomitaple gal. the unflassi1g perseverance anu the inventive r sources of ReaVis. NO petty detail had been too small for him to work out and no labor too weari- .l some for him to follow to the end. There had been many changes in the modes. Willing claim to 100000 acres of Arizona land in 1875. Now ReaVlS prosecuted his claim on behalf of his wifi-the alleged great-great-grand- daughter of old Faralta, the friend ot King Philip V f Spain in l'4S, who , made Peralta the first Baron or Arlz- ona in he new world. The ReaVis side brought great boxes of ancient parch- ment documents. q eds with gorgeous ly illuminated heads, sworn tranScrlp- | ri and half dozen ci,ias in Mexico. Req wis had bundles sf parchments to show all the titles his wife's grandsire had. when and how ha came to NJ Xico, ana
 a host of corroborative documents
 bearing upon public acts in his ca reer. There were bushels of papers in Spanish to show how Mrs. Reavis was q de- -endart cf he baron of Arizona , Copies If oil paintings were even intro duceG. showing t,e Hneaments Of some Peraltas in differen. generations. There din not appear W-ak link in the won derful cham of eNidencs.
 Raavis ana his wife were each exam ined and cross-exllnined for three days and they Were never s-irr1d in th-ir testimony concerning the long line of Peralta granJee gan-alOgy. Reavis tes- . t!fieG 70 the number If children in each Peralta generation. he told the char acteristics. the wealth and influence of each. and uamzd -atss with uncommon preciseness. Mrs. R'avis told how she was one of twin children born to her mother in Sen ra, Mexico; how the , mother died win parting injunctions
 that the baby daughters be informed of th5 great estate in Arizona and New
 Mexico that awaited the Peralta heir , who could assert lis or her rights in the United Stat s courts, and how the , Iother twin child hal died later. leaving
 Mrs. Reavis Che, AIasJ), the sole sur viving heir to the Peyalta name and fortunes The testimony seemed most formidable.
 The diligent a1F careful Reavis sup ported hi wife's testimony by produc- ing sworn copy of several books he had aug out of Inc mCsty archives CT itbs Ayuntam.ento at GuldaIajara, M5X- , ico. These books, he alleged. showed the pr bate records cf Mrs. Reavis' fathers will. and of her grandfa ;fer's will. and appal r-Iy proved dozen points in the chain Of testimony given by the young wife as 10 how the baro- ry of Arizona had be5n transmitted from father to son for 116 years. A cer- titled copy of the spanish royal csdulas .
 from 1881 to 11IS was presented under
 the stamp of the American minister at
 Madrid. with potent effect upon the
 court. It contained the record of the , achievements of the first baron of Ar izona. and narrated the genealogy of
 the first baron back to the thirteenth
 century. So far as documentary evi- dence went it sl6mad strangely correct.
 Then several wi nesses were produc- ed by Reavis. who swcre to Mrs. Rea- | wis birth and plrentage and grand a parentage. The witnesses tcstifi q I that they had heard Mrs. Reavis' , grandfather say ,ime and again that he . had documents C. prove that he was . en;itl5i to an enormous land grant in . the s,uthw5 st. but that it would re- quire Io;s of mon,y and hard work to z prove the claim. There were other wit
 ness-s who told every event in Mrs. :, Raavis' life from her birth to the trial
 United Stat,s Senator White, of Los