Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1901-02-01
NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL
nas Mnines Eehrn,

3. I. i
Des Moines, February /, 1901.
The supreme court decided in case
from Winneshiek county that bonds
men Of acknowledgements unGer the
mulct law cannot be held for penal
ties for sales to minors. The law inn
poses q fine Of 500 for each sale to
q minor. Saloon-keepers are required
to give bonds to obey the law. But
the court holds that there is an ex-
ception in tie law providing that only
hondsmen of permit holders. that is,
pharmacists holding permits from the
district court, can be held for penal
ties for selling to minors. Bondsmen
of mulct saloon-keepers are liable,
however, for civil damages to be col
lected by parents, guardians, etc., OF
minors to whom liquor has been solo.
The Bonaparte dam case which has
been furnishing food for thought to
the supreme court of the last five
years has been settled for all time
by the overruling of the petitions OF
both the state and Byron F. Meek for
q rehearing. The case will stand ac-
cordins to the decision rendered at
the October term in which It was held
that the owners of the dam were not
compelled to provide fishway. The
series of cribs constructed below the
dam make a perpendicular structure
and furnish complete obstruction to
the passage of fish in the Des Moines
river. The dam was built by the gov
ernmcnt for the Improvement OF the
Des Moines river in 1852 and in 1866
after it had been bought by the Meeks
the locks were closed by wall and
no tishway was provided. AS early as
1893 information was filed to abate it
as a nuisance, but the supreme court
holds that 1i.hway cannot be re-
quired in non-navigable river. 1T IS
the largest and best constructed dam
in the state and the case has been
watched with keen interest by all
sportsnen.
The state of Iowa is going to re-
ceive two Chinese cannon from the
walls of Picking, captured by the UNI
ted States troops when they entered
the Chinese capital to relieve the be-
sieged legationers. In a letter just
received by Governor Shaw, United
States Minister Conger says:
Il am today starting on their way
to you two Chinese cannon, with their
carriages (knocked DOWN., which our
troops on their arrival here captured
on the city wall near our legation.
They are undoubtedly the guns which
were sending shot and shell into the
legation during the siege. have
billed them to you, sending on Uni
ted States transport to San Fran
cisco, and have requested that they
be shipped thence to Des Moines by
rail. I beg you to accept these guns
for the state of Iowa as a souvenir
of most disagreeable situat ton in
which some of her citizens were
placed, and from which they were
providentially rescued. l shall be
glad to see them properly mounted
and planted before the new historical
building or in any other place about
the capitol which you may select. [
have found this convenient opportun-
ity to shin them and SO take adj
vantage of it, not waiting for a reply
to my previous letter to you concern
ing Them"
The cannon will probably be mount
ed on each side OF the walk leading
to the state historical building.
Battle flags Of the Ninth and Fiji
teenth Iowa infantry have been re-
moved from the sealed glass cases
on the second floor of the state house
and will be forwarded at once to Gen.
Grenville NJ. Dodge at New York City,
who will place them in the tomb of
General U. S. Grant. The last general
assembly ordered two flags from the
Iowa collection to be sent to Grants
tomb. The selection was made by
Governor Shaw because both the
Ninth and Fifteenth had several flags,
while some Of the other regiments
had but one flag, and to have selected
any of those flags would have left
the regiment without representation
in the Iowa collection.
An opinion has been handed down
by Attorney General Mullan, in which
he holds that the board Of agricul-
turc has no authority to appropriate
money of the department for an ex-
hibition at the Pan-American exposi.
ton at Buffalo. The opinion was adj
dressed to S. B. Packard of MARSHALL
town. At it's annual meeting in De-
ccmber the department of agricul-
ture made no appropriation for an
of Iowa products. at the
Buffalo exposition and it has been
strongly urged that the board now
act in the matter in order that the
state need not go unrepresented. Mr..
Mullan's opinion renders that inn
possible. , '~
- The negotiations for the property
of the 1nSernationa distillery, locat-
ed near the packing houses, have been
completed and the property now be-
longs to F. NJ, HubbeI. There is a
slause il the deed which prohibits the
use Of the property as a mailing in
stitutiun for fifteen years, but this
tlduse does not prevent the use of the
building as a brewery, and it is
An.