The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-27
MoSBY STILL IN SADDLE.
Millions of Acres of Government
 Land Illegally Fenced In.
Denver Post

1)cuFcT IOSl.
 The love of battle still abides with Col John Mosby. leader of one of the most famous Confederate cavalry com mands ofs the civil war. Though the car hine and saber are no longer his ously as of old for what he considers his right, unawed by the fact that he is op- posed by organized millions of wealth, and undismayed by the fact that the law he seeks to enforce has been a dead let ter for nearly twenty years.
 Colonel Mosby is special agent of the Government at Washington and his es- pecial duty is to clear Government land of private fences.
 Do you know, sir" said the Colonel last evening, that many of these cattle kings have fenced in and appropriated to their own use tracts of land larger than that governed by many a German have seized upon the public domain, fenced it in, forbidden the settler to touch it. and have made themselves wealthy off the land that belongs to the whole people.
 Why. up near Sterling, where my headquarters have been, one company built fence which enclosed upward of 250o0 acres. Not fence completely sur rounding the land but fence from the Union Pacific Railroad fence across one side of a triangle. joining the Burlington Railroad fence, and completely enclosing the land with the three fences. They ar RueQ Wltn me lldI Iucy Idu Only punt a straight fence, and had not built it in a circle.
 State I found that the Weatherby outfit has sixty miles of fence enclosing an an Sterling land district have found the abuses. The law forbidding it was passed in 1885. but here is no evidence that it was even enforced or any attempt made to enforce it. I am doing it.
 'I have been in charge of this district since October and I have simply de- luged the land department at Washing tor with letters and complaints. I have secured from the department circular addressed to the special agents, the first issue since the law was enacted, direct ing them to see that all fences on public land are taken down. That is raising an awful storm among the cattle men-I mean the big ones, Vho have grabbed t'.e land.
 Why, at a met ting of the Nebraska State Cattle Growers this week in Ali ance. their statement that in the Ali ance district and the one adjoining 1t there are 6.146.20O acres of Government la1i f reed in. worth SY21o,3 U, and on which the cattle kings are pasturing S44.- 32J head of cattle worth $S,575,35O,'
 Think of that illegal work in only two l nd districts, Why, that is more Government land thar l would have thought was fenced in the whole United States The wonder to me is that the cattle men aurnll H. bul II IS pal OA their argument that if the fences are or dered down their cattle will mix up. chaos will reign because no man can tell his cattle from his neiRhbors. Let them hire cowboys to take care of the cattle. The cowboy is almost unknown in these days, because the fences on Government .and make then- UT ne1essarV. ] as<eu the settlers about the Weatheroy fence and they told me that the outfit hires only two men now. whereas If they had no fence they would give work to no less than fifteen at $40 month ana board.
 "I am satisfied that could make $50 GOO if I would only wink at these illegal fences. and let them stand as they have stood for ten or fifteen years But I have been ordering them down: and am here fin Denver now to ace Earl Cranston, the United States District At torney. to try to get him to prosecute these fence owners. What will he do !! You will have to ask Cranston. There are two ways of getting the fences down. One Is by pr lsecuting the owners Tn tns courts and one Is by calling out the cavalry of the great sather-you know who he is.-and having the soldiers cut the wires. Just now l am here 10 talN to the attorney.
 Though Colonel Mosby refused to say word on that head it is understood that the big cattle interests have been moving Heaven and earth to have him called away. He goes after law breaker as he used to go after the Yam