The Alaska prospector., 1903-02-19
COURT htV5.
CASES SETTLED DURING THE
 WEEK.
Gdvfad Y. Wa|dron
Scotty Gets Stable but no Exit. Chittyna Case Goes to
 Referee.

The District Court has been in session for the past week and sev- erll cases have been disposed of. From present indications the calcn- der will be cleared up within a week or ten days.
 The Japanese murder case came up last Wednesday. $. Hamano was accused of the murder of q fe.- low countryman by the name oi Murakino at Nushagak last June. The two men had some trouble over Q tritiing affair, and began quarreling. They started to fight m their bunk house but were pre- vented by the other occupants. Murxkimo, the murdered man, went out of doors and prepared to assault Hamano when he came out of the house. Hamano, thinking that Murakimo had revolver, armed himself with like weapon, and when he finally went out, saw his antagonist, who was a much larger man than himself, waiting for him with a piece of lumber in his hand. He pulled out his re- v0lver and fired, the bullet striking MurikaMO in the middle of the forehead from the effects of which he died in a short time. Hanano was arrested and taken to UnaiasKa and bound over 10 the grand jury. The case was tried by the following jury: C. NJ. Day, Ray Larsen, Lyman Lamb, Tony Barrett, A. B. Gibson, Jas. Black, Chas. Reed, B. +. McClelland, k. Coles, J. M. Houston, C. l.. Warner and l.. C. Perry. The jury remained out less than an hour and brought in yer dict of manslaughter. On Satur- day morning the accused was brought before the court and sen fenced to ten years at McNeil's Island penitentiary. The verdict is thought by all to be very just.
 The case of Crawford vs. D. V. WaldrOn ct al., was tried ill the District court this week, and the following is brief synopsis of Judge Wickersham's decision:
 ''This is a suit in ejectment to re- cover tract of land 1OOxl24 feet fronting on Reservation avenue, Valdez. Plaintiff shows that III the fall of 1900 be obtained verbal per mission of Capt. Abercrombie, then in charge of the military here, to erect a small log barn on the prem ises which he continued to use from that time until the opening of the reservation in 1902.
 "The defendants claim title by settlement on July 25, 1902, the date of the formal opening.
 "TwO important questions are in- volved: First. What right did Crawford acquire by the erection of barn and fence in l9OO and posses sion thereby. Second. What right had he on July 25. when defendants took possession. The land having been set apart and used as mill tary reservation under direction of the secretary of war, and public funds having been expended there on for such purposes, it became a reservation. The general policy of the homestead and preemptiOn laws, forbade any settlement upon . military or other government reservation, and all such settlers were, and now are, treated as tres psssers and liable for cutting tim Der thereon.
 "It will not be necessary to quote authorities upon proposition that settlement and entry of military reservations under land laws of the U. $. cannot be made. Crawford could not, in 1900, initiate any claim or possession by his entry on the reservation. The permission given him by Capt. Abercrombie could not aid him as he had no authority in that regard. Craw- ford was q mere tresspasser and his act of felling timber gave him no preference to right of land.
 "Whatever fencing Crawford did in 1900, there is no claim that he had any such around the tract on July 25, 1902. Upon that date his stable stood where he erected it in