davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
tiaser Hermann Former Comiss1oner 0HGen1ralI LAND
OH1ce Now Under Indictment

Even before he left Washington he
had gained an important onward step in
the solution of the mystery. Following
ont his ideas on the subject, he went
one day to J. J. Barnes, who had been
employed in the Land ONCE for thirty
hve years. and who was trusted abso-
iuteiy by his superiors Mr.. Burns had
a talk with Mr.. Barnes Although the
interview was not noted for it's length,
ne obtained a confession from the
trusted clerk" a confession, by the
way, which has not yet been made pub
nc out which gave Detective Burns
great start in his work He had broken
'iie net, SO to speak, at its very apex
IN the meantime, Arthur 3. Pugh. an
attorney In the Interior Department, and
marry 4. Steece, special agent of the
Lana Ofiice, had been sent to CaIifor-
MA TO ind out the extent of the frauds.
ihey came back to Washington and re-
ported them to be gigantic Then Burns
went West.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02

used, the bottoms of which are glass
The frames are placed one above the
other, small space being left between
the glass plates. The fatty substance
is spread on the glass and the flowers
are placed In direct contact with the fat
At the end of certain time. which
varies with the flowers. the perfume Is
absorbed by the fat, after which the
flowers are renewed until the pomade is
of the desired strength.
A third method is that OF volatile df3-
solvents In general the dissofvent en-
ployed Is an ether of refined petroleum.
The apparatus used are OF different
forms but they must all contain an
extractor, into which the flowers are
placed cold with the dissolvent, q de-
canter where the water contained in the
flowers is separated nom the mixture,
distilling alembic which forces the dis
solvent back through the flowers. and q
certain number of reservoirs IN which
the dissolvent is kept in a pure state -
charged with perfume. The dissciYents
after being charged with the perfume.
evaporates, and leaves behind the essen
tial oil. This method is by far the best
In the single department of the Alpes-
Maritimes the annual production Is S00,-
coo pounds of pomade and 4. 100000 quarts
of extracts.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Where Perfumes Are Made

r the southern part of France, which
borders ON the Mediterranean and
extends between the Alps and the
Rhone,, the culture of flowers has
developed into a great industry for the
manufacture of perfumes. In the de-
rartment of the Alpes-Maritimes the
rerfumery industry has probably made
greater strides than in any other por-
ton of France" says Georges Cages. in
the Monde Moderne of Paris. Here are
more than sixty factories. the total
product of which is valued at more than
100000 a year, and over 1,500 persons
are constantly employed, without count
ing the multitude OF harvest hands.
THE more important harvesss are
those of the rose, 4,000. 600 pounds; the
orange flower. 5000, 600 pounds: the vio-
let, 100000 pounds; the jasmine. ,200, 900
pounds; the tuberose, 800, 900 pounds; the
geranium, 10000 pounds, and the cassia,
800, 600 pounds. If it is considered that
all of these flowers are weighed without
their stems IT is evident that the guam
tity is enormous, and this fact will be
still better appreciated when 1t Is ex-
piained that in order to obtain two
pounds of rose leaves no less than a
thousand flowers are required, while a
thousand punches of violets, each with
a diameter of more than foot. fur
nish only forty pounds of flowers"
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Maceration the First Step.

Flowers all go through a preliminary
treatment of being placed in a cold
room, and plants. such as lavender,
thyme spike. mint; roots, such as orris,
fruits and woods are passed through
cutting and ma cerating machines. After
this has been done the perfume is eX-
tracted. the principal methods being dis
tillation. maceration. enfieurage, and by
the use of disSolventS. Distiilation is
only employed when the perfume is cot
injured by heat or steam. In this case
the flowers and water are put IN great
begins TO boil it disorganizes the vege-
table cells containing the perfume, and
this is carried by the steam through
the worm and condensed
There Is tlus obtained a mixture of
water and nerfume. and it is merely
necessary now To separate the two. The
process OF s.istillation. however. has the
great disadvantage of frequently alter
ing the perfumes obtained. and, there
fore, when il Is desired to obtain finer
extracts recourse must be had to other
methods.
For maceration the flowers are thrown
into a mass OF fat, melted and raised
to temperature of 65 degrees cent?
grade, and completely submerged. after
several hours the perfume being incor-
porated with the fat The mass is then
strained To get rid of the flowers. after
which the latter are soaked IN boiling
water and compressed automatically. In
this way all of the perfume is extract
ed.
In the enfieurage method frames are
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Called in the Secret Service.

AS soon as Mr.. Hitchcock discovered
the wrongdoing OF Hermann. he sent for
Chief John E. Wilkie. of the United
States Secret Service.
II want for this work the very best
man In your service" said Nj. Hitchcock,
now thoroughly aroused. Chief Wilkie
sent him that same day William j.
Burns, whose wonderful work In un-
earthing the land frauds has made him
famous on this continent and in Eu-
rope.
Mr. Burns went to work without the
loss OF day. He spent a month In the
Land Office in this city, learning down to
the smallest detail the routine and
methods in vogue in the office for the
registration and settlement of the Gov
ernment's unoccupied public lands. In
the day he worked at this. BY night
he thought the matter over and over
his keen mind finally forming a theory
as to how the landgrabbers We're work
ing. His theory was correct.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
William j. BURNS Of The us Secret Service.

bills at Washington. It was also on the
statements OF these men that Franklin
Pierce Mays. a State senator from
Portland was indicted, and is now
awaiting trial.
Senator Mitchells doings have been
exploited in the press for the past ten
days as result of his triSl being in
progress. It is contended by the De-
partment Of the Interior that Binger
Hermann, and others, will be convicted,
as the evidence against them is said to
be absolutely irresistible and indisput-
able
The manner IL which the clerks In
the Land Office were corrupted by the
agents of the robbers in the West
shows to q nicely the smoothness and
thoroughness with which they laid
their traps
One OF the conspirators would first
call upon them and ask for some or
dinary information that had nothing
whatever to do with the land steals,
and which, In its way, was entirely
legitimate. This information would re-
Qutre a little research on the part OF
the clerk. The person seeking 1t or any
one else could have obtained 1t by MAX
ing application to the head of the de-
partment. But when the clerk finished
the work the inquirer professed to be
very grateful to him
You have done me a great favor"
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Burns Finds the Trail.

Ihere he found that his general the
DRY about the accomplishment of the
frauds was correct, as follows:
"hen a State is admitted to the Union
the act of admission sets aside a GER
tain amount of ground known as school
lands, which the State NAV djspose
OF as II sees fit. the general rate of sa le
being from 81 to $3.50 per acre An
other law. the 'forest-reserve act" per-
ihits the President of the United States
10 create forest reserve in any State
from the school lands" the State get
ting' in return for the land absorbed by
the forest reserve. other lands of equal
area In other parts of the unoccupied
Government lands of the State.
Now. as a rule, the school lands Of
state are OF the poorest in the bounds
or the State. Consequently. when a
forest reserve is proclaimed. those men
VINO hold the scrip for the school lands
profit by getting in exchange much
richer land somewhere else.
SO, reasoned Burns it was To the in
terest of the conspirators to get as
much of the school lands as they could
since, If a forest reserve were to be
created where they took up the school
lands, they would be enriched by getting
better lands In the exchange
Ihere was another point however
They had 10 know where the forest re-
serves would be set aside. so that they
could take up the scrip for school lands
In the right places. This they found
out by ell-administered bribes in the
Land Once in Washington and, finally,
1t is claimed. by influencing certain off,
cials TO have the President proclaim an
area, designated by the landgrabbers as
the one they wanted. made into a re-
serve, because there they had taken up
their school lands.
In other words, the system was
'cinch,' as follows: By means of forg-
ing hundreds of names to land claims.
"a small body of men got possession oil
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Unearthed Wholesale Bribery.

Then it was thst William J Burns
ok hand in the game
Before he left Washington. Burns had
found out from the report delayed and
rigeonholed by Binger Hermann that
T.. a. Hyde and John a. Benson. ex-
tensive land spectators in California
had obtained large tracts of school
lands. In this connection the actions
OF certain forest superintendents and
forest supervisors in establishing the
boundaries of forest reservations were
brought under inyestlga ton At the
same time charges We're made against
CERTAIN employees in the General Land
Cftice, at Washington, who were said
to be giving out advance information.
Provided with this information and
the confession obtained from j. I
Barnes, Burns went TO California. Ari-
zopa, Oregon, and other Western States
the trail ne followed showing that the
conspirators had been assisted by the
officials above enumerated, by men.
women. stenographers, a Chinaman.
people of all kinds and classes. Little
BY little. piece by piece, he brought to-
Gether IN their proper sequence the
clues his tireless mind gathered The
hTpt led him into the sanctums of the
high and the humble dwellings, of the
poor. taught him the. crookedness of the
The Washington times., 1905-07-02

hundreds of thousands of acres of school
lands, which were in reality not valua-
bic. Then certain officials in Washing
ton recommended to the President that
he proclaim this very school land, held
by the robbers, as a forest reserve
The President. knowing nothing of
the crookedness in the case, would nat
uraily follow the advice of the men in
the Land Office, supposed to be experts
in the business. The reserve was pro-
claimed, and then the only remaining
work for the landgrabbers was to get
the best unoccupied lands in that partic-
ular State in exchange for the worth
less lands they had at first obtained by
perjury. forgery and bribery.
For q good while the thing worked
like a well-oiied machine. 1t had to-
The plans of the grabbers were wide
spread and perfect. Into their net they
brought by mans natural avarice or by
bribes directly and plentifully admin
istered, one United States Senator, one
Representative in the House, two State
senator's, an eX-district attorney, an ex-
assistant district attorney. two special
agents of the Land Office, and a former
Judge In addition to this, ten men in
the employ of the Land Office have lost
their jobs as a result of their compiled
ty in the land frauds
No wonder the arch-criminals laughed
at the Government OF their country ana
despised the claims that justice is
omnipresent. They laid the fiatterfng
JUNCTION to their souls that they had the
Government where they wanted it.
Their gold, they thought, would buy
every official they needed.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Revealed Startling Situation.

1here was one man, however, with
whom they had not reckoned-Ethan A.
Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior. 1t
was in the latter part of 1902 that the
Secretary received his first intimation
that all was not serene and orderly in
the Land Office. The tip came in a let
ter from personal friend, who said he
had good reason TO believe extensive
land frauds had been and were being
perpetrated in California.
Then Mr.. Hitchcock, throwing aside all
delay and red tape formality, got busy.
His first exploration into the land of the
Government robbers brouoht a startling
revelation, and hit a high official hard.
He discovered that Binger Hermann
then Commissioner of the General Land
Office, later a member of the House of
Representatives, had held UP in his desk
q report from Special Agent S. J. Hol-
singer. of the Land Office. who had re-
ported in September, 1902, showing up
the existence of a big conspiracy to steal
Government lands in California.
He also discovered that the inspector
had been sent on the case only after
SO many complaints had been received
from dissatisfied man In the West
that some notice had to be taken of the
matter Mr. Hitchcock demanded per-
emptorily from Hermann the delayed
report and read it through. Then he
demanded Hermann's resignation. Her
mann asked for respite of few weeks
SO that he might get his personal af-
fairs into shape. This was granted, and
during the respite. it is charged, Her
mann destroyed a large number of doc
uments belonging to the Government.
but discriminating him and others. Some
weeks ago he was indicted by jury of
the District of Columbia for this Of
fense.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Struck at Head conspirators.

Mr.. BurasI knew more. He had found
| that the Government was paying large
bills for surveying. That is. a gang of
surveyors In. the Western States would
| make affidavit that they had surveyed
| lands for the Government, and these
| claims were passed on and duly paid.
| 1t Is interesting to note that some of
| these surveys were alleged to have
been made on lava beds where no man
or beast could walk and live. 1t was
but sfdeplay of the gigantic system of
swindling the Government.
Arrived in Washington, Burns went
straight to w. D. Harlan, chief OF the
special service division OF the General
Land Office, In charge of all investiga-
tions of depredations of the public
lands, and William E. Walk, in charge
Of the lieu selections. Lieu selections
are the selections the holders of school
lands make of other Government lands
when their school holdings are absorbed
by the creation of a forest reserve
1t was a comparatively easy task for
the Secret Service man. now armed with
much knowledge Of the game, to make
the two high officials confess to their
completely with certain members of the
Iandgrabbers in the West. Then, under
Burns direction Harlan wrote a decoy
letter to Benson. who came from the
West to this city. He was guilty of
such indiscretions with the handing out
of money after he arrived here that
he was arrested. Benson was soon In
dicted by the grand jury here for bribing
the two clerks, Walk and Harlan.
Soon after, Hyde. Benson. and two
other men, Henry P Diamond and Joost
H. Schneider. were indicted for con
spiracy to defraud the United States of
large portions of its lands.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Arthur B. .Push. Special
AssistantUS.A In The
Land TrdUd Cases.

because some man had fallen out with
the other criminals in the plot.
The next remarkable feature was the
richness Of the loot which the land
grabbers would have secured and which
they did for a time hold They did moth
ing by halves. They worked in the pub
lie lands of the country. which COM
prise over SOC, ,000, 900 acres, worth, at the
lowest Governmental valuation, over
s., ,000, ,000. coo. Having such rich field.
they wanted only the best and greatest
plunder in the confines of the United
States.
They set apart for their own the rich
est timber lands, the counties where
mineral springs flowed. and the vast
tracts where mineral resources lay un-
developed, or where grazing lands were
situated Seeing themselves in the fu-
ture as lumber kings, iron milhonaires,
and owners of swell summer resorts,
they initiated their system of forgery,
false land registration. bribery. and per-
jury.
They stopped not at one State, but
attacked California, OREGON, Arizona,
and. If recent reports be true. went into
Utah. Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada,
Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. There
was absolutely no limit to the land
grabbers' avarice nor to his capacity for
rottenness in carrying out his nefarious
conspiracies.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Into the United States Senate.

From California and its graft. Burns
treck led into Oregon. and here. where
many racres of school lands had been
lr,u9ulently obtained. as in California,
Frank II. Walgamott. who lived in Ore
gon. made a confession that brought
about the conviction of Clyde Lloyd S.
A. ID. Puter. Horace G. Mckinley. En-
ma L. Watson and D. w. Tarpley. From
this beginning all the large timber land
prosecutions in Oregon were begun. 1t
is charged that a Portland man and q
millionaire lumber dealer of Minnesota
had acquired more than 900 acres in
Oregon. After the conviction of Puter,
Mckinley. and others confessions were
obtained from some of these men by
Mr.. Burns and it was from them that
the story was told of the alleged bribing
of United States Senator John H.
Mitchell of Portland. with two 81, 600
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
WEDDING PRESENTS.
Ry a Victim.)


As soon as May had named the day
She issued Invitations
To all the crew our mothers knew
Qncluding poor relations),
We were aware they all would swear
In language far from pleasant,
"Confound it, / shall have to buy
The blessed pair a present.
Then boy and man in cart and van
And motor car came driving,
With gifts galore. and more and more
And still they kept arriving;
And housemaids flew, and postmen. too,
TIL all the terrace wondered,
And night and day they rang away
Lord, how the knoeker thundered.
We worked in shifts upon the gifts,
And when we had unStruns them
We'd twenty score of forks and more,
But not q knife among them
And as we two had scarce a. sou
There seemed 10 be caret
When silly mugs gave claret jugs,
But not Il drop OF elaret.
We'd endless gengs and sugar tongs
OF every shape and fashion,,
As If sweet tea was bound to De
iieneefortA our ruling passion.
We'd -sschets. too. of pink and biua
With sickly perfumes scented,
And. oh. the show of art nouveau
With which we We're presented
And now we've got the little lot
We're under obligation
To every guest We most detest
And every poor relation;
And by the time the church bells china
And HyHen ties the true knot
We find-too late-we've all, we hate,
And nothing that We do not.
London Punch :.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02

thoroughly depraved mind, and finally
brought upon him an attempt at bribery.
Everywhere he turned, hands full of
| the gold which heretofore had been all
powerful, stretched toward him. But
| il was Of no avail
Getting the details of the story well
| ip hand, he suddenly called upon B. F.
tsslen, who for years was a trusted
agent OF the Interior Department, and
was at that time forest superintendent
at Los Angeles, Cal. Allen broke down
and confessed, saying he was con-
nectcd with F. A Hyde
| The next man called upon was Grant
I. Taggart, forest supervisor, who,
| up to this time, had borne an excel
| lent reputation. Under a rigid exanni-
nation by Burns Taggart confessed
and gave a detailed account of the
| manner in which he had established
the boundaries OF the forest reserva-
tions in his territory under direction,
! he said, of John A. Benson The
Secret Service man was now ready for
the suspected employees in the Washing
| ton office.
Back to Washington he came with the
knowledge that the gang in the West
was fortified and completed by a gang
| of equal Yillairy beneath the roof of
! the Land Office and the dome Of the
Capitol. The men in the West got their
school lands by dummy" signatures to
applications for those lands. One firm
| in the West advertised extensively for
clerks and stenographers. The adver-
tisements were answred by the hundred
and these signatures, obtained by slip
ping them from the letters of the young
men and women seeking, honest labor,
| were appended to the dummy appli-
cations for land. Other firms did not
even take this precaution, but signed
to the applications the names of peo-
, pie who never existed.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
The Call of Corruption.

The call of unlawful wealth went into
the many rooms of the General Land
Cffce. and corrupted clerks and in
spectors; was whispered In the cloak
rooms of the House of Representatives,
finding victim; was taken to the
august presence of the highest legisla-
tive body in the world, the United
States Senate, ard here one man, old
with honors and with record of TWEEN
ty-fiye years faithful service to his
State In that body. fell from honor and
fair dealing to wallow in the n1ire of a
wrecked reputation and a ruined old
age.
which should take from the Govern
ment it's richest lands. forgery was
eomIaitted. followed closely by perjury,
subonation Of perjury and every
known form of betrayal of the pubic
trust Men who drew their pay and got
their daily bread from the Government
turned against II with as little COM
junction as they would have shown in
taking an afternoon stroll
While the residents OF Washington
passed the big gray building at Ninth
and T streets In their daily journeys
Down and up town, probably rejecting
on the grandeur and stability OF our
system of government, there was being
enacted within that very structure the
climax of such conspiracy of graft
and robbery as would make the British
army scandals pale into insignifcance
and the Russian naval corruption look
like the clumsy, miniature work O. the
low craftsman who prizes open doors
and windows 10 steal a gold watch or
a ten-dollar bill.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Remarkable Exposure Of
a More Remarkable
Conspiracy.
Unlimited Hush Money
Offered to Secret serv-
ice Official.
His Dragnet Enmeshed
Men of tie Highest
Standing.

IT HE United States, after long and
careful preliminary Investigation.
is nov engaged in bringing to
justice the men who have robbed
the Government of its public lands To
reach position where legal prosecu-
tions were possible and feasible, the au-
thorities have had to discover and cx-
pose the ramifcations 81 the most re .
markable conspiracy ever Matched
against any Government in the history
OF the orld. This work has been done
by William ]. Burns, of the United
States Secret Service, who in his search
for proofs showed his right to rank
among the greatest detectives in his
tory
What the landgrabbers have done Is
this: They have planned to fraudulentIy
get possession Of over LOCO 900 acres of
the public lands; they calculated thai
they would be a quarter of a billion
dollars richer by means of their GRIM
inality; they have bribed United States
officials high and low; and, in their mad
search for ill-gotten gains, they have
hesitated at nothing, exhibiting a daring
and recklessness born of the convic-
ton that their wrong-doing would never
be brought to light.
Taking those States whose large area
stretches to the West and Southwest of
the country, these robbers wove a net,
the meshes of which drew into the snare
of crime State and Federal officials.
Their nefarious plots stretched out
beckoning fingers from California to
Washington, the Capital of the Nation.
and. as the fingers glittered with hush
money and illegal rewards, the beckon-
ing was not in vain.
The Washington times., 1905-07-02
PLAYED For High Stakes.

tLres OF the conspiracy was the excel
lence with which 1t was planned and
the uninterrupted smoothness with
which il progressed. until, as In so
many other crimes, the Government
was given an inkling Of the situation