Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-02
STORIES OF THE
SECRET SERVICE
The Missouri Land Leaguers.
Copyright, 1905. by Marion G. seheitlln-)
BY CAPTAIN PATRICK D. TYRRELL.

Y BY CAPTAIN PAT
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Copyright 1906 by Marion G. scheitlln}
Just at this time, when a dozen or more
men of heretofore high standing, among
them a United States senator, are under
fire by the government on the criminal
charge of stealing millions of acres of pub
lie lands on the Pacific coast. it seems to
me to be an especially fitting opportunity
to recall the operations of the Lindsay ring
back in the 70s. This steal has passed into
criminal history under the title of the Mis-
souri, Land League. The twenty-five men
who We're convicted fo- this crime We're the
pioneers in the science of government land
stealing on wholesale basis. Their Pacific
coast pupils, now being prosecuted, ope-
rated by slightly different methods to be
sure, and on a larger scale, as BELTS the
era of large operations in which they live.
but In their general plan they have proved
worthy successors to the Missouri pioneers.
The plot that has enmeshed Senator
Mitchell is the greatest of this generation;
the plot that sent twenty-five men to pris-
on In the Missouri case was the greatest of
its generation. In Missouri the son of one
of the biggest thieves was member of
Congress, educated for a legislative career
on funds stolen from the government for
which he was to make laws. Others were
bankers, lawyers and men who had envable
regulations in their respective communities.
Three of them were personal friends of
President Grant. The same general feature
presents itself in the current Pacific coast
case.
In my dealings with criminals I have
always been disposed to throw heavier
mantle of charity around the evil-doer who
by birth, environment and lack of oppor-
tunity for better things has followed crimi-
nal paths, than around the well-bred, luxu-
riously nurtured thief whose wrong -doing is
contrary to, and not because of, early train
ing or necessity. Such crimes as these two
gigantic land grabs. therefore, appeal to
me as being of peculiarly vicious kind
and the prosecution of the culprits 1 be-
lfeve 20 call for efforts of extraordinary
earnestness on the part of the government
Land grabbing, as exemplfied in the Mis-
souri, case, was composite crime, of
which forgery. perjury, larceny, arson and
wrong was done to the owners of millions
of acres of land, to say nothing of the
moral wrong of the crime itself, by the un-
settling of titles to the farms of southeast
Missouri
If there ever was a spot in nature I'M
fitted for a theater of crime 1t is the Ar
cadia valley in southeast Missouri. It's soil
is rich, its streams clear as crystal it's air
haZy blue and its people peaceful. Yet
here was the scene of a score of crimes of
violence growing out of the one big plot to
steal land from the government and sell
1t by Irregular titles to people who could III
afford to lose their savings.
To this day in Arcadia valley there Is
pointed out to the traveller a tree from
whose gaunt limbs seventeen men have
been hanged between the civil war and the
time / entered the valley in the hunt for
and-grafters These tragedies were all the
grewsome fruit of the one big crime. The
victims were men whose crime was know
Ing too much about the operations OF the
by accident and sometimes through their
own misguided efforts. In the land of
''moonshine" stills knowing too much has
ever been a capital offense punishable by
death at the hands of self-constituted
judges and executioners. So 1t was In Ar
cada valley and throughout southeastern
Missouri following the civil war, the ia
booed subject being land frauds instead of
the making of white corn whisky
From this readers must not infer that
Robert L. Lindsay and the other principal
thieves were in conspiracy to commit
murder, but they were In conspiracy that
led to murder as an incident. Young Lind
say was supreme in the district and his
word was law, even when ii meant the
commission OF crimes of violence to protect
the land conspirators in their nefarious
plans.
A large number of supernumeraries were
necessary, men who little by little were
dragged into the crime vortex for meager
pay and, once involved, were driven to des-
pe'ate crimes to protect themselves. In
Vulnerable county officials and other men
prominent within the county lines, but the
merest cogs in the big machine of fraud
were drawn into the common cause of land
stealing. Such men composed strong Sc
cret, oath-bound rings in the counties of
Shannon, Dent, Butler, Wayne, Reynolds,
Iron, Carter, Oregon, Madison, Stoddard
and Ripley.
Do not understand me to say that all
officials in these counties were corrupt, for
some were honest men who dared not move
against the thieves There were enough of
the dishonest ones, however. to control
largely in public affairs of the district and
to succeed in fostering general belief that
no mans life was safe who became an in
former.
Thus matters stood in the fall of 1879.
Carl Schurz was Secretary of the Interior
and James j. Brooks was chief of the secret
service, Elmer Washburn having been de-
posed by President Grant because he had
been so vigorous toward some of Grants
friends in the whisky ring scandals. / had
been chasing the ever-active but elusive
eounterfeiter through the central west
when my chief called my attention tn
communication from a resident of Missouri
to the Department of the Interior. This
letter pointed out the fact that wholesale
were DelHS III MISSOURI
in land matters and roughly indicated the
method by which the stealing was being
done. Secretary Schurz had turned the
communication over to Chief Brooks and
1t soon reached me.
In the early part of 1880 registered at
the primitive tavern at Ironton as James
Hall of Chicago. Inquiry before my arrival
had convinced me that there one man
in the district whom / could trust implicit
ly, and he was Bernard Zwart, United
States commissioner for the district and as
"square-toed" a government official as II
ever has been my good fortune to meet To
him / revealed my true identity; to others
l was the representative of a Chicago land
syndicate.
You have a prodiglous task before YOU"
was Zwart's Introductory remark. Not
only that. but you are dealing with a clique
of men who are deep In the mire of fraud
and who will not submit tamely to being
hauled into the daylight by the govern
ment."
1 realized this fully. I asked Zwart for
such information he could give