Omaha daily bee., 1907-02-07

Minor scenes and incidents sketchet
ON the spot.

Officials Of the Interior department arc
following a warm trail. OF western land
crooks in New York City, New Jersey and
Long Island Several colonies Of dummy
entrymen have been located In that sec
ton. and the object OF the chase Is to secure
evidence against certain railroad officials
and others tending to show a conspiracy
TO defrsud the United States OF valuable
tracts OF coal land at the southern end Of
the Big Horn basin in central Wyoming.
Nearly 1000 acres are said to have been
entered with fraudulent intent A proni-
nent government official quoted In a Wash
ington dispatch, to the Chicago Tribune
said that eighteen dummy entrymen, In
Guiding bootbacks, cab drivers, BARRIERS,
etc, in New York and Long Island have
confessed that they agreed. for price, to
enter the lands, and that after securing
patents they had conveyed their interests
to their employers
Tho Northwestern Coal Mining company,
New Jersey corporation and the Owl
Creek company, both doing business in
Wyoming, have been made the subject OF
investigation. Behind these companies is
said to stand a big railroad system that
was DESTROYS Of acquiring the land alleged
to have been entered. and subsequently
patented, In violation Of law.
In this connection the Hartman and
Gould roads are mentioned, as well as the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. The latter
is now building a branch from its main
limo TO that part Of the Big Horn basin
where the lands alleged to have been OBJ
tained through fraud are situated.
Inquiry develops that while the officials
of the department Of justice and the in
terror department have been making ar
rangements to prosecute in New York
OF the public domain. interesting infor-
nation having bearing on the case has been
collected in other quarters.
For example II is known that of eigh-
teen persons in New York City and Amity-
willie who made confessions that they un-
Willingly violated the law, seven or more
have repudiated such confessions in afflda-
Wits. These affidivats aver that government
inspectors in prosecution Of their inquiry
sought to intimidate the persons alleged
to be involved, and threatened that II papers
submitted by the inspectors were not signed
men and women so refusing would be put
in prison"
Colorado's senator-elect, the Hon. Simon
Guggenheim, was escorted to the chamber
of his future activities, and maybe glory.
by Senator Patterson, reports the Washing
ton Herald 1850 happened that the first
conscript father to whom he was intro
duced was Mr. Money Of Mississippi, who,
In defiance of the original relationship be-
| tween nomenclature and It's bearer. recently
embraced an opportunity In senate debate
to declare the belief that he is the poorest
member of the body. Colorado's senator
elect smilingly Informed Money that he had
heard of him before, and was acquainted
with his record.
tO HuhOUn fha 1anafOr-
elect was presented was Mr. Tillman, who
had heard OF him before" In his min
strel' speech Mr.. Tillman spoke Of the
swan song Of Smiling Tom Patterson, OF
Colorado, the state recently bought at
auction by one Guggenheim."
Mr.. Patterson, evidently realizing the
irony Of the two encounters already ex-
perienced, FASTENED to convoy his success
sor over to the republican side OF the
chamber. ito show them what they had
got" Ms he afterward remarked.
1t was when Mr.. Guggenheim got
wedged in between the portly Mr.. Elkins
Of West Virginia and the ponderous Mr..
Kittredge of South Dakota, that the d.
minuteness of his stature was en-
phasiEed He then appeared to weigh
about hundred pounds and to be proba-
bly, as tail as FIVE feet. His height seems
to be Just about that of Mr. Alice Of Del
aware, Of whom President Pro Tempore
Frye once declared that when the Della
ware statesman addressed the chair he
couldn't tell whether he was standing up
or sitting down.
Robert Marion IaFollette has been able
to accomplish more in the short time he
has been in the senate than any other in
dividual. either on the republican or demo-
cratic side, says the Pittsburg Dispatch
correspondent. He got the senate to pass
his sixteen-hour bill before he had been In
| the senate a year. It is true that when
they permitted 1t to be passed the senators
| had what they believed to be assurances
that are worth something that 1t would
never be permitted to come out of the
| house committee room to which II was
sent
But Robert Marion is a resourceful young
| man. Although the railroad brotherhoods
appear now to be against him, the feeling
is growing that restriction of the hours
a railroad man may work is more for the
interest OF tho travelling public than it is
for the benefit Of the railroad men them
selves. because 1t has been shown that the
Terra Gotta wreck on the Baltimore q
Ohio was caused. In part, by the engineer
of the dead" train. who had been on duty
about hfty-two hours in sixty.
LaFollette will find ways for bringing
pressure on the house committee that has
his bill pigeonholed. He always has found
ways to get his legislation enacted. for he
is a persistent little customer. He never
had a friendly majority in any OF the
| legislative assemblies that passed his legis-
lation. but he got what he wanted anyhow.
being in that respect good deal like
Roosevelt.
The punctilious standard of responsibility
set up for himself by Senator Pettus Of
Alabama was illustrated a few days ago.
| A dapper young man called upon him. the
| grandson of an old southern friend long
| dead. The caller talked Mr.. Pettus out Of
| $50, promising 10 return It in few days,
| but the senator learned that the young
man had Immediately deserted his wife and
| gone 10 parts unknown. The fine old gentle
man lost no time in hunting up the deserted
| wife, gave her enough money to meet her
| pressing necessities and also paid her way
back to her girlhood home In Alabama. IF
| I hadn't loaned the young. scamp money"
| said Senator Pettus when asked about the
incident "he would not have been able TO
! get out OF Washington and desert his poor
| little wife. I therefore hold myself re-
sponsible for her unhappy plight and, OF