The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1907-09-06
WEEKS HIS
HEARING At j. 5.
land OFFICE
MONDAY AND TUESDAY CRATER
WEEKS TRIED CASES AND
LOST OUT.
.R0PE-1AR and FEATHERS TALKED OF
He Has Failed to Win a Case but
Continues His Rotten Deal
Settlers Indignant.

Land CRATER Weeks and his gang
are busy this week at the United
States Land Office in this city. Recent
mention was made of this notorious
outfit and their graft. They filed a
large number of contest cases against
the settlers Of this section without
| discrimination. After this paper
lcalled the public's attention to them
they got scared and withdrew a large
number, but a number still remain
on the docket.
In our mind the Weeks gang is
nothing but a set Of grafters and,
we'll a skunk is a gentleman in COM
parison with the ri%ng-leader. We
ant think of words strong enough
to express our contempt and disgust
For the outfit and their nefarious
work.
Their contest cases have no merit
and they have lost every case tried
so far.
On Monday they made a bluff tc
contest and deprive Mrs. Eugeina
Coons out Of her claim, but when
they saw that the lady was prepared
to fight for her rights the slippery
outfit withdrew the contest. On the
same day they had a case against
Harry Spear. This case was dis:
missed by Register Bennett on account
of imperfect affidavit made by tho
grafters. On Tuesday the confess
against Harry w. Jones claim wa
dismissed for the same defect as il
the Spear case.
They are a wiley and crafty Sc
of grafters as their procedure shows
for in the atidavits referred to above
the oily outfit crossed out the words
con OATH so that the c%ontestan
Esimply made a statement and not al
oath of their case.
We have no hesitancy in Stain.
that we believe they did it for TIL,
purpose of eliminating the chance o
wearing stripes for perjury.
The people are getting thorough.
aroused and becoming more and NOR
indignant at the outfit, and if the.
are wise they will .'vamouse" befor'
they suffer personal violence. o.
all sides we hear talk of a rope, ia
and feathers, and various othe
modes of entertainment for them
and we would not be at all sur
prised if we had some such event t,
chronicle in the near future if the,
continue their graft.
Just to show the injustice worke'
on the settlers, we again call atten
ton to the cases of Monday an
Tuesday. The lady, Mrs. Eugein
Coons, is a widow, and her CLAIM
is east of Rapid City several miles
She was compelled to go to the ex
pense Of hiring a lawyer, also O
bringing five or six witnesses here t
testify besides the loss Of time an
trouble on her part. All this eS
pense she had to pay and there i
no way of avoiding it.
Besides his lawyer, Mr.. Spear ha
the expense of twelve witnesses, an
Mr.. Jones' expense account was n
small amount. Thus you can see a
a glance the rottenness of the dea
and there doesn't seem to be an
law by which the grafters can b
made responsible for the expens
their graft incurs. But one thin
is sure, and that is, that the settler
of this section will not stand for tn
Weeks imposition much longer, an
we are afraid that if the peopl
can't find a law on the statute book
covering his case, they are liable t
make one