Arizona republican., 1909-06-04
!, FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 4, 1908

l that there had been lot of needless
 worry on the part of some of the ap- | plicants. in respect of some others in
 the line. Paul Hastings, general freight and passenger agent of the $. F. P. & P, who stood near the head of it, was supposed by. some to
 be representing a big Santa Fe syn
 dicate and others circulated the story
 that he was a representative of the
 owner of the Agua Fria dam. La Fayette Myers, chief agriculturist of
 the local sugar company was ac-
 cused of being a land grabber for
 that institution. Several others were
 in like manner arraigned as land l grabbers,' etc. It transpired that ev- eryone of these gentlemen, so far as has been learned, was there repre-
 senting himself or some of his inn
 mediate friends, just as were all the
 rest of them, honestly seeking to get
 little piece of land each for him. self and his own individual use. MT Hastings said he was up near the
 head of the line, not because he was
 railroad official, but because he
 has been watching this thing for
 some time and paid a man the pre-
 vailing wage for sitting in line for
 him all day Wednesday, then We'd
 nesday night he took the job him.
 self. He has a filing on 320 acres
 and anybody who wants to know
 where it is can find out by inquiring
 Mir. Taliaferro was the only man
 in the line who asked for an acreage
 above the settlers limit. His demand
 was based on his scrip, concerning
 which there is no secrecy and in
 respect of which he still believes he
 had the right to make the filing
 Though 1t is too early to consult the
 records successfully it is believed that
 most of the filings did not conflict
 with the selection of Taliaferro any
 way, though it is likely a few half
 sections have been taken in a part of
 the tFact he had decided upon. When
 the door was opened MT. Taliaferro
 was among the first in line, the ap-
 plicants having been previously pro-
 vided with numbers according to their
 position. The next man was La Fa-
 yette Myers and but two were sup
 posed to be admitted at once, though
 the next man. Paul P. Hastings was
 admitted as a witness for Myers and
 Myers accompanied Taliaferro as
 their business was part of it together.
 Mir. Myers represented himself and
 incidentally R. P. Davie and several
 other employees of the sugar factory
 each desiring an entry on his own
 account, but all of whom had arrang-
 ed with MT. Taliaferro for 2720 acres
 of San Francisco Mountain Forest
 reserve, unrestricted scrip to pay for their lands, Mir Taliaferro to do the
 filing for them He made the tender of the scrip, stating what he wanted.
 He was shown the rule that no appli-
 cant could file on mere than 32O acres at one time and must then re- tire to the rear of the line. The value of the scrip was not even dis cussed-merely the limit of acreage. After the refusal MT. Taliaferro re- stored the scrip to his pocket and from another drew a large quantity of railroad scrip of another sort, to- gether with $624 in cash to cover the fees. and then made his application for the larger tract. Without accept ing, rejecting or in any way ex- hibiting prejudice as to the scrip or without even inquiring into the acre age desired except to ask if it was more than 32O acres, he was told that no filing above that amount would be taken. He then withdrew.
 Later in the day, at the request of Mir. Davie, after all the settlers in the line had been waited upon, he returned to the land office and made the filing for the 2720 acres desired by the beet men and their associates This was paid for with the forest scrip. This tract is situated north of Peoria several miles, on the Mesa be- tween the Agua Fria and New river and was not sought by any other settlers.
 The rush which began as soon as the office was opened, lasted until 1 or ? o'clock before all in line had been served, but applicants kept com- ing in occasionally during the rest of the day so the officials had all they wanted to attend to. There was only one filing made outside of these Agua Fria lands, an ordinary home stead entry.
 Aside from the above incidents, | probably the most notable group of filings was that of ten men repre- senting what was referred to the night before as the Melczer and Southwestern Realty company's crowd. It 'in reality a project of H. M. Lewis the land specialist of the realty company and is one that prom ises the early development of con- siderable area of as fine valley land as anybody would want The syndi- cate. for it is in reality to be a sort of a farming or irrigation syndicate, is composed of the following men: H. M. Lewis, c. B. King, Louis Melc- ger, Emanuel Treuhaft, Edward Melczer, H. E. King, E. A. Goodrich,
 Major R. H. Wimpy, Joseph Shear, and Celora Stoddard. These men took up 3220 acres in township 1 north, 1 west It is a little west and south of Bill Moore's station on the Agua Fria in sections g, 8, r, 21, three-fOurths of 20 and one-half of IS.
 The land is all west of the Agua
 Fria, but between Moore's station and
 the mouth of the Agua Fria, so it is
 practically between the Salt river and
 Buckeye valley. It is proposed to
 pump water from point near
 Moores station where the water
 comes within eight feet of the sur
 face. One of these gentlemen is a
 new conner in the country, Major R.
 nn