Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1911-04-10

tracts, and, II satisfactory, sign and
acknowledge the same and send to
some bank here, with the balance Of
payment, and / will execute the
same and the bank will return one
copy to you. Hoping this will be
satisfactory, we are.
Yours very truly,
COLUMBIA SOUTHERN IRRIGA-
TION COMPANY.
Per W. A. Laidlaw. "
Notice having been served on
plaintiff to produce the original Of
this letter and being unable to COM
ply Herewith he tetsified in relation
thereto that he failed to recollect
the communication. He was then
asked: Would you say to the best
of your knowledge and belief that
you did not receive such letter." and
answered: 81 don't think l did"
The evidence shows that the copy
appeared in regular order in a book
kept for that purpose, and as it is
admitted that contracts were sent by
mail to plaintiff with directions to
execute them, we think the copy
was sufficiently identified and in re-
ceiving it in evidence no error was
The defendants attention having
been called to an interview with
plaintiff in Portland, by an inquiry
of the court: "Was that the first
time you had seen him?" he replied:
'The first time that had seen him;
and he said that he didn't under
stand the conditions of the purchase
just as the contracts were sent up.
He supposed we were to prove up on
the land, and l told him no, it was a
mistake, and that they were to make
proof, and we talked the matter
over quite bit, and he said one OF
these tracts he wanted for his older
son, ]. o, Gerking, think, and that
he wanted one of them made out to
him, and he couldn't very we'll have
two" Q. HIMSELF" A. Him
self; he spoke about it, as one of the
sons being under age and couldn t
take 1t, and so we arranged then to
leave one of the claims, the Champ
Smith claim, which was about ready
to prove up on; the work had been
done at this time to prove up on, and
we would give him a bond for a deed
| to be decided to him when it was
proved up on" @. "The idea was
that 1t would be proved up on by
the company, and this bond was to
secure them; they would get the
title when it came to him?" Eyes
sir" @. did you ever authorize
this Mr.. Cook or his brother, B. S.
Cook, to represent to Mr.. Gerking
that the company owned any of this
land?" A. mo sir" Q. did you
ever state to Mr.. Gerking that you
owned it or that the company owned
it, or had any power to deed it to
him?" A. mo sir, never did any
more than proving upon desert
claims" @. Nov, did you
tell Mr. Gerking, at the time he was
here in Portland, or any other time,
that Champ Smith was the name of
this man who was to make the final
proof and payment" A. "Yes sir,
l told them who all three of the
names were" @. And you are
quite sure you told him it was Champ
Smith?' A. Eyes sir"
Replying to the testimony given by
defendant at the meeting in Portland,
plaintiff said; 81 don't remember
that Champ Smiths name was ever
mentioned in the transaction" In
alluding to the declaration imputed
to him by the defendant respecting
Grover G, Gerking, the father fur
ther testified 81 don't think there
was a word said about it, l haven't
any recollection of mentioning my
son to Mr.. Laidlaw in reference to
that"
This testimony has been set forth
at length to show that Laidlaw never
ratified any representations made by
Cook to plaintiff respecting the con-
dition of the title to the land in sec
tions Z and in township 16 south,
range 70 east.
1t will be reembered that plaintiff
testified that defendant affirmed the
representations imputed to Cook as
to the quantity of water which the
corporation could furnish. This in
quiry, however, is rendered unim-
portant by the deposition of Grover
G. Gerking, who for several years
had resided on the land in contro-
versy and in answer to the question
as to whether or not the receiver of
the Columbia Southern Irrigating
company had not shut off the water
from such land before the close of
the irrigating season in the year
1898, replied "It was turned off my
fathers land but not off this partic-
ular tract to my knowledge"
Not word of testimony is to be
found q, tho 4,ona..sA ,-.,