The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1911-03-11
NEWS NOTES OF
NATIONS CAPITAL
(From f. J. DYER.)
Especial to Silver State)


WASHINGTON, March lit is
more difficult now than it used to be
to secure piece of government land.
As the public domain has been shrink
/ ing in area the government has grown
more vigilant in compelling observ-
ance of the law relating to the manner
in which such land may be secured.
There was time, however, when it
was comparatively easy for land grab
bers to get title to as much land as
they wanted with the aid of few ac-
commodating witnesses.
Fred bennett, commissioner of the
general land office, tells story illus
trating how this was sometimes done,
and showing incidentally that there
are men who have fine sense of the
technicalities of the law.
Under the desert land act it is neces-
sary, in order to prove up on claim,
to produce evidence that the claimant
has taken water onto every legal sub
division of his entry. A certain
claimant, says the commissioner, took
a party of witnesses in blackboard to
drive over his claim so that they
would be able to testify regarding his
compliance with the requirements of
the law. He was a conscientious man
and wanted no one to swear to any
thing but the actual truth. He accord
/ ingly tied bottle of water behind the
blackboard and then he punctiliously
drove over the land and every legal
subdivision thereof. This being ac
complished, the witnesses were given
blank forms to fill out, and they were
about to make affidavit to the ale
cations therein set forth when one of
them stopped and pointed to the bot
tie, showing his comrades that the
cork had come out of it and that all
the water had escaped.
Gentlemen he said. 81 can t
sign this affidavit. How do i know
that there was any water in that bot
tie when we drove over the claim?'
Deliberate Speakers.
Senator Porter j. McCumber and
Representative Joseph Russell Know
land are famed in Washington for
their deliberateness of speech. Sena-
tor McCumber would make an ideal
filibuster because he could talk all af-
ternoon without using up more than
the Introductory to his speech proper,
and as far as the memory of attaches
of the senate recall, nothing ever oc-
CURED to cause him to hasten in his
verbal delivery. Representative Know
land is his prototype in the house. On
the infrequent occasions when he
asks for recognition he talks faster
than he used to, but on January 81,
1911, when he arose to express himself
upon the merits of the Kahn resolu-
tion authorizing the president to in
vite the nations of the world to be
represented at the exposition to be
held in San Francisco in celebration
of the Panama CANALS completion, he
was able only to read telegram from
/ the Oakland chamber of commerce ex-
pressing fealty to the project, when
he was informed by Speaker Cannon
land sat down, but when the Con-
gressional Record came out the fol-
ing day it contained not merely what
Mr.. Knowland had really said, but all
/ that he intended to say as well; so his
constituents were not deprived of any
of his speech. 1t is said that Mr..
Knowland acquired his style by wait
ing for the lantern slides to be chang
ed when he lectured to Sunday school
! lyceums on the ruined missions of
California.
They "Took the Cue.''
| Congressman Theodore Bell, of
California, who made good run for
the governorship last year on the
Democratic ticket, made an excellent
speech before the house committee on
industrial arts and expositions in sup
port of the bill comforting on San
Francisco the sanction of congress to
hold there the exposition in celebra-
tion of the opening of the Panama
canal. Taking up the arguments of his
opponents seriatim he came to the
Oriental question, and said
Gas to the cutting off of the queues
of some Cinnamon in the Kearney
riots, / may say that the people at that
time but anticipated by a few years
the action of the Imperial government,
which within the last two months has
issued an edict that all Chinese must
cut off their queues. Instead of being
censured we should be congratulated
that We could take the cue as early
as we did,
His Sense of Humor.
Willis l.. Moore, the man who invent
ed the "flareback in meteorology
and who is popularly supposed to
manufacture the weather for the en-
tire conutry, was once a journeyman
printer and worked on the Burlington
/ Hawkeye He likes to talk about his
printer days. Incidentally it has
been charged that the weather man has
no sense of humor. This should, how
ever, be taken with some allowance
/ in view of the following incident:
4 A society woman wrote to Moore
asking him to be good enough to as
sure her of pleasant weather on GER
tain date when she contemplated Civ
ing a reception. Moore took long
gaze into his crystal, or whatever he
consults when he wants to know the
forecast, and then he wrote to his
correspondent as follows:
"Dear Madam: / deeply regret
that shall have to disappoint you as
to the kind of weather that will pre-
vail here on the day of your recep-
fion. I find that | have already prom