Arizona republican., 1920-08-03
TUESDAY MORNING. AUGUST 3, 1920
No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.
 -Juvenal.
Strengthening the Record

 Prescott Courier:
 prosperity and the homes of the Salt River valley. Mark A. Smith is the man who maoe the prieis sunshine and clear title the place or the ciouo which was the widely known and fraudulent Reavis land grant. Representing Reavis were attorneys oi national reputation, them Roscoe ~ ~Conhiiis, So far had this fraud gone that many had secured titles from Reavs and paid him for them. Ieepie senting the people was Delegate Marx Sniiln VI Arizona. After a long drawn out fight Tor honesty the people he proved the fraudulency or the claims Reavs and sent that unworthy to the peh,. tentiary Many a happy nome nov, now .. n s @ ,sarl valley of uncertain title but for Marx smiths great fight this mammoth land fraud-
 Rogers-we presume he was the author of the foregoing tribute MT Smith, writing of the things of which he must have known at one He here at the time when the great fraud burgeoned and when it wiited. He must have that time familiar with all the circumstances. must have known that MT. Smith had as much with the exposure of it as Colonel Rogers himself or John Doe and no more.
 We are not questioning loyalty of Mr. Smith his socitude for them; his desire to serve that time when the dark cloud or the ta-Reavis claim hung over all southern Arizona. So unassailable it seemed that such men as Collis P. Huntington. Robert G. Ingerson and Roscoe Conkling deceived and many citizens of Arizona so believed the impregnabiIfty of the claim they purchased from J. Addison Reavis titles to holdings they had previously bought.
 Reavs formerly a street driver or con- ductor n St Louis. Sometime in the eighties he went to California and there married Mexican girl some say Digger Indian. Then he invested her with descent from Spaniard of noble birth grandee to whom king of Spain more than two centuries be- fore had granted territory which embrace all of southern of central Arizona including Salt River Valley.
 apparently supported by authentic records found in Guadaajara Mexico and in Seville, Spain There seemed to be point for success ful upon the claim.
 early nneties there established the private land claims for the disposition of large number Spanish grants in Arizona and New Mexico. In the early sittings of this court many of these grants confirmed and recall that about that time Democrats Arizona denounc- ing the court of Republican origin, designed to confirm all these grants. Whether Mir. Smith, who a delegate in congress voted for the bill establishing this do not recall but remember distinctly that of the adherents of Mfr. Smith bitter against the and they dcted it's confirmation of the Peralta Reavis grant
 Yet. for the the spurious character Of the claim would probably have been discovered The weak spot in the structure found by Severo Maliet-Prevost special counsel for the government assistant to Hon. Matt G. Reynolds, attorney the court It is quite probable that other in America would could have found this weak spot.
 Mallet-Prevost was of Mexican birth He was highly educated and in Europe. He visited Guadalajara and Seville. No flaw found in the Guadalajara records but Mallet-Prevost noticed something in those at Seville. that would have escaped the search of mind and less intimately familiar with Spanish history.
 He found in the name of a forgotten Spanish duke who he did not live until some time after the pretended record. With that end of the thread in his unraveling by Mallet-Prevost of the fabric which Reavis had painstakingly constructed easy, o the case at Santa Fe in the middle ninetes which ended in the dissipation of the cloud immediate ly followed by the arrest of Reavis who con- victed and to the pententiary.
 We very familiar with and were for long time in possession of of import papers including photographic copies of the Guadalajara and Seville records.
 There perhaps United States either Mr. Smith or any Democrat Republican, other than Provost to whom the misplace nent Spanish duke would have meant anything But that young man it meant immediately the end of his labors the downfall of the most ingenious and comprehensive fraud ever conceived for securing possession of principaIity
 There is here desire detract from the long and great service of Mir Smith Arizona a ter ritory and later state. We Mir Smith would make claim any service he had not per formed equally Colonel Rogers who must been familiar important an event a quarter of a century ago would will fully pervert record but that he has fallen a i'm 10 that fraiIty to all.
 MalIet- Provost by the way, is living a member a New York law firm. He served al various times counsel for the governments oi -nain Mexico. Venezuela. Colombia. Nicaragua ;uatcnala other Spanish American countries -fo was secretary the commission appointed by president Cleveland secretary of the commission
 renort on the British Guiana Venezuelan bound
 +be subject of a dispute which
 o,,.,a us in a with Great Britain but for th'