Year: 1875

HIGHER SALARIES NEEDED


Five thousand dollars year little enough 10 pay
an agent Tho boss farmer should have So 600 the
clerk So 600 year. and the other employees salaries in
proportion. Then they would not be tempted TO make
false vouchers and cheat the government as Mr..
sperry has done He knows very wen that the HERALD
has uncovered enough Of his niqutes TO disgrace any
Raymond knows it; and since | found some wit
that he tried to silence he offered to sell out
his business | am told. Mr.. Sperry the immaculate
conception Of the Indian Department. who sent two sets
Of blank vouchers IN June for a steamboat captain in
Bismarck to sign knows that his viany to be pub
lished 70 the world. Since l to Canada after wit
nesses who left after l reached Dakota Sperry.
Raymond Il Co. have threatened and entreated and
coaxed, and now that am ready to publish the result
of my Investigations Mr. sperry threatens to resign


Said he to "frend" the other day. ''The HERALD is
about to print damaging about the agency
the burning Of the buildings the landing of steam
boat load OF Indian goods in the woods last fall
What do you think Of these charges Y he asked They
look bad, said the friend. II admit it, replied the
terrified maker Of blank vouchers


REFORM WORKED


One of the first things Mr. sperry tried his hand at
after he had fairly embarked his scheme of reform
was to engage a carpenter TO make twenty-five Red
River carts The agreed to make them for $40



vouchers and said that he the carpenter for
other work and could pay him unless he worked it
in with the cart account He admitted that it was
somewhat irregular. l find by consulting the now die
tionary compiled by Smith, Delano & Co. that there
is such word stealing but when an
agent robs the government he commits rregularity
Well, after urging, the carpenter signed the
vouchers for making twenty-five at SIS each the
total amount being 1878 Now, the moral of all this is
that the carpenter received only S225, and
Dave sperry, the agents brother, got the $3.50
which belonged to the government. Whether the
twins whackod up when they were alone
| am unable TO say The operation planned and
executed by l. B. sperry asked the carpenter about
it and he tried to let sperry out In fact could get
satisfaction until took United States marshal with
witness and told the carpenter that could prove that
he received only $40 apiece for the and that Dave
got the $3.50 The trembled, turned pale and
fessed. He said that he would lose his place and
sperry would make it hard for him. Mr. Sperry is
hereby informed that discovered the steal at Fort
Stevenson and not from the source that he suspects


THE AGENT MAKES SPEECH.


About the time these carts were under way Mr.
Sperry made speech to the men. He said that he
intended to deal fairly by the Indians, to reform the
agency and build up Christian community. He
sured them that he honest man. that the Indians
laO Oeen TODOeu ana starved. lie nau come TO give
them food and Christian protection AS for the white
men, he hoped that they would have to do
with the squaws and their heather practices He took
particular pains tell them that Tappan the former
agent had stolen s44 OOo to- but happily he
(sperry) discovered the fraud in time to warn Com
missioner Smith and stop the payment of the vouchers
On other OCCASIONS when the 'squaw men"
waching him too closely for comfort he gave them lee
lures religion and the beauties of moral life


A TRANSACTION SHEET IRON.


About this time he bought some stove-ppe elbows in
Bismarck There were six Of them, but twelve were
entered on the government books He had some words
with of his about the number. The black
smith declared that only delivered and that
only six mentioned in the bill, but Sperry in
sisted that he bought twelve Whether he bought
twelve or fifty, all the workmen agree that more
than six found, and the who put them
up says the thing. An affidavit can be shown to
the effect that when Sperry first in from the
wagon he said, ''here are six elbows from Bismarck;
have them put up"


man who knows Sperry well says that if he has
chance make a dollar honestly and easily, and
chance swinde the government of ten cents at
the risk of his reputation he will go for the
every time The Indians more graphic in their
figures Of speech They paint him this way


"He is little, but his pockets deep"


'He is small, but he fills large room"


Their household for him is ''the little thief"
'the little liar" They not only speak of HIM in this
way among themselves but they address him so to his
face They have told him hundreds of times that he
robs them and they have threatened his life repeat
edly Their hatred of him is something frightlul HIS
regard for their souls is mockery, and all
that has done for them, except the way of
limited agriculture, is burlesque the Christian
religion


A FIELD HONEST MEN.


There never was better opening for a kind and
faithful missionary Deacon Beales' daughter a
good woman. The record that she has left among
these Indians everlasting rebuke to the shoddy
venders of mock morality, such Sperry and his
apoogsts. Miss Beales teacher here, and have
never heard word said against her The ''squaw
men," the Indians, and the enemies of sperry
all unite in saying that she was a noble
Christian philanthropist-as practical as she was
good 1t is such persons as she that are
needed among the Indians agencies These sham
missionaries which Smith rob and rule the
Indians, have the least sympathy with them in any
respect Sperry has moved his quarters nearly two
miles away from the place where they have lived for
ong years. because he hates and depses the poor peo
pie whom he starves and swindes.


FATHER DE sMET


has left testimony that cannot be overturned He rav
slled everywhere nearly half century ago, and until
lis death, few years since, he received by the
tribes with open arms and he has been their friend
from the day that he left the colleges Of Europe unt he
aid down his life In their behalf Sperry's philan-
hropy is the philanthropy Of the Forty thieves and
he is to be compared with De Smet than Dick
rurpin is TO be compared with John Howard. AS
protest against calling Indian policy
Christian policy Ihave visited the Catholic agency at
Standing Rock, the Methodist agency Fort Peck and
lastly the Congregational agency here at Fort Berthod
As employ6 told me the other day, their manage
ment would shame the pirates Of the seventeenth
century


sperrys chief forte in petty stealing OF tho most
kind. For open, shameless robbery a
grand scale Raymond is called IN, / shall show in
future letters While Marsh trader during the
earlier part Of sperrys administration he had occasion
to ride with the agent from Bismarck Berthold dis.
tance Of ninety mixes The horses that drew the vehj-