The New York Herald Newspaper, October 3, 1875, Page 6

INDIAN FRAUDS] — Business Operations of an Indian Agency Under the Reform System. HOW ANNUITY GOODS WERE STOLEN, — +--+ The Process of Converting Indian Supplies into Greenbacks, PARTYERSIMP BETWEEN AGENT AND TRADER. ‘The Mystery of the Burning of the Build- ings at Fort Berthold. DEPICIENCIES CONVENIENTLY ACCOUNTED . FOR, The Story as Recounted by Two . Maids of the Forest. Fort Bsrtnor, D, T., Sept. 19, 18 Soon after Mr, Sperry took charze of the agency, in the fall of 1873, rumors were circulated that Tappan, \ the retiring agent, had cheated him, and that there | was a large deficiency in stores and implements. These rumors came from Sperry himself He appeared to be in great trouble, and an ex-employé says that ho wanted the men to make affidavit to the ot that the inventory given him by Tappan was false. ite that flour, "sugar and coffee were missing, There was considerable talk about the matter among the em- ployés, and it was said then that Sperry would have to burn the agency buildings to save himself, Meanwhile he was devising all kinds of pluns to get money and branch out in bis reformatory scheme. Indians that through Tappan’s dishone laimed He told the the agency | was short of supplies and money, but he would | do the best he could. They listened. in si- | lence, Thia was an admirable excuse for send- ing them horns aud entrails to eat while he y out of his mess house and forcing His gospel seemed was making mon employés to sign blank vouchers, to be that he must cheat the government and his friends because Tappan had cheated him. stantly on the lookout for detectives, When he sold the men Indian provisions he would close the trar tion by asking them to say nothing about it, A who was familiar with his ‘irregularities’ was order off the reservation and accused of stealing. Sperry dd He was con- | soon heard that he was giving damaging information | to the citizens along the river, Indian Department wrote him a letter, asking him to say no more and he would withdraw his charges of stealing. agency four. missionary enterprises he trafll d to the India din the goods that ns. Large orders were given Raymond for goods, When the agent first came here he said that he must advertise for his that the Indians might have the of competition, I have already shown t fore he had ever set foot on the reserva- tion he abargain with his fellow graduate, the th post trader, to bu lai ton to sell and considering the in Minneso! goods. ed special permit from Washing- But that is not strange, hare rece a. Having authority, according to bis own statement, to ‘do as he thought best,” he has con- tinued to bi nd until this day without giving the other merchants a chance to compete with him openly; and it is hard to tell who have furnishgt most goods, the department contractors or Ra Co. f Raym A WIDER FIELD OF OPERATIONS. After devoting the greater part of two years to e species of petty iniquity, the partners prepared to e on wider fields of operations. As before stated, Sperry trader's denies that he has any interest in the aflairs beyond 8 personal friendship for the man The antumn of 1 drow near, October, the golden month, was the time set for shipping the aneuity goods. Other invoices of mer- chandise for the agency had been received and put aw n the warchouses. It will be shown that between the 10th and 20th of this month of October the agency buildings were Durned und a steamboat load of Indian goods landed in the woods below here, and the gvods stolen. It is said at the a that the fire occurred on 12th, but, according to the file of the Bismarck Tribuner it happened on the night of the 12th. I think the paper boat put off the goods on the From that day until this the had no peace. ¢ history of crime shows that me person around whose presence is n complaints are made to an in agent’s band is sufficient to of existence. hat man is a squaw man; you can't This settles tt, and the ot. Of course the testimony of men wou > weight with the friends of the Rev. E. P. Smith, but on the witness stand the maker Of a faise voucher ands no better chance than the white hus iz there is never dreamed of. Wh Spector one e say ng pair ¢ were develop t of both Sperry and Raymond excited suspicion. They were uneasy and troubled, I made atrip to. Port Stevenson, near night of the | k and Fort Peck | ‘Then the saint of the | Last year be paid some of his employds in | Not having money to push forward his | mith’s past carser ag agent | nond & | Both of the jobs | | through the | lows the crest of the hig | wi this agency, and on my return found that Raymond | hasbeen interviewing certain parties a I knew concerning. the Fort Berthold matters. this time men who had worked for his teamsters left for Canada. Raymond made a trip to the agency and Sperry started East for Inspector Watkins. No sooner were the men who ‘talked too much’? got out of the country than Raymond assumed his old smile, and he walked around town with the air of a newly-elected Congressman, Ail sorts of theorles began to circulate in regard to the fire and the landing of the steamboat, Some of them were undoubtedly devised to baffle in- vestigation and cover the guilt of the thioves. men who knew most kept perfectly still in public, but ught every cépy of the Herarp that camo to About they b Bismarck, and Raymond travelled over to Fort Lincoln to get missmg members, On my trip to Fort Stevenson | learned that Sperry was greatly alarmed. He stopped at Wheeler's Hulf-way House one day, sked hin what he knew about the fire and the Wheeler said that he believed the and he khew that the Nolly landing above his house, At t became much excited. He asked n hour, and occasionally went out and the house ina most singular way. He w Wheeler knew the exact date the river, sad Wheeler, “and I can show the time.” read it Bis agitation in and agency was ect on Bre, Peck thie th: questior walked around wanted to know when the boat won “Lkeep a i you the entry th When Sperry © creased, “Was thig before or after the euow? Could I find the trail alone?’ be asked. Finally he told the man in a low tone that the matter was serious, and that he must be careful what he eaid, When I heard bow particular he was about the trail, the date and the time of the snow storm, I knew that | the snow played au important part in the transaction, In the course of his conversation Mr. Sperry admitted that the fire, having occurred so near the steamboat robbery, looked suspicious, In all of those intoryiews he took precaution to say that he kuew nothing of goods having been landed., His actions betrayed Lim. ‘The distance from Bismarck to Fort Berthold by land is ninety-one miles; by river it is 150 miles. About half way on the journey the river makes a long sweep- ing bend toward the west until it comes in sight of Fort Stevenson, above the coal banks, when it makes o how much | The | NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, OULUBER 8 1875—QUINTUPLE SHEET. FORT BERTH OLD. Diagram Showing the Destruction Caused by the Mysterious Fire in October, 1874. oh - tt. re m . 5. INDIAN VILLAGE ae. iS VE LAA WW Office Issuing ‘tpt PRESENT AGENCY OFFICE sr HOUSE CARPENTER'S SHOP > MILL twenty miles further up are the Counted Woods—a landmark well known to pilo STORY OF TIE LANDING. Sow, the story was generally circulated that the get over a sand bar, that she took them on again made her return trip, two days after. T er bottoms are either full of large tim or Wheeler did not see the thick brush and rose bushe boat land, but his neighbor did. He had moved aw Wheeler isa hunter. He, myself and a government officer went to look for the place which many others bad hunted for in vain, We literally crawled » of rose bushes and willows for three quarters of a mile, but found only an old hun amp. But in the old Indian trail, which fol- ner banks, we saw fresh tracks, med V his tells the story. re hunting for the wagon trails.’ so dim that we lost them, and no lense jun “Ha! ha!” excl Sperry has be The track: trace of th ! could be found, Night “came on and we were forced to retire to camp. jer declared U away, aud that th the wagon trail It is nee the toil- some search and many journeys of the weeks follow- ing. One morn before sunrise, the officer and my- self set out to make final search. It vaguely oc: curred to me that the Painted Woods story was set afloat by Raymond's friends to conceal the real spot. I resolved to go further up the river, We left the mouth of Turtle Creek at sunrise on two ponies, with one saddle bi us In three or four hours the bluffs became tremendous and progress was difficult, There was no sign of either gang plank or wagon trail. We had already travelled twenty miles and the hills were be- coming more precipitous. Suddenly a long grassy shelf appeared under a low bench, and at the upper end was clump of trees, A few bushes grew near the river, and a heavy thicket began 100 yards below. “THR COUNTED WooD: t the bank of Inst year had washed jess to describe cried thi trees, and at the same Instant a strange crescent-shaped spot appeared in the luxuriant grass near the water. One's blood tingled then, for it was the place where the goods had been piled, and near by was the notch in the bank which the deck hands had made for the gang plank. The deed was done ten months before. The grass was waving all around, but where the freight had been piled there was nothing but bare earth and blasted herbage. Nature had cursed the spot, and it can be | seen to-day unless the agent's friends have shovelled Fearing that they would do this and proot I went to Fort Lincoln it into the river. then call for | and hired an artist to go up ana photograph it, He loft Bismarck at midnight, with your correspondent | and a United States marshal. We were watched, and Raymond knew that we had gone early the next morn- ing. His bosom spy lived opposite the livery stable, and bis principal duties were to post the trader and his friends, The entire journey, 140 miles, was made inside of twenty-four hours, without rest or changing horses, yet the news was in Fort Berthold soon after | the pictures were taken. A MYSTERY PXPLAINED. When we saw the marks of the freight pile but no wagon trail the meaning of Mr. Sperry’s remarks about the snow was revealed, The goods were carried out on the ice and on the snow, The snow came soon after they were landed and it bid them, but not before two men bad geen them from the deck of the same boat that comritted the pirate deed, The lieutenant who frat do- tected Mr. Sperry In his “irregularities” took passage on this on her return trip, and be and Mr, Marsh, a foriner trader, saw the pile and spoke about it at the ime, Raymond and Sperry have since tried to make the public believe that they only saw some empty coal another bend. Just below the first bend, on the east- | boxes covered on the bank. The statement is absurd, ern side of the river, are the Painted Woods, a heavy growth of timber, eight or ten miles long. Above the Painted Woods is tho mouth of Turtle Creek, which emplies into the river at the great bend. Fifteen or because the coal mine is several miles above the place described to me by the lieutenant, MR, SPERRY'S DEFENCE. After the Nelly Peck had landed these goods on the mer landed her goods near the Painted Woods, to | avy spring rains had obliterated | cer as he counted nine large cottonwood | night of the 16th she went into Berthold and delivered her cargo of annuity goods, which Colonel Hus.on, of Fort Stevenson, afterward checked off by the invoices and found to be correct, which Fdo not doubt in the least, Sperry, Raymond and company wore too sharp for the officer, They probably cooked up their documents at Sioux € so that most of the cargo Id be stolen at the Counted Woods, Sperry says that the boat did come and land her 0, and that no goods were missing, and on the ter which hangs tn his office he has made notandum of the date and of the amount of goods puto™ Ibis this:— SPEREY'S MEMORANDUM, se cai steamboat ri Nelly Peck ai blankets, five b fed Now, n pretend to say that a | large steamer like the Nelly Peck makes a trip to Fort Berthold, and no further, for the express purpose of landing two or three wagon loads of merchandise? Everybody on the river knows that the Indian goods are carried by contract and that the boats go up | stream with at least half a load. The Missouri 1 a terrible river to igate. Six miles anu hour is fast sailing against the current, It is @ long trip from Sioux City to Fort Berthold, and Mr. Sperry’s arguments are too thin to analyze. Instead of saying that they had nothing to do with it, if the boat did land, Mr. Raymond's friends denied that avy goods were put ashore, Others raised the cry that the man who hauled them was Joe Penuell, who went to Manitoba goon after I reached Bismarck, This was done tocover the real offender. The truth is, some of the teamsters who helped haul them went to Canada with | Pennell, but Pennell himself did not begin working for | Raymond until the goods were gone. The man who did the job is in Bismarck, holding another contract, and Raymond is bis warmest friend. I made a journey to Canada to interview the teamster who was at the freight pile before it was removed, and when I began questioning the man his teeth chattered and he shook like a leaf for fear of detection in other crimes as well as this. A responsible man told mo that last winter, when he was teaming for Raymond, he was given two boxes of goods at Berthold with an order for the clerks in the other store in Bismarck not to open them until he (Raymond) came down. Tho men had made part of the journey when'the weather became intensely cold and they took the responsibility of opening one ot the boxes in search of blankets. The box was full of blankets and they were exactly like sent to the agency some time before when they were not branded. those ‘TRSTIMONY OF AN EYR WiTsRss, The following is a synopsis of an aMdavit which T send you for future reference. My informant was p | ent when the Nelly Peck put the goods ashore in the | night. It seems that she landed at two places. Ho says that be first saw the bout land near the Counted Woods, below his camp, Sho passed him later in the evening and stopped again in the woods, five miles be- low the mouth of Snake Creek. It was gotting late, He went down to the boat for some whiskey, which he said he did not get, The crew were busily unloading the cargo, consisting of boxes, barrels, bales, &¢.,, of merchandise. About forty tons of freight had been put off when ho left, ‘The spot isawild one, High biuifs overhang the narrow bottom. No merchandise had ever been landed anywhere in the neighborhood before. STOLEN SUGAR DISCOVERED, After this, in the following spring, about the 2th of May, he went to the same place to look for ash timber inthe brush, When close by the spot where the goods were put off he saw two largo pits, where they had been cached in the bank. The largest ono was about forty feet square, and the other about twolve foot square, The poles which had formed the roof were ly- ing scattered around, and the ends of some of thom were still in the ground. In making tho roof they wad been covered with earth, The river was rising, water was already in the bottom of the pits and the bank was rapidly cutting away. In the edge ofone of the pits he found a barrel of sugar which bad been overlooked aud washed out, and on closer examination he discovered a box of sugar. It was covered with mud, but the marks ‘Fort Berthold” were plainly visible. He took off his shirt and tied one end of it and carried the sugar to his camp. The box was burned. The sugar in the barrel was wator soaked and badly damagea, He says that he paid litue attention to anything but the sugar in the box, CORROBERATIVE RVIDENCR. A gentleman, who holds an important office, says that he was empioyed on the Nelly Peck during her first trip that same season; she laid over at Berthoid. ‘The boat always makes it a point to stop for the night at an agency. The first thing done was to steal a wagon load of tce from the agency icchouse, She took wood at various wood yards without paying for it or leaving a card, a8 is customary, Near Fort Benton she stole thirty cords. On the return trip she arrived at three o'clock A. M., and laid over again at Fort Berthold. The crew numbered twenty-four men. The following day was spent in loading a cargo of mixed Indian goods, The crew did not get them aboard until after dark, There was a large pile on the bank when the boat first came there in the morning. Three teams were hauling the goods down to the boat during the afternoon, I suggested that they might have belonged to the trader whom Raymond succeeded. He replied that he knew what he was talkinf about. When they were loading he asked some of the men on the shore if they did that kind of business all the time? They laughed. He said, “You are ascot of thieves.” ‘The brands had been scraped off and new ones put over them. As soon as the bont landed a long conference was held between the officer and those in charge on shore, after which all hands went to work. On this game trip thirty tons were taken on at Fort Peck. In both instances the goods were in broken packages, showing that partial issues had been made from them, HOW THEY DID IT AT PORT PECK, It was on the next trip that this same steamboat put off the Indian supplies at the Counted Woods and the point above, River men have become so used to seeing boats unload their cargoes on sandbars and in thickets that they take little notice of such “irregularities,’” In 1871 Jamos Emmons, a merchant in Bismarck, was mate on the Miner, now known as the Carroll, When near Fort Peck he saw the Nelly Peck unloading her cargo ona sandbar, On closer exatnination he saw the clerk, with brush and paint, busily obliterating the Fort Peck Indian brand, which was on every package, It may be asked, ‘Suppose the goods wero landed at the Counted Woods, what has that to do with Sporry and Raymond? How can it be proved that either of thom were concerned in the transaction?” The very fact that the fifty tons of stolen Indian supplies were not misved at the ageney shows that Sperry is guilty. A few facts will dispose of Mr. Raymond, Last winter a man, whose name I have in my notebook, went down to Bismarck for supphes. He bought them at Ray. mond's store late in the evening, after business hours were over, While standing near the counter he noticed 4 pile of boxes which had evidently just been brought in, marked “I. B, Sperry, Indian Agent, Fort Ber- thold."” The brand was the same as appears on all of the goods for that agency, He was particularly strack with the spectacle, but said nothing. He was to call for his goods and leave town early tho next morning. So, before sunrise, he drove up to get the purchases of the previous evening. The clerk, who slept in the store, was not up, but after considerable pounding he was awakened, when he aroso and opened the door. The Fort Berthold boxes wore gone, bat on the floor were a pile of fresh shavings. The customer watched his chance and quietly picked up some of the shavings, and putting the edges together he recognized the identical brand which he had seen on the boxes tho might before, Sperry’s name was onthem. As this, like the othor statements, can be proved, it completely answers Mr, Sperry’s denial that he is not in company with the trad Here is a good place to quote the law, See vol. iv., B. 735, sec, 14:— And be it further enacted, That no person employed in the Indian Department shall have any interest or concern in any trade with the Indians, except for and on account of the United States, and any person offending herein shall forfeit the sum of $5,000; and upon satisfactory information of such offence being laid before the President of the United States it shall become his duty to remove such person from the office or situation he may hold. Last winter Raymond did a large business, particularly in flour, When the agency buildings were burned heavy orders were sent in and his teams were travelling back and forth continually. It should be borne in mind that his large establishment is at Bismarck and that his Indian store {s at Fort Berthold, next door to the agency office, There was no demand for so much flour in Bismark, yet he went to Genoral Custer and asked leave to borrow or buy flour from the Quarter- master, He said that the supply was short and the people would syffer if it were not inereased. ‘The agony of hig benevolent soul must have been great, and I suppose it was for this reason that the Nelly Peck scheme was concocted. The flour stolen from her would be just the thing to ease the market and keep the Indians and white people from starvation and death, INDIAN FLOUR SOLD BY THE TRADER, ‘The facts are Raymond had large quantities of flour all winter, and much of it was Indian flour, One of his teamsters told me that he hauled from 400 to 600 sacks of it to Fort Berthold, from his private warehouse in Bismarck. He also hauled some of it to Standing Rock. Indian flour is generally put up in double sacks. Only the outside sacks are branded, so’ tho work of removing them is easy enough after @ man once gets his hand in, By these statements it will be seen that Sperry and Raymond were determined to make money out of the agency. As there was claimed to be a large cash de- ficiency the first year, and not an overwhelming ap- propriation the next, they tried the experiment of converting Indian sypplies into groenbacks, We now come to the particulars of the great fro, when the warehouse and most of the agency buildings were destroyed. It is a favorite way of covoring de- ficiencies and of giving contractors and traders a new deal all round. The goods to be stolon were already on their way from below. If Raymond got them he must have a chance to sell them. Besides this Sperry wanted now buildings, By having a good sweeping fire the trader and the contractor would be benefited. Then the men who put up the buildings would need supplies. But why burn the stores? Haul them away in the night ana putin a bill for them the sumoasif they wore burned. By this means all the partners in the reformatory board would receive double ‘divyies,”? and our 10,000,000 taxpayers would be none the wiser, I-learn from Raymond's and Sperry's employés that scarcely any goods were in the warehouse twelve hours before the fire. DETAILS OF THE FIRR. On the night of the 12th of October Mr. Courtenay, the clerk, say» that he was in his room adjoining the office in tho stockade, when suddenly there was a glace of light, Rushing to the window ho saw tho fire breaking through tho roof of the south row of buildings. He ran toward it, awakening the inmates as he went, On roaching the door leading to the cook's room he met the cook com- ing out with a small dish of water in his hand ‘There must be fire somewhere; Lam going to put It out,” said he, coolly. “I should say there was a fire,” replied Courtenay, and it was not long before all the buildings inclosed on the map with dotted lines were in flames. Mr, Courtenay admits that there is mystery about the fire. The agent and his wife had their things packed in trunks, ready to be pitched Into the yard. They wero saved, Mra Sperry said the next morning that she had’expected all along to go Bast in afow days, but have yet to find » single person who knew that guch was her intention before the night of the fire, On the contrary, I am in. formed that. a wook ar so before, sho did not expect to | wave at all. This shows that Sperry kept the plot te himself until he was ready to act. Persons who lived beyond the agent’s quarters scarcely saved anything. He claims a loss of $700, mostly for jewelry stolen by Indians. It is said that the same jewelry claimed to have been lost has been seen on Mrs. Sperry’s person since the fire. Itis strango that the flames were not extinguished: The houses were of heavy logs, and the roofs were covered with thick layers of earth, The Jn- dians declare that Sperry and his friends did not even attempt to stop the fire, Most of the whites did not come out until the flames were under full headway. The wind blew from the southwest, but the fire swept both ways, until the west, south and east sides of the block were in ashes, ‘TUR SCENE was one of confusion and grandeur. A terrific howl was set up by the Indians They rushed into the | flames in a frantic way, and some were severely burned, | They say that they brought out most of the goods the wastiroom and the storeroom adjoin. There was a | cookstove in this washroom, near the skylight, and it is claimea by Sperry that the fire caught from the stovepipe or the ash barrel which stood near the stove, None of the whites seem to know much about it, as | the flames were well under way when Courtenay mot the cook. I think that the cook knows a good deal about it, (or after he loft the agency he told several | persons in Bismarck that ' SPERRY BURNED THX BUILDINGS. Now, most of these men around the agencies keep | squaws, Moore, the cook, was not a regular squaw | man, but he was intimate with them in a quiet way. | Two of them, Corn Silk and Black Calf, were employed in the kitehen and washroom, which at | cook’s bedroom, as shown inthe map, It seems that after finishing their day’s work they lingered for their friend Moore” General Custer has an intelligent and trustworthy intepreter who hasbeen in the country for | many years as merehant and trader and is perfectly familiar with the Indian language. He was formerly a | Printer in the office of the St Louis Zepub- | lican, He and others who havo lived at Fort Berthold told me about these squaws and the statement they had to make. So I suddenly in- terviewed them—each separately, One I found at the river and the other at the farthor end of the vil- Inge, That I had seen the other neither knew nor that I was coming at all. They both told the same story, and the most careful cross-examination did not alter it, When I had gathered my facts I took them to Mr, Courtenay and asked him what ho thought of them. He reminded me of his duties in the absence of the agent and said that it certainly would not be proper for him to take sides, but he admitted that there was something mysterious about the fire from the begin« ning. THE SQUAWS’ STATEMENTS. Corn Silk said that she and the other woman had been working for the agency five years. She washed clothes and dishes and chopped wood. After supper, on the night of the fire, she washed the dishes, and at eleven o'clock was on the washroom waiting for the cook to come, ‘The other woman, who had been wash- ing all day (the fire occurred on Monday night), was with her, It was late, and sho said she wanted tho cook to come and lock up, so that she could go home. Sud- denly the cook opened the door and said the house was on fire. She rushed out and saw a light in Sperry’s room, A kerosene lamp had been burning there all the evening. Now a@ part of the lamp was in Sperry’s band It had been exploded, and the flames were running up the partition to the roof, Mrs. Sperry was standing by. Both were a little way from tho burning wall It was after this that Courtenay came and met the cook running out with a litte dish of water, According to Mr. Courtenay he protended that he had just arisen from his bed, Black Calf sald that she had been washing clothes during the day, Tho other woman, Corn Silk, was with her, They were waiting for the cook. It was late. Suddenly he camo in from the yard and said that there wasafire, She ran out with the other woman and saw a blaze in Spefry’s room through the window. Sperry and his wife were there. The lamp which had been burning on the tablo was in his hand exploded, and the fire was shooting up toward tho roof, DAMAGING STATEMENTS, ‘That a lady should be a willing witness to such an act seems incredible, I could scarcely believe it until other facts were developed, A man who knows more about the inside workings of the agency than any other per- son except the agent and one other, was an eye witness to the following acts. They show how easily frauds may be committed, even when thero is a military in- Spector to check goods and compare them with bills of Jading, Last fall, before the annuities were issued and before Colonel Huston had come to inspect them, Sperry sold a lot of the calicoes tothe Indians, They wero stored inthe granary, Sperry and his wife brought over pieces on several occasions, and she sold them to squaws at the rate of six yards for a dollar, This continued until Sperry heard that Colonel Huston was coming to inspect. On the following night the agent and his wife went to Raymond’s store and got enough of Raymond’s calico to make up the defalca- tion, which was between twenty and thirty full pieces, They carried the goods in their arms and made several trips, This sadly interferes with Mr. Sperry’s declara- tion at the beginning of his reform that he must adver- tise tor his supplies. ‘THE MAP OF THE AGENCY BUILDINGS. After making a map of the agency buildings as they existed before the fire, I submitted it to the carpenter, to Mr. Courtenay and to several others, and revised it until they pronounced it correct, The fire occurred on Monday, On Friday, four days afterward, the Nelly Peck put her cargo ashore, Mr, and Mrs, Sperry's trunks were already packed and they left at once for the Easte Soon after this an order was issued by the In- dian Department to the effect that if any agent left his reservation without permission from Washington the act would be considered as a tender of his resignation. In a fow weeks, on the 6th of January, Mr. Sperry, who had returned, again went East; but as tt was against ex- plicit instructions from the department he travelled under an assumed name, On the hotel registers he ap peared as S, B, Lyman, and I think his letters from the agency bore that address. Instead of discharging him, as he threatened, brother Smith forgave him and re- ceived him with open arms, ‘TH NEW BUILDINGS, Arrangements were quietly made for putting up new buildings. Raymond did not get the contract, He bad all the glory that he could manage for the season. Tho steamboat business and the Indian flour which he was selling were fully as profitable asa building contract, If he had nothing to do with the contract it would divert suspicion and furnish the public with additional proof that there was no partnership between them. But some good friend of the red man must have this con- tract. To give a $15,000 speculation to an outside infldel would bo madness, So it was turned over to N. P. Clark, the Minnesota contractor, and partner of the notorious Wilder, of St. Paul, a warm bosom friend of the Rey. E. P, Smith. The contract was really let for $10,000, but it was enlarged to the neighborhood of $15,000, The friendship and perfect understanding that exists between the agents and various members of the Ring have long been~ a subject of surprise to the ordinary peopte of the world, notwithstanding they always begin their whitewashing statements to the newspapers with the declaration that they have never met, and that they have only the slightest business acquaintance. I could not help thinking of this when Isaw Mr. Sperry’s omployés (who are paid by the government), putting in full day’s labor on Brother Clark's contraet, The men said that they were ordered to work there, and, although Clark was paid for doing the entire Job, they were obliged to follow their instrue- tions, The buildings l0ok neat and cosey at a distance, but they are flimsily constructed, and totally unit for the heat of summer or the storms of winter. ‘There is no wooa in the neighborhood, and a more inconvenient logation for the Indians could not bave been seiected. Had he mado brick and put up substantial brick struc- tures he would have dono something worthy of his office, Aman who builds such houses to stand the Siberian rigors of a Dakota winter ought to be fined, When ho was with Inspector Walkins during his whitewashing tour to the Painted Woods he cross-ox- amined a lawyer who was present. The legal gontlo- man did not give him much satisfaction, and both the officials were somewhat chagrined. Finally, said Sperry, ‘What do you know about the steamboat busi- noss, anyway? “There is aman,’ ho replied, “who stolo some of the goods while they were still on tho bank.’ The agent’s face broke into a smile as he eag- erly exclaimed, “But he 1s out of the country.’ Mr. Sperry’s reformatory career has been a grand epitome of corruption and deceit, His conduct haw been consistent from the beginning, and when viewed da the light of his professions it ts black with inivuity, | which were saved, In the diagram it will be seen that * next to the