Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, September 14, 1895, Page 12

MEROES ‘1N BLUE AND GRAY! Maryland fnakes Make a Btrange Charge Upon a Union Battery, CANNISTER FIRED INTO THE LIVING MASS Genernl Grant's Double—A Montana Man Mistaken for the President In a New York Thenter— Other Incldents, YThe actions 6f snakes are 8o extraordinary that the true storiss told of them often excite disbelief. To speak of a tale as a snake story Is to fidicate that It Is unworthy of credence,” sald Aml Lyon of 2002 T street to & Washington Post reporter not long ago, “Yet the fact 1s that, mayvelous ax some of the statements are, they fall far short of actual occurrence, for the snake Is one of the most sipgular of all creaturés and its habits are in reafity fttle known. “In the summer of 1863 a battery, which had been, detached from the Department of West Virginia, was on its way from Cumber- land to Harper's Ferry, unaccompanied by other troops. It had encamped for the night In a well-watered ravine a few miles west of Hancock, Md. During the night a heavy rain commenced falling, and Just after dawn a large section of the hill in"the rear of the battery slid down. In a moment thousands of snakes wero scen moving In every direction. They were so numerous that they writhed among and around each other, forming huge living masses, turning and twisting. Many of them took the direction toward the battery, and the awakened and thoroughly alarmed soldiers at first cut taem in two with their sabers, but as the swarm kept incfeating they commenced firing at them wl!lf their revolvers as rapldly as possitle. 1t took the officers but a moment to see.tbat organization was necessary, and they formed the men in two lines. The outer line fired while the rear line loaded the re- volvers, the men in front using their sabers while waiting for thelr reloaded pistols. This kept down the pests In tha vicinity, but some of the huge convoluted masses kept moving, thaugh slowly, toward the battery. Finally' one of the guns was loaded with canister and fired several times into these masses, tearing them to pleces and MMfhg-them so full of dead or wounded #nakes that they were incipable of further movement. This extraordinary battle lasted him that It he wanted to see- Ksutx more than I did he would botter go down himself and look you up."” “That's all right,” sald General Kautz, np- parently woll pleased that the picket hi saved him an uncomfortable ride, “It I had | been there I would have told him to go to Halitax. “TES“#N right, anyway.” The sentry, Instead ‘of helng sent to the guard house ior insubordination in having impudently refused. to obey an order from his superior, complimented upon his dls- cretion n walting to be relieved from his first detall, The vetorafis who WeArd the story were dieposed to think that tho sentry was technic- ally correct, If General Miles had formally relleved him frow. picket duty there would have been no pretext for disobedience of a direct order. Certainly no €old'er ever re- celved more lenient treatment for apparent insubordinatidn,” " * COULDN'T LEAVE THE RIES, “In view of the fact that yaw have emelled the smoke of batttle” eald a Washington Star writer to ‘4" retired anny ‘- officer, prof- fering him a cigar, “you won't be afraid of this killing you?" 2 “Oh,"” he ®aid 2s he took it, “0 long as It fsn't a cigarette I can stand it. But, as I was saying’ te went on, “the oddest sp: men of a soldler 1 ever krew was Private Jack Scudder, @ member of my company when I was a_lleutenant during the first year of the war. Jack waa a stubby litile chap, Illiteraté and satisfled with It, and slouchy and lazy and giad of it. We were doing Virginia in those days and fighiing was frequent, and I noticad that whenever there was a_ skirmish_ anywhere in sight | Jack was likely to be there. One day after | we had been at it for several months about twenty of our men were caught on a rocky knoll by a battallon of cavalry from the other side and there was shooting at once, but our men couldn't stand the odds, and out of their hiding place they came and away they went, all except Jack; he remained hid up among the boulders and kept right on with his fireworks. The cavalrymen couldn't get up to- him without - dismounting, and he banged away with such fatal results at one or two who tried it that they backed away to get a new start, Jack in the meantime drop- ping one or two more of them and firing so fast that they couldn't tell just how many men might be up there to meet them in case they made an assault. While they were dally- ing about it a regiment of bluccoats hove in sight and the battalion of grays skedaddled and Jack came down to meet his rescuers. HUCKLEBER- unlimbered, { Everybody had seen the fight, and when Jack got back to camp he was the hero of the hour, and I was for making a corporal of him, I called him up to have a little private talk with him before taking active measures in his behalf and he routed me worse than he for over an hour, by which time the snakes in the vicinity of the battery were either killed or had escaped. The soldiers were utterly exhausted, and some of those who took part declared that they would rather face 10,000 confederates than these snakes. ““This story can be vouched for by any res- fdent of Hancok who was living there in 1863, as It was a well known fact, and was the talk of the surrounding community for a long time afterward.” & JUST LIKE GRANT. The theory, (hat every man has his counter- part, his living fao simile, is in so many in- atances .om record that it is generally con- ceded to be a fact. General Grant of pre- clous memory is dead and gone, but those who knew him and who know J. C. Savery, the Montana mine owner, insist that Presi: = dent Grant's double still lives in the person of Mr. Savery, says the Anaconda (Mont.) “ STatatd: ““The 1'keness of Mr. Savery to the . silent man was once strikingly compiimented at a New York theater. It citinced that the * two men were visiting the metropolis at the eame time. It was during Grant's last term * as president and but a short time before his triumphal tour abroad. The president had accepted an Invitation to attend the Fifth Avenue theater, and the management took advantage of the presence of the distinguished guest and announced his coming In the press. Of course as a result the houke’ wils crowded. ) That was, the night that Mr. Savery ar- rived from the west, and he intended retir- ing to ‘his room for a quiet,rest, but tome old friends found him out. They wanted to have some fun at Savery's expense. They had a pleasant chat and then the enthusiastic New Yorkers insisted upon taking the man fromr out west to the theater. It was then late, bub no w and’"the ~guest was prevailed BO....At..the theater they entered the box and Mr. Savery was given a prominent - position overlooking the audience and the stage. He had not taken his seat when the storm began. The curtain had not raised, and the house was filled with tumult, cheers, applause, waving handker- chiofs and fans, all directed toward the Savery box. Mr. Savery could not under- stand it, but his friends did. Their cards ad worked well. A few minutes later Grant and his party’ came in and occupied the box directly. apposite the one in which the Savery party eal. Grant. seoluded himself behind the curtalns and silence reigned in the house, though every he pointing and whispering, di- recting all attention toward the box in which Mr. Savery sat, the innocent center of at- tragtion. The attentions of the crowd finally became demonstrative, and bouquets and flowers.by the score showered Into the wrong box. ' {8 medntime Grant enjoyed the situ tion, which suited him exactly, from his seat out “of view 6t the audience. Mr. Savery.and his companions left before the play was over by a private exit to es- cape the throng which hung about until after midnight waiting for them to emerge when the show was out, and In the, meantime Grant passed out unnoticed. Most of that audience still BeTleve they saw the gfeat general that night, But for a fact they saw the man from Montana who was led to kis room, still won- dexlog. why S0 much attention was paid to his party. “What-is there about you or me that struck the audience with such tremendous force?" he iisked after the cigars were touched off. “‘Why, :my_ friend," ventured one of the party, “'you have simply been mistaken for President-Grant. It was announced that he would be in attendance, and naturaly the people wanted to see him. 8o, you under- stand, when you appeared In the box it was nothing more than proper that the crowd should show its appreclation, which they did, for you certainly resembled the general strikingly.” That eettled it. Mr. Savery bought, and it s one of his pleasantest moments in life when he refers to the evening that brought him such unexpected fame. IMPUDENCE REWARDED. ‘An amusing incident of the civil war was recently told at a veterans' reunion, writer In the Youth's Companion. the slege of Petersburg a Weldon railway w union forces. * One day General Miles, who had recelved not long before his commission as brigadier general of volunteers, visited an exposed quarter of tho line near Greensville, and no- ticed a grim sentinel on duty. Riding up to the picket, General Miles pointed toward Greensville and said: I wish to see General Kautz. Go down to his headguarters and tell him to come up here.” The errand was not a pleasant one. enemy were behind the exposed railw the messenger would be a consplcuous farget for bullets. LLam_on duty here pleket, tly. ‘That 1s all right” sald General Mi'es, Wwith a smile, “I know that you are on duty but T want you to go to General nd tell him that I want to see him no answer, upon to During ction of the a picket line for the sald the “I have been ordered on plcket duty," 8ald the soldier, with dogged pres tency, nd I must remain here until I am re- lieved,"” “'Very good," sald the genera!. * stand the matter, eral Kautz at once. All right," answered the picket. “If you want to see Kautz more than I do, why dor't you go down and look him up?" General Miles rode away In great anger, and sent word to Genmeral Kautz that the picket had been very lnsolent and ought to be severely disciplined, The next day at guard mounting General Kautz sent for the et, and asked him to repeat what he al Miles told him that I was on Guty and must remain until somebody in autbority relieved o DIQ General Miles rel'eve you? “No; he told me to go down the railroad . toward Greepsville, but he didn't relieve oy ““Well, did you defy him?™ " *No, indeed,” 51d (he picket, s merely told under- But I want to see Gen- had routed the enemy, “‘Are you aware, Jack,' sald I, ‘that you a1d a very brave thing in that fight this atternoon?’ What fight, lieut'nant?’ he responded. Don't be £q modest,’ sald I; ‘you know what fight.’ “‘You mean the half fight, lieut'nant Them rebs didn’t fight. bluecoats fit.' ““Well, none of them did but you.' Is that £0? I wuzn’t not'c'n’.’ “ ‘Didn’'t you know they all ran away and left you there alone?’ “«Well, T noticed I felt kinder lonesome.” * ‘That's all right, Jack,’ said I, getting to the point. ‘You did as brave an act as a soldier could do, and I want you to be re- warded for it." What did T do, lleut’'nant?’ “You didn’t run away, as the others did, when you would have been perfectly justifiel in doing exactly as they did.’ “Jack chuckled as though something funny had occurred to him. “‘Why, lleut'nant,’ he sald, ‘that wasn't bravery. There wuz a lot of huckleberries up there ist in reach of where I wuz lay'n’ among the rocks in the sunshine, and I wuz jist too dern lazy to run.’ “I knew there wasn't much chance after that to do anything with Jack,” sa'd. the officer in conciusion, “but I proposed cor- poralship to him as a slight token of es- teem, and it seemed to disturb him and hurt his feelings so that T gave it up as a bad Job.” don't you, Only the —_—— DECATUR'S NAVAL PRIZE, The Captured Macedonin of 1812 Now n Chowder Houwe. On the eastern shore of City isiand, look- ing 6ut on the waters of Long Island sound, stands .all that.remains of the once stanch and powerful British frigate Macedonia, says the New York Herald. The craft, which, years ago, reseunded to the clatter of arms and shook under the discharge of cannon, now does service as a modest hostelry, wnere baked clams and clam chowder are sold. The establishmenty,ls known as the Mace- donia house. On the end, facing the water, is inscribed In big black letters the history of the vessel, whose wooden decks constitute the greater portion of the structure. It fs also known as “‘Jake’” Smith’s placs. All that now remains of the original ship is the golid flooring of the main deck and the upper deck, which is also Intact. This wood- work,’ constructed of heavy oak timbers, with cross beams, fourteen inches square, and bedms running lengthwise, twelve inches thick, 8 forty-two feet long and thirty-two feet wide. The side walls of the ship were long ago destroyed, and the deck is now sup- ported upon walls of masonry. The beams contain hundreds of old hooks, from which the British tars, who originally manned he vessel, and the American sailors, who sub- sequéntly had possession, slung their ham- mocks, After years ‘of use, and often hard usage at that, the wooden deck planks and heavy | beams are In as good condition as when first put together. In fact, the years of s have hardened them. It is with ai that nails or spikes are driven into the wood, and an attempt to remove any of the ham. mock hooks 18 pretty sure to end in fallure. Here and there the timbers have drawn apart, leaving seams, in which one can thrust a finger. At least one of these cracks was used as a hiding place for money by one of the scamen of those early da: existence of a continental bill in this crevice was made known In rather a singular man- ner. Jake"” was busy behind his bar one day last summer when a large, black spider, hold- ing fast to a silky thread of web, brushed past his fa The animal climbed to the crack and disappeared. A stick was poked in after it In order to dislodge it, when a crumpled, weatherbeaten piece of paper fell out. It was a continental paper bill, issued in 1776, Upon one side of it was Inscribed: The United Colonles. This bill entitles bearer to receive elght Spanish milled dol- lars, or the value thereof in gold or silver, according to a resolution of congress passed at Philadelphia, November 29, 1775. On the reverse sl written “No. 66,599, “Cor’'s Barnes and J. B. Smith.” It was a beautiful, clear day in October, 1812, that the frigate United States, com. manded by Commodore Dzcatu-, whose laurels had been won at Tripoll whils crulsing off the African coast, sighted the British frigate Macedonia. The American vessel carried forty-nine guns and the Macedonia forty- four. The two war ships Imm-diately clearaq for action. ‘After maneuvering for position the American fired the first shot,» when the two opponents were directly west of the Canary islauds and within sight of the shore. The battle was short, but sanguinary. When the Macedonla struck her flag more than 100 of her brave seamen were wounded or killed. The American's loss was not so heavy nor was bis vessel so badly injured. Decatur put a prize crew aboard of his cap- ture and sent the vessel home. After she was refitted the old name w retained, and as the Macedonla active w in red ink, had been and the signatures of tched to Alglers to subdue the who, sailing from that port, infested the Mediterranean . During the Mexican was she was Included In the fleet which cap- tured Vera Cruz. Later, when the war of the rebellion broke out, the Macedonla was used as & transport. One of her most missiols wes performed in 1847, : !ln company " u,h the dm-n-ol-w-r amestown, she rr! nd money to the starvihg nts mfi ' The old vessel, after thege years of active o Brooklyn navy service, was lald up at yard, and upon beipg condemned, in 1874, Sho was towed to Co! ¥ to be dismagtied. ity Island pur. MéQlellan of od decks, an cing in and upoer empty oil barrels under the timbers, §d the strange, lmprovised or xt t%wod Jerosi & Lsland soufd to its preseit resting pll':n The old hulk was set on fire, and s half burned timbérs now Tie in that queéer as- sortment ll‘lll&lfllcfl eraft which cons “burial ground” at Co THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: SA’I‘URDA.Y. A NAPOLEON AMONG FORGERS Aud o Past Master in the Art of Uttering Bogus Paper, CRIMINAL CAREER OF WILLIAM BROCKWAY For Fifty Years n Striking Figure in the Annals of Crime—Stromg In- telleetunlly and Physieally, He Leads a Thrilling Life, Tt 1s doubtful if any country ever produced a more notable forger than Willlam E. Brock- way, the old man who is now behind the bars in Jersey City. Back in the early days of this century he was a printer's devil in | New Haven, Conn, He was 0 clever and at- | tentive that his employer sent him to Yale | college, where, under Prof. Silliman, the youth acquired the art of electro-chemistry. Ho returned to New Haven an accomplished chemist, and with clearly defined ideas of a criminal career germinating in his active brain. The New Haven bank used to employ Breekway's employer to print all its notes from plates furnished by the bank, and on paper from the same source. It was the custom of the bank to send two of its directors with the plates from which the | notes were printed to the printing office, and never lose sight of them until the notes were | printed and the plates returned to the vaults | of the bank. Brockway, because of his skill, taste and mechanical ability, did the print’ ing. Assimilating his new scientific knowledge with his previously acquired mechanical skill he determined to use ft to his own ad vantage. He took his employer into his | confidence, and the next time the bank note plates came to the office the employer got the, directors into another room on some pretense, and in their absence Brockway slipped a sheet of thin and carefully pre- pared metal into the press, and thus secured an exact imprint of the plate. Then by a process of electrotyping devised by Brockway himself, for electrotyping was unknown at that time, at least in this country, the two had a reproduction of the bank note plates. | They secured paper similar to that used for the genuine bank notez and within a few months had printed and put fh eirculation $40,000 worth of counterfeits. The signatures to this counterfeited paper were forged by Brockway. Many of these bills passed several times over the counter of the bank before thelr character was discovered, and even then It was believed for a long time that the genuine plates had in some manner been secured to print the counterfeits on, and the signatures forged to what were otherwise genuine bills, A FORTUNE IN BOGUS BONDS. When Brockway and his employer found that the counterfeits had been discovered they fled. Tha employer went to California With a large amount of this money and after living an apparently respectable life, died about twenty years afterward. Brockway kept the plate and made money as fast as he needed it. He was arrested in Hudson Cisy, but escaped through the help of a young woman who fell in love with him. = Two years later he was arrested and convicted, but in 1853, after serving eight months of a five-year sentence, he was liberated. For a number of years, whatever he was doing, he escaped arrest. But in 1862 he met with an old schoolmate, Charles Smith, an expert engraver, who had engraved vig. nettes and portions of bonds for the go ernment. Brockway bought a $1,000 7-30 government bond and set Smith at work en- graving a fac simile of it. He chose this Issue because at that time they were circu- lating almost as freely as currency and were expected to be called in within a year.and had only one coupon attached. About $200,- 000 of thesa counterfeits were printed, and £o perfect were they that the banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co., bought $85,000 worth of them. Five persons were arrested and con- victed of uttering these, but Brockway es- caped by promising to show Chief Wood of the secret service, where the plates were hid- den. This he did. Out) of this affair grew some charges later that Chief Wood trled to blackmail Brockway by threatening to arrest bim on some charges connected with the 7-30 bond counterfeiting. Again for a number for years Brockway was not connected with anything criminal. He and James B. Doyle, whom he had met In Maine several years before, bought a half interest in an oid well in western Penn- sylvania. He engaged in other ventures of a commercal or speculative character. The next great counterfeiting scheme Brockway engaged In was the counterfeiting of the $1,000 6 per cent government bonds, due in 1881, and the counterfeiting of six different issues of national bank notes. These counterfeits were not uttered until 1880, though, according to the confession of Smith, one of his accomplices, the scheme was planned and the work begun five years before. Su | h engraved the plates a d Brook- way stercotyped them. The counterfeit bank bills were uttered first and put into circula- tion mostly in the west, although they were bills of eastern banks. It is said Brockway hoped to make $1,000,000 out of this job. Thousands of dollars of the bank notes were put in circulation, BARGAIN WITH THE GOVERNMENT. The arrest of Levi Logan for uttering a forged $100 bill gave the first clew. Sus- pleion was directed toward Brockway. His B. Doyle was seen to leave there one morn- ing with a satchel. He was followed to Chi- cago and arrested by Captain. Tyrrell. In his satchel was found 204 counterfeits of the government 6s for $1,000 each. These bonds were 80 nearly perfect that the authorities for a time thought the original plate had been used. Doyle was a wealthy stock farmer in Stark county, Illinols, and his defense was that he did not know that they were counter- fel but had bought them of Brockway and was taking them out west to buy a ranch with. He was convicted and sent to he peni- tentiary at Chester for twelve vears. Smith turned state's evidence and escaped. Brock- way made a deal with the government, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to thirty years in the penitentiary. This sentence w suspended on his plea that he was an ol man and a criminal career had lost its fas- cinations for him. He promised to reform and turn over to the government his ma- terials, plates and presses, which he did. With this thirty years' sentence hanging over him, he turned his attention from goy- ernment to corporate securities. With N, B, Foster, a brother-in-law of Doyle, and L. Martin, he set out to counterfeit the bonds of the Central Pacific and the Morris and Essex rallroads. Three different buildings or apart. ments were secured In New York, and dif- ferent parts of the work were carried on in They were just about ready to issue crop of certificates when one of their agents betrayed them:to-the secret service, Bonds amounting to $54,000 were found which needed little more work to make them ne- gotiable, and besides this there was a most elaborate plant for engraving, electrotyping, printing and paper making. As this was not a case of counterfeiting government securi- ties, the thirty-year sentence ‘was not im- posed, but Brockway was sentenced to five years at Sing Sing, which he completed in 1887, and since then he has been running a hotel at Rockaway Beach under the name of Colonel E. W. Spencer. In Sing Sing he got acquainted with Dr. O. E. Bradford, who was serving a term for criminal malpractice. Bradford after his re- lease went to practiclng dentistry at 514 Third avenue, New York. The two 10~ clated with them Libble Smith, a cousin of Bradford's; Sidney Smith, said to be a son of Brockway's former partner, the engraver of the concern, and Willlam 8. Wagner. They rented a house at 542 Ann stregt, Ho- boken, and had been at work three or four years. They devoted themselves to counter- feiting gold certificates of $100 and $500 de- nomination abd $10 C ian bills. For t ll purpose they had managed to get what lg believed to be regular government paper. Something like $200,000 of gompleted Cang- dian money was fouhd and &nough papir to The plates for the ere not quite finished, and {he completed plates for the Canadian mopey ave not yet beén found. Thg plant wes the most complete that Brockway ever got to- gether and s worth thousands pf dollars. All the gang are now awaiting (rial under heavy bonds. PERSONALITY OF THE FORGER. | The old fellow s an agreeable prisoner. | He 18 0o 0ld a prison bird not to know that grcwls and complaints are of no avall, and hé was not in the jail more than twenty-four hours before he had all his jaflers on his staff ready to perform any kindnees he asked of them within bounds of reason and not against prison discipline. But he is not trusted for all that and the officlals are ex- ceedingly careful that .none but persons known to be all right are given access to him. Brockway is one: of ‘the most striking figures in eriminal history. For halt a century he has made forgery und counter- felting his vocation imlife. To his calling he hae brought the resources of fine natural ablitles, a scientifio: education, omething akin to the pride ot his profession, and the virtues of persevemnce, industry, patlence and temperance, besides the praces of suavity, address andm benign appearance. It Is believed for over forty years he has en- gaged In no other gainfui occupation than counterfeiting or forgary, except as a cover for these occupations and'to win a repu-ation for respectability. In spite of his long career In crime he has spent comparatively liitle of bis life behind prison bars, and has ste- ceeded In evading much of the prison servica to which he has been sentenced. His work as a counterfeiter shows not only a superb knowledge of the applied sciences invoived In paper making and color printing, rarual skill In engraving and electrotyping, rare genius In selecting his accomplicas and as- sistants, but a wide knowledge of affair en- abling him to select for counterfeiting t)oee sccurities which in the state of the market and the state of the law offered the most promise of large results, with the greatost ease of putting them in circulation and the least danger of discovery. He is over six feet tali, and until within a few years was erect und vigorous In his pear- ing. Even now there is only a sl'ght s.oop to his shoulders, such as rather heightens the Impression of well spent years. His face fs Intellectual in its lines and his hair and beard Wwhite and partriarchal. He always drossed well, but quiet, and had an engaging alr of refinement and ‘good breeding B FEES FOR LAWYERS. One Sald to Have Recely from a Client, The fees which lawyers r are of in- terest usually only to brethren of thelr profes- sion and those who pay them, says the Phila- delphia Press. Sometimes when men gain fame, as Conkling did in politics, and Charles 0'Conor did at the bar, there Is popular in- terest in these earnings, as is also the case when o fee of unusual size is pald. When the Fayerweather will was offered for pro- bate in New York and announcement was made of a contest the impression was that the opportunity for the earning of fees which, because of their size, would become traditional would be sure to be taken speedy advantage of. Some of the most distin- gulshed lawyers in New York City and a few from other towns appeared in the court room at the time of the first hearing, that one in which Frederic Coudert denounc’d the Wil as a fraud upon its face, and thereby, Inferentially at least, making accusation against one of the members of the bar, General Woodford’s partner, Thomas D. Ritch. Not far from $6,000,000 was the appraised value of Mr. Fayerweather's estate. He left no children and his widow was an Invalid, whose days, according t the physicians, were num- bered. There were collateral heirs and some twenty colleges which had been unexpectedly enriched by this will of a man who was not estimated before his.death to be even a millionaire, excepting by a few of his closest friends. The litigations have extended now over a period of four years; and; distinguished counsel have continued in: thescase. The executors have disposed of some millions, and they have some miilions in their hands, and recently. in proceedings in court information of some of the counsel fees was made public. For in- stance, John B. Parsons, whose friends say that he is fond of the repute which he has of having “the finest practice ac the English epeaking bar'" recsived 1$15 000, and ex-Judge Arnoux the same. amount for services as counsel to the executors, This does not rep- resent all of their earsings, for before this last accounting Judge Arnoux had received $50,000 upon one occasion for- services, and Mr. Parsons $30,000, and then again a second time these two counsel divided $41,000 be- | tween them for -a later service. So far, then, it appears that Parsons and Arnoux have received $120,000. Other lawyers of less consplcuous relations to the case have received proportionately less sums, but it is understood by members of the bar of New York that not far from $400,000 have been the reward of ths lawyers up to this time for their fortunate mssocla- tion with this single case, and there is a disposition on the part of some of the counsel Who represent the Fayerweather heirs to make & contest against the payment of any more fees of this kind. Mr. Parsons’ fine remuneration for the very able counsel which he has given does not begin to match another fee which he, accord- Ing to the reports, was pald not many years ago. When the Havemeyers, desiring to Imitate the Rockefellers, sought to establish @ sugar trust, they retained Mr. Parsons for that difficult and delieate work. * The precise amount of the retainer and fees of course he and they alone know, but it has always been the beliet of ' members of the W York bar that Mr. Parsons was paid the largest sum ever re- ceived by a lawyer In New York City for a single service. ~ Reports have differed as to the precise amount. Some lawyers have sald that Mr. Parsons in all earned not far from $800,000. Others say that his fees were $400,000, and that he earned considerably more by the appreclation of the securities of the Sugar trust. The bricks with which he constructed the Sugar trust were made with- out straw, for the attorney general of New York state, by one short, swift litigation, de- ne 4 $800,000 house n Brooklyn was watched and James p5troved that structure, and the Sugar irust Was no more than a name. The largest fee ever awarded by our courts was to William Nelson Cromwell a few years ago for his services as the receiver and re- constructor of a financial institution which was hit very hard at the time of the Barings' collapre. "Mr. Cromwell gave but a few months' time to this work, and for that reason his fee seemed to be unduly great. It was In the neighborhood of $250,000, and, large as it was, It was regarded both by the bar and the court as having been fairly earned, because Mr. Cromwell's management saved the property, and Indirectly was in- strumental in giving: renewed confidence to the market, A veteran judge, who Is now retired from the bench, while speaking of theso large fees in connection with the Fayerweather litigation, told an interesting anecdote of the late Charles O'Conon. He sald Mr. 0'Conor had so managed a case involving a large sum of money as to give the highest satisfaction to his clients, saving:for them a great prop- erty which was in perll. It was an estate and his clients were the executors. After the termination of the litgation the executors asked Mr. O'Conor for his bill, and, not getting it, they were compelled to the very unusual course of dunming the great lawyer for the bill. Atilast they got it, and were surprised to find that it was for only $1,000, and a check was sent to Mr. O'Conor for that amount. Some months later, when making up their accounts the executors found that their books did not agree with the statement of the bank in which the:money they controlled was kept. The bank. credited them with $1,000 more than their own books showed they had on deposit. _ Aftar- inwestigation it was dis- covered that Mr. O'Coner had never presented the check for coliection. When one of the executors sought im for an explanation Mr. O'Conor admdtted that he still had the check, and, in faot, toak it from his pocket- hook. He had been im no hurry to present it, he said, although-as a lawyer he knew that the courts had' lield that a check must be presented within a -reasonable time. It was more than a year after that check was sent to him before he presented it for pay- ment, and he only did 80 at last because the executors told him that it was Impossible to square their accounts until the check was pald. Mr. Conkling's great fees have been the ubject of Mmuch Interesting discussion, and here is no doubt that some of them match the largest racoléed by some of the ablest of our lawyers. One anecdote is told of the manner in which Mr. Conkling gained some of his fees. There had been litigation be- tween two western rallways, and the subject was put in the hapds of a referes, who had some fifteen or twenty hearings, o one of which lasted more than an hoeur or two. Mr. Conkling served as one of the counsel for oue of these corporations. At last there was an agreement of settlement which Com- pelled a payment from Mr. Conkling's cljents to the other corporation, and an agreement Mr. Conkling w ked for his bijl. ¥ wi thought that .%leh( charge ad mu as $10,000, although of the other cbuhsel were satisied with $5,000 Conikling, bowever, Charged || to_pay all counsel feeg and expenser aplece, M. 60,000, The . corporation protested, claiming that the charge was exorbitant, r. Conkling asked to shave his bill, but instead of doing so he sald with characteristic em- Phasis, striking his desk with his fist as he did so, “Fifty thousand dollars, and not one cent less,” and he meant It, so that the company was compelled before it got its dis- charge to pay him that large sum. This Incldent got nolsed abroad and it frightened one or two corporations which had been dis- posed to place cases in Mr. Conkling's hands, and they retained other lawyers. One of the most remarkable fees ever pald in New York City was an indirect one. The government had entered Into very im- portant litigation with a very prominent busi- ness house over an alleged violation of the revenue laws, by means of which enormous undervaluations had been made. Suits were begun and a proposition was made to the collector and to the United States district at- torney, who was then Noah Davis, for settle- ment, Into the case had been called, as one of the advising counsel, a very prominent palitician, who was also in official relations With the government. He then held, and did for many years, an important official post, and he had a very high reputation as a man of integrity, It was the intention of the defendants in this case to pay him a re- tainer of $20,000, but it was suggested to them that his relations to the government would make it improper, if not strictly illegal, for him to receive any retainer or fees. The case was settied and the $20,000 was delivered to some one who bought real estate with it and subsequently turned that real estate over to this government officer. That property appreciated In value so that in a few years it was appraised by the assessors as worth $100,000. It has always been a question among those who knew all these facts and who knew the distinguished public man whether or rot he had knowledge that he was in this indirect way really paid for his services in that litigation. PR e SPIKE-BILLED SKEETERS. Man and Beast Harassed by a Variety in Nutmeg Stat On a piping breeze from the south they came, In a great, zig-zagging cloud, as thick as enow flakes, and they fell upon all the Lyme towns in the lower Connecticut valley like a shower of singing sand, says the New York Sun. They turned out to be not the reintergrating atoms of the vast old genii who spent his vacations in a bottle, marked with King Solomon’s private label, as re- lated in the Arablan tale; on the contrary, they were simply skeeters, a brand-new va- riety and output of this phenomenal bug year in the Nutmeg state. Unquestionably, too, they were blood relations of the army of strange new skeeters that, borne on a wind, swept down on the metropolis on Saturday last. Like New York’s formidable intruders, they had spiked bills, lantern jaws, hard shells, jagged teeth, double fangs, leather- tanned Jackets, and the same automatic self- exploding pensity. The great army drove Into Saybrook, at the mouth of the river, first, but the south- esterly breezes speedily bore them across the broad stream, and they setfled on the Lymes—Lyme, Old Lyme, East Lyme. Simi- lar detachments of the horde were wafted still further up the river, even as far north as this valley hamlet, though most of the overflow fell on the Haddams—Haddam, East Haddam, Middle Haddam, Haddam Neck, North Haddam, South Haddam, Had- damtown. The plague of the insect visitation was incomparably greater and severer in the Lymes. There the whole face of the country was speckled brown with them and they attacked cattle in the flelds with the venomous fury of gadffies. For a while it was cbout an even nip-and-tuck battle between the pests and the farmers, who strove to protect thelr maddened stock from the at- tacks of the insects. The skeeters settled in clouds upon the handsome, thin-skinned Jer- sey cows of the region, which ran bellowing with pain and fear about their pastures, The insects pursued In cavorting swarms, jabbing the poor beasts incessantly, so that after a few moments the cattle were bathed in their own blood. The farmers finally succeeded in rounding up *heir herds, fairly dragging them out of swamps and copses into which they had plunged to escape from the attacks of thelr tiny foes, and corralled the animals in the farm vards. Then they hastily prepared big bag-like winding sheets of burlaps, and sewed the sheets about the bodies of the cows, 50 that only the horns and tails of the animals protruded. “With that rig out,” remarked one Lyme dairyman, ‘“‘we sorter outflanked the measly little devils; and, after we had let ‘em looss again—the cows—the skeeters were 8o all fired mad, secm’ they couldn’t jab their blamed hills through the stiff buriaps, they act'lly stood on their heads and sawed and sawed at it. But twern't no go. We had ‘em. And all the time the cows had the best chance in the world to larrup the devils with tail and heads.” The plague, though, lasted only two or three days; then the wind went into the northwest, ‘sweeping cool and sharp down the valley, and blew them all in straggling clouds out to sea. But while the insect army sojourn=d in the valley they made existence almost unendurable to the country people and summer guests in seashore hotels and boarding houses. The farmers while abroad in their flelds wore mosquito netting about their heads and hands and with green wood switches kept the thickest insect swarms at bay. Now and then a lot of the pests pene- trated into dwcllings, and it was impossible for the rightful residents to abide therein until the insects had been driven forth. In not a few instances, in all the Lyme towns, from two to half a dozen cows and heifers in & herd went off their feed, and, in conse- quence, were practically spolled far (he season, The oldest valley residents say they have no record of an irruption of skeeters into the re- glon before that was of such phenomenal magnitude or was so aggressive, furious and threatening. THOUSANDS OF WOME BRADFIELD’S Female Regulator, ACTS AS A SPEOCIFIO By Arousing to Healthy Action all her Organs. 8 oy T R L A IT_NEVER FAILS TO REGULATE. M, 'l;olnuh nli-hrl ‘fl".‘:l‘tu“:l‘l‘:lrnvnnl i e 2 |' law SO RLDLER rRNALY hudvLeTok 2 kg aiid was o her ewh con ki L S evitorecs, Ala, BRADFIELD REGULATOR (0., ATLANTA, GA. £ Bold by drugglsts at#1.00 per bottle, Omaha Medical and Orowned With lucnus "rgical BUREmsmms | Nervous, Chronic and Private o el Groeele, V. locars, W, SUFFER UNTOLD Miseries. At Oy S AT D1 New York Hospital TREATMENT. FOR %l‘.sl‘.ggnlgg% .ALIO\KEAK PILES, FISTU: 3, permanent 1y cured Without SPE R TERe | or ustie, 0! ndepce angwér roript]y. | Uainess 3Uriotly o nna-l;«fn Wealina o § from observation to t)l parts of ggeon it sy g5 chel Plug Tobacco :Piece for Centss - us 4 ; .AQ‘?alij IS 10 ORCHARD HOMES. el The Land of Plenty Sure Crops No Drouths No Cold Winters The Land of Promise Big Profits No Hot Winds No Fierce Blizzards ORCHARD HOMES! situated In the most fertile and rich vegetable and frult growing re« gion of the world. The place where one-half the energy and perses verance necessary in this western country to make a bare living, will in that glorious climate make you a good living, a home and money in the bank. Here Is a soil that will ralse anything almost that grows and no such thing is known as afailure. You are not limited in the demand for what you raise by any local wmarkets. On the cowtrary you have the markets S vy 2% of the World Buying all you can raise and payIng the highest price for it. There Is no end to the season or crops. You can have a crop to market every month In the twelve if you wish to do so. You are the architect of your own fortune in this garden spot of the world. Now is the timeé te go south. It has been estimated that more people can be accommo- dated comfortably in the south and lay the foundation for prospers ity than now live In the United States, 20 TO 40 ACRES. in that marvelous reglon with its perfect climate and rich s6il°1¢ properly worked will make you more money and make It faster and easier than the best 160 acre farm in the west. Garden products are an immense yield and bring big prices all the year round. Strawe berries, apricots, plums, peaches, pears, early apples, figs, orangeg— all small fruits—are an early and very profitable crop. & Timber of the highest quality Is abundant. FUEL Is abundant and costs you nothing. Cattle run out all the year. They are easily ralsed and fattened. Grazing Is good all the year. Native grasses are luxurious and nutritious, CLIMATE Is the finest In the known world. The summers are even in tempera- ature and ‘rendered delightf ul by land and sea breezes. The nights are always cool. The winters are mild and short fn duration. There &re no extremes of heat or cold in this favored reglon. The mean temperature Is 42 to 66 degrees. The average rainfall is 66 inches, There is aa abundance of rain for all crops, m oy Oentral Mississippi offers to the intelligent man the finest opportunity for bettering his condition that wa# ever offered. The health of this reglon I8 excelled by no séction of this country. The soil found here can ra ely be equalled and never excelled for all good qualities. Early and sure crops: bring you big prices. The best ralfroad facilities in the couns try bring the entire country to you as a market, One-half the worl you now do to get along will render you a successful money maker on apy of this Orchard Home lands. Work intelligently and success 1s assured. This Is your opportunity. The people are friendly; schools efliclent; newspapers progressive; churches liberal. The enters prising man who wants to better the condition of Limself and his family should investigate this matter and he wHl be convinced, Cares fully selected fruit growing and garden lands in tracts of 10 to zo‘l acres we now offer on liberal terws and reasonable prices. Corree spondepce solicited. AL 4 % 0 GEO. W. AMES, Gen. Agent 7 Fafham St., Omaha, Nebraska, f