FUR-SEAL HERD OP ALASKA. 99 



and Secretary of the Treasury Gage, September 30, 1900, in response 

 to Jordan's request, appointed Lembkev. 



In April, 1899, W. J. Lembkey, a $1,200 clerk in the Customs 

 Division, United States Treasury JDepartment, was appointed to the 

 vacancy of an assistant special agent for service on the seal islands. 

 At the same time John Morton, assistant agent, was promoted to the 

 chief special agent's office, made vacant by the death of Joseph 

 Murray, October, 1898, at Fort Colhns, Colo. 



Morton and Lembkey went up together from San Francisco, and 

 landed on St. Paul Island on June 10, 1899. Morton, in August fol- 

 lowing, went back to Washington for the winter, and left Lembkey 

 on St. Paul Island in charge. 



Wlien Morton returned, June 11, 1900, to St. Paul Island, he found 

 Lembkey ill and suffering from an ulcerated jaw, or threatened 

 necrosis of liis jawbone. Lembkey obtained an immediate leave of 

 absence and left the island at once, on June 13, proceeded direct to 

 San Francisco on Liebes's chartered ship, Homer, to go under a sur- 

 geon's treatment when he arrived there (on or about June 27 or 28, 

 or early in July, 1900). 



In the meantime Morton became ill, and died July 15, 1900. He 

 died in the Government agent's house on St. Paul Island. The news 

 of Morton's death reached Washington and San Francisco on or 

 about August 1 to 8 followdng. Lembkey, who had in the meantime 

 been relieved by surgical treatment, had started back to the islands 

 on the same vessel of the lessees which had carried him down, the 

 Homer. She sailed on or about August 8 for this return trip to St. 

 Paul. Before he left San Francisco, and while down there on this 

 errand, as above stated, he was a frequent visitor to the office of Isaac 

 Liebes, on those matters of business which were connected \ni\\ his 

 living on the islands wdth his family free of all cost for board, together 

 with service for not himself, but for his wife and daughter. He also 

 had the business of his passage up and down free for his wife and 

 daughter on that vessel, and himself, if his allowance of S600 per 

 annum for traveling expenses did not meet his own trip costs to and 

 from Washington. 



Thus Mr. Lembkey became very well acquainted with Mr. Liebes, 

 and the seals never failed to form a common bond of interest. Liebes 

 soon knew Lembkey well. 



When Liebes learned of Morton's death, as usual, he at once looked 

 for a "proper successor" for the man whom he could trust as a 

 United States agent in charge. He sent word to David Starr Jordan, 

 then at Palo Alto, that he (Liebes) desired him (Jordan) to telegraph 

 Secretary Gage of the immediate need for selection of a fit successor 

 to John Morton, and that he (Jordan) desired the appointment of 

 W. J. Lembkey; that was done by Jordan, on or about August 25 

 or 28, or thereabouts. On September 30, 1900, Gage ordered, as 

 Morton's successor, the appointment of Lembkey, and notified Ezra 

 W. Clark that he had done so at the request of Dr. Jordan. Clark 

 had been promised the place and did not fail to tell why he had 

 lost it. 



It will be observed that Lembkey swears that he does not know 

 who urged his appointment ; he was on the seal islands at the time 

 of his appointment; he arrived on the islands — after leaving San 

 Francisco on the Homer, August 8 — on the 19th of August, 1900. 



