163 



defeated in a very large case, called the Mitchell case, where the State 

 had been defeated and lost its land and lost its suit, and we prose- 

 cuted these three suits and brought them to a successful termination; 

 that is, one of them was settled by the payment of five thousand 

 dollars, the other we recovered a verdict of twelve hundred dollars, I 

 think, which went to the Court of Appeals and was affirmed by the 

 Court of Appeals,- the third we recovered a verdict of six thousand 

 and some odd dollars, but when we came to enforce the judgement 

 we found that the parties were no good, and that one of them had 

 skipped the country and gone to Canada, but we thought that was 

 beneficial and it was; we endeavored in every instance, as we could 

 not prosecute all these cases, we endeavored to single out the more 

 glaring ones and endeavored to strike terror, as it was, into the 

 people who were trespassing in that way. 



Mr. .Ryan. — Did you get any money at all out of either of these 

 three suits after the lawyers were paid ? 



Mr. Hitt.— ; One moment, I object to questioning lawyer's fees. 



Chairman Ryan. — The lawyers, I presume, fixed their own fees in 

 this case, whether there was anything left V 



A. I think there was; the Comptroller's report for that year will 

 show that; we found the state of affairs when we came in^ the State's 

 policy up to that time had been to turn off such of the State land as 

 it could, that is, wherever it could find a purchaser at tax sales, and 

 anyb6dy that was willing to take it and pay the taxes to let him have 

 it; we also found that the people around about the borders of this 

 wilderness had been educated from time immemorial, that is, from the 

 first settlement of the country, that what belonged to the State was • 

 public property, and that they had a right to go in there and cut as 

 they wanted to; that their fathers and forefathers had been doing 

 that, and that they had a birthright there that no one could question; 

 our endeavor and our efforts were all placed toward trying to educate 

 those people in a different line; the State had assumed a different 

 line of policy, the protecting of the forest, instead of cutting it off; 

 now, in regard to the small depredators along the borders of the 

 wilderness, who had looked upon it as a birthright, it was necessary 

 for us to proceed carefully, as no one knew better than I did what 

 danger an enemy or a man who had a spite could cause to the State 

 by fires, and it would be almost an impossibility to convict him, 

 and our endeavor was to say to these men, " the policy of the 

 State has changed ; you must not go on there and cut, if you do 

 we will punish you;" our endeavor was to pursue such mild, 

 and at ,the same time firm policy, to teach those people that 



