279 



By Chairman Ryan: • 



Q. We understand you to say that there were 30,000 logs in one 

 sounty ? 

 A. In one town; in Minerva. 

 Q. Cut on State land ? 

 A. Yes, sir. 



By Mr. Fibbo: 



Q. Continue. 



A. We followed about 22,000 of those logs into these "drives; ' 

 'hat is, 22,000 pieces; into the " drives " of the lumbermen; they put 

 ;heir agents upon the streams; a log measurer will go along with a 

 wand and buy those logs and scale them and brand them with the 

 irm's brand and give the man an order on the firm for his pay, and 

 ihen goes on; that brand is filed in the county clerk's office, and that 

 og is their property everywhere, that has their brand on it; you go 

 ! rom there to the Saranac country, and there were quite large cuttings 

 >ver that country; this man Benton was the great trespasser; he was 

 :he man that the Comptroller's office said was entirely irresponsible; 

 le had been stealing for years and they couldn't do anything with 

 lim ; they told me he had just gone away with another lot of logs; mixed 

 hem up with logs on the Saranac river; that they couldn't get their 

 ogs; I met Mr. Turner at Plattsburgh, in John B. Riley's office, by 

 iccident; Mr. Riley told him who I was, and he didn't delay any time 

 n telling me that he supposed I was up there to get into a lawsuit; 

 te said he "had a circus " with State agents for the last few years, 

 md he was glad to have somebody new come in; he said there was 

 wo devils up there that cut for fire-wood, but if I wanted to get into 

 i lawsuit, he said, "Law me; I have got money enough to law the 

 State through the courts up and down both ways; " after he quit talking 

 '. suggested to Mr. Turner that I had heard of him; I told him that I 

 vas satisfied, from my observation, before I left Albany, what was 

 vanted of him; that they intended now to go around him and not 

 aeddle with him; soon after that I struck upon some of his heavy 

 respasses, and commenced suit against him, and one suit was carried 

 hrough the Court of Appeals, and another 1 one was returnable, but 

 ust before 'the suit was to be tried, he sent all the witnesses on both 

 ides into Canada, and we were slightly left; I gathered testimony to 

 ry the trespasses on 219, and put the other one over the term, and as 

 o the lots upon which that trespass was, it turned out to be not State 

 and, but that it belonged to Mr. Weed; that was 213 and 214 that 

 he title of the State failed in. 



