283 



Attorney Steele, of Herkimer county, made a few years ago, when h 

 tried to prosecute these men, and as to how men would perjure them 



selves and swear for one another. 



« 



By a Member: 



Q. What county is it these desperados live in ? 

 A. That is Herkimer county where these fellows are ? 

 Q. That is a Republican county, isn't it ? l 

 A. Yes, sir. 



By a Membeb: 



Q. Any such state of affairs up in St. Lawrence county? 

 A. No, sir; no such • state of affairs there at all; they are a well 

 behaved and orderly set of people there. 



By a Member: 

 Q. Any school-houses in Herkimer county? 

 A. None back on that border. 



By Mr. Fiero: 



Q. What do you find to be the sentiment of jurors, and the dim 

 culties of convicting ? 



A. Tou will find that this law provides that the warden or men ii 

 his employ, if they catch a man trespassing on a lot, may arrest him 

 if so they must take him to the nearest justice of the peace; tha 

 rendered the law imperative; those justices of the peace wouldn' 

 convict a man or hold a man, so' the forest commission proceeded 

 wholly under the penalty act, and decided to bring them into thi 

 Supreme Court and thus get away from their neighbors. 



Q. What is the condition of affairs in regard to trespasses now ai 

 compared with the time when the forest commission took charge o: 

 the woods ? 



A. We have had very little trespass in the last three years; in th« 

 last year the trespassing has been almost nothing; we had a little 

 outbreak in Minerva two years ago, and aside from that the trespass 

 ing has been a very inconsiderable matter since the Turner decisioi 

 in the Court of Appeals. 



Q. What do you say as to the settlement with Mr. Thomson as tc 

 the logs in his possession, as to the price charged ? 



A. Mr. Thomson is a very large lumberman living in this city; h« 

 owns mills up here at Fort Miller or Schuylerville, and he owns some 

 land up there; and he had cut, from reports in years gone by (I mear 

 previous to 1886), to a large amount upon the State lands year aftei 



