THE RURAL NEV/-YOFWFR. 
Crmr. 
“Every Man is presumed to Jcnoiv the Law; 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law." 
“no fence” laws. 
“Farmer ,” Hillsboro, Ohio.—Is there a law 
anywhere in the United States to the effect 
that all a man has to do is to fence in his own 
stock, not having to protect his crops with a 
fence? 
Ans.—B y the common law of England, 
which was formerly adopted on this point by 
several of our States, nobody was obliged to 
fence his land from his neighbors’ adjoining 
fields, except it had been done for at least 20 
years previously; but every person was bound 
to keep his cattle and other domestic animals 
within his own land, “at his peril.” There¬ 
fore, if the owner neglected to confine his 
stock upon his own land he was answerable 
for any trespass they might commit, even 
though they entered from the land of a third 
person or from the highway, and for any in¬ 
jury they might sustain by going on the land 
of another he was precluded from recovering 
damages. In some of the States at the pre¬ 
sent time a similar law prevails. The legal 
obligation of owners of adjoining land to 
make and maintain partition fences, where no 
prescription exists and no agreement has been 
made, rests entirely on the provisions made by 
statutes in the different States. In some of 
the States, especially in the South and West, 
in which laws formerly prevailed for the 
construction and maintenance of partition and 
highway fences, these laws have been repealed, 
and stockowners have to fence in their domes¬ 
tic animals and are liable for damages if they 
trespass on the unfenced lands of others. 
Generally the question of “fences” or “no 
fences” is left to the vote of the different coun¬ 
ties in the State; sometimes the law extends 
over the whole State. 
TAXES ON MORTGAGED PROPERTY. 
M. L., Albany , N. Y.— Should the bill now 
before the Legislature of this State to tax 
mortgages by allowing the mortgagor to 
deduct the tax from the interest when he pays 
it, become a law, will it apply to mortgages 
now in force, or only to those made after it 
becomes a law? If it applies to those now in 
force, will it not be unconstitutional by ser¬ 
iously “impairing” the former “contracts?” 
If it is passed, ought it not to be so amended as 
to make all mortgages now in force due, so 
that both parties may have an opportunity to 
protect themselves? 
Ans. —The bill as it stands applies to all 
existing mortgages. The owner of any estate 
on which there are any mortgages or judg¬ 
ment liens must pay the taxes levied upon 
the assessment of such mortgages or judg¬ 
ments, and may then deduct the amount of 
the taxes from the interest or principal due to 
the owner of the liens. This is a strange 
proposition with regard to existing mortgages 
and judgments even if it is not unconsti¬ 
tutional. If the law is passed it is said it will 
drive out of the State all the capital now 
invested in mortgages here. It is, however, 
vsry certain that a farmer should not be 
required to pay taxes on mortgaged property 
just the same as if it were unmortgaged; for 
in such a case he is required to pay taxes on 
property which belongs to another, so far as 
the amount of the mortgage is concerned. 
CONDITION OF MORTGAGE NOT COMPLIED WITH 
—PENALTY. 
C. J. L., Kirwin, Kans.— The lawful rate 
of interest in this State is any figure not over 
12 per cent. Given a note secured by farm 
mortgage, due five years after date, bearing 
seven per cent, interest payable semi-annually 
with a condition that on a failure to pay any 
interest installment or any taxes promptly 
when due, the note shall bear 12 per cent in¬ 
terest from its date. Given also prompt pay¬ 
ments of all interest and taxes for four and 
one-half years and a failure to pay the last 
coupon and principal note promptly when due; 
does the law award the 12 per cent rate or does 
it hold that the difference between the seven 
per cent, and the 12 per cent, is void and not 
collectable for want of consideration? 
Ans. —The condition of the mortgage is 
clearly not complied with; hence the extra in¬ 
terest, which is in the nature of a penalty, 
may be enforced. Written agreements are to 
be strictly construed, and the consideration for 
the extra interest is in the nature of damages 
for non-payment of the money when due. 
D. E. S., Paine's Hollow, N. Y.— Is a person 
allowed any consideration on his road tax for 
putting a watering-trough on the highway 
for public use? 
Ans.—W e cannot find that any allowance 
is made for such a convenience. 
J. W., Alma , CaZ.—The line of my land 
runs to the bank of a small stream; have I 
any right to get water from it by means of a 
hydraulic ram? The water from the mouth 
of the stream up to the place where I wish to 
place the ram is not used for any purpose. 
Ans. —There should be no objection to your 
taking water by means of a ram under such 
circumstances. 
E. W., Glendale, Utah, asks several knotty 
questions about the law in the Territory of 
Utah, relating to water courses, etc., etc. 
Ans. —With regard to this matter a local 
lawyer should be consulted. The laws of 
Utah are rather peculiar in some particulars, 
and we can find no late edition of the code in 
this city. 
BOGUS TOWN SITES. 
T he past two years have been remarkable 
for the large number of fraudulent land 
schemes foisted on the public, chiefly in Flor¬ 
ida and California. Of course, there have 
been a large number of land “booms” to which 
the main objection has been that they were al¬ 
together of a speculative nature, which caused 
the lots or plots to be sold at prices far beyond 
their real value, and far beyond the value 
which they will ever attain. These, how¬ 
ever, are not reckoned among the fraudulent 
schemes. The latter, when they relate to 
town sites—as they generally do—may be di¬ 
vided into several classes. 
First, towns that were never intended to be 
established, or where no attempt has ever 
been made to deceive by resorting to the clap¬ 
trap pretense of making alleged local “im¬ 
provements.” The “promoters” merely plot 
out a piece of worthless land into streets aDd 
house lots, issue flaming advertisements, de¬ 
scribing churches,theaters, race tracks, banks, 
hotels and railroad stations which have no ex¬ 
istence, and which never will have any, The 
victims of this class of swindles always reside 
at a distance, and buy their lots on hearsay. 
Probably the most brazen example of this sort 
of swindle is the “City of Manchester,” situ¬ 
ated in Los Angeles Co., Cal., at the foot of 
the Merced Mountains, and facing the blister¬ 
ing, windy, barren, desolate Mojave Desert. 
The forlorn site was bought by Simon Ham- 
berg from the Southern Pacific Railroad for a 
song—81.50 to $2 an acre, and it was dear at 
that. The selection was made because the 
land was absolutely worthless, and because it 
was so difficult of accesss that purchasers 
would be deterred from visiting it. 
Having secured the site, Simon laid out 
streets, located house lots, built boulevards, 
and made improvements, all on paper, and 
had the whole recorded in the Register’s office 
at Los Angeles, 25 miles away as the crow 
flies, but more than double that distance by 
any other way, as the Sierra Madre Moun¬ 
tains intervene. Then Newlands & Co., of 
San Francisco, were appointed selling agents, 
and glowiDg advertisements were sent abroad. 
It would be difficult to believe that any single 
spot on earth concentrated so many delecta¬ 
ble elements to make life worth living as did 
that marvelous city at the foot of the Merced 
Mountains, according to those wonderful ad¬ 
vertisements. After much persistence and a 
world of trouble, an “investigating commis¬ 
sioner” of the N. Y. Herald succeeded in find¬ 
ing the place the other day. What was there 
to be seen? “Well, there were boulders,’’says 
the commissioner, “scanty, dwarf vegetation, 
sand, gravel, and a dash of alkali; only this 
and nothing more.” Not a street was laid 
out, not a house built—nothing but the deso¬ 
late desert, such as it has been for centuries, 
and will be for ages! Yet every lot in the 
“City” had been sold to gullible dupes in all 
parts of the country, and a similar swindle, 
under the name of “Border City,” had lately 
been started by the same sharpers at no great 
distance from “Manchester,” in an equally 
barren location. In the Manchester swindle 
lots were at first sold for very low prices to a 
large number of purchasers. Then the sharp¬ 
ers would inform each lot holder that an adja¬ 
cent lot could be obtained at a price generally 
a hundred times greater than that obtained 
for the first, and of course the wonderful rise 
was dwelt on as proof of the marvelous pros¬ 
perity of the place, and thus heavier hauls 
were made from the victims. This is a com¬ 
mon trick among swindlers of this stripe. 
Another class is where some traces of im¬ 
provement are made. The bare tract of land 
is plotted out, a cheap frame building called 
a “hotel” is either completed or commenced, a 
few feet of cement sidewalk are laid down, a 
cheap paling is placed round a central plot 
yclept a “park.” Water is generally said to 
be abundant or is promised, and a derrick for 
sinking artesian wells is erected. Street.cars 
and motor tramways are announced for the 
near future. A specimen town of this kind,as 
described by the Herald man, is the City of 
Burbank in the Fernando Valley, California, 
on the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, 
not far from Los Angeles. At the time of 
his visit there was a shanty for a hotel, a few 
tents, a short range of sidewalk and a horse 
railway, consisting of two rails laid on the 
ground in the center of the “street” opposite 
the bit of cement sidewalk, in sight of the pass¬ 
ing railroad trains. On the rails stood a horse 
car which couldn’t move either way without 
running off the rails into the mud. The al¬ 
luring advertisements assured the “tender¬ 
foot” that the horse railway was already un¬ 
der way, that the first tram had already ar¬ 
rived and that others were to follow in due 
time, and that a short residence in Burbank 
must inevitably result in health, happiness 
and prosperity. 
A third class of humbug towns, and one in 
some respects more dangerous than either of 
the others, because one is more likely to in¬ 
vest heavily in it, consists of places where a 
considerable amount of money has been spent 
by the “promoters” and a semblance of a vil¬ 
lage has been formed. The cement sidewalks 
are extended farther, some fast-growing tredfe 
have been planted, a few showy shrubs have 
been placed in the “park,” a rather preten¬ 
tious hotel has been put up, a few flashy 
cottages have been built, a general store has 
been started, and a big promise is presented 
of speedy progress. All these improvements 
have been made in order that the founder 
or “promoter” may say to a visitor, or in¬ 
tending purchaser, “Come out and look at 
the place! We are not a pack of swindlers 
like this one or that. We ask our patrons to 
come and see for themselves.” The visitor 
after listening to the glowing words of his 
interested companion; the mellifluous eulog- 
iums on the earthly paradise, the alluring rep¬ 
resentations of the future glories of that com¬ 
mercial metropolis, is likely to buy a corner 
lot at $100 a front foot or a villa site at the 
rate of $5,000 an acre, and when the crash 
comes—as it soon must—the whole, section 
will not fetch as much money as the duped 
visitor squandered on the villa site. 
The above are only the general outlines of 
the three principal types of bogus towns whose 
founders or “promoters” seek to swindle the 
public; of course, there are slight modifica¬ 
tions of them in different sections, but the 
main features are always the same. From 
what has been here said, one can readily 
infer how cautious one should be about in¬ 
vesting any money in advertised land or 
town schemes, however plausible the repre¬ 
sentations, and however glowing the adver¬ 
tisements. 
Two weeks ago the Eye-Opener warned 
Rural readers against the rascality of the 
sharpers who regularly accompany all the 
circuses throughout the country. Several 
instances of their recent swindling operations 
have since then come to his knowledge. Here 
is a sample: Frank A. Robbins’s circus was at 
Bristol, Pa., the other day. William Laraza- 
lere, a Buck County farmer, patronized it, 
and in a side show for which the circus pro¬ 
prietor was paid a big rent, and which was 
notoriously used for swindling purposes, the 
farmer fell into the hands of a gang of sharp¬ 
ers, headed by a fellow who pretended to be a 
cattle drover. This worthy induced the “un¬ 
suspecting farmer” to borrow $400 from a 
merchant in town and invest it as a partner 
in a three-card-monte game going on in the 
tent, on the assurance that in a very short 
time his $400 would become $500. In a very 
short time, however, of course he lost the 
whole.The Eye-Opener has a number 
of complaints about Hedge Companies, the 
agents of which enter into contracts with 
farmers to set out hedges and keep them in 
order for several years for a stipulated sum 
per rod per year; but who fail to keep their 
contracts. The comparatively few who want 
hedges nowadays, except for ornamental pur¬ 
poses, would do better by consulting and deal¬ 
ing with a trustworthy nurseryman. 
The New York Live Stock Mutual Benefit 
Association, which had an office in this city 
and pretended to insure live stock through the 
country, collapsed about three months ago, 
much to the loss of the policy-holders. The 
office has been shut up, and the officers have 
disappeared, but a good deal of mail matter 
had until Tuesday, been received for the con¬ 
cern at the Post-Office here, and been taken 
away by somebody. Tuesday last, H. A. Ster¬ 
ling, the agent for the concern, was arrested at 
Birmingham, Conn., charged with issuing 
fraudulent policies. Last Wednesday the fel¬ 
low escaped while the officer who was guard¬ 
ing him slept. In spite of the collapse of the 
company, he had continued to solicit live stock 
insurance and had swindled over 200 farmers 
out of the premiums. Several live stock insur¬ 
ance companies have been started of late 
years in this city, but they have all gone under 
with a loss to the policy-holders. The Eye- 
Opener does not know of a single company of 
the kind in any part of the country which has 
shown itself worthy of public confidence by a 
successful career of even a few years. On the 
other hand, he has known of a great many 
such concerns which have failed much to the 
loss of their patrons. The less farmers have 
to do with such companies, the better for 
them. 
To Several Inquirers. —The price asked 
for the Early White Scotch Oats is altogether 
too high for any probable advantages they may 
possess over other sorts.The Ene Medical 
Co., Buffalo, New York, will send the medi¬ 
cines it advertises on the terms it offers: but 
we cannot, by any means, say they will be 
as efficacious as the Company asserts they will 
be.Dr. Scott, of this city, is quite sure to 
send the goods advertised by him; but it is 
impossible for us or indeed for anybody else to 
tell whether they will prove of any curative 
value in any particular case; but they are not 
humbugs, as they generally produce good ef¬ 
fects.We are not acquainted with the D. 
H. Lowe Medical Co., of Connecticut, nor 
with its nostrums or the claims put forth in 
its behalf.The rascal who is sending out 
circulars under the name of F. A. Butler, of 
this city, is a “green-goods” or “saw-dust” 
swindler, who is certain to defraud anybody 
who may have any dealings with him. We 
have put the detectives here on his track. 
Yes, Kahn's Museum of Anatomy, this city, 
is one of the concerns that were raided by 
Anthony Comstock some weeks ago. The 
works of Dr. Lewis J. Jordan, lecturer there, 
contain a good deal of information; but the ser¬ 
vices of the Dearest practitioner would be more 
beneficial In answer to a considerable num¬ 
ber of inquiries about various land and new 
town enterprises, we must repeat our reiterat¬ 
ed advice not to invest a dollar in any of them 
unless their merits have been investigated on 
the spot by the investor or some trustworthy 
friend. This answer must cover a number of 
cases not otherwise referred to here....The 
Pulvermacher GalvaLic Co., of this city is 
quite trustworthy so far as its financial stand¬ 
ing is concerned, and the goods the concern 
makes are about the best of the kind, but we 
cannot say whether they will be efficacious in 
any special case. 
Concerns Censured.— Under this caption 
the Eye-Opener will from time to time give 
the names of the various concerns he has seen 
objected to in other papers, but which have 
not been investigated from the Rural Office: 
The Union Supply Company, Chicago, Ill., in¬ 
spires no confidence in local papers . . .It is 
charged against the “Star Nurseries” of Day- 
ton, Ohio, that their agents have been 
selling fruit trees, promising to send others in¬ 
stead of any that for any cause failed to grow. 
Several whose trees failed to do so, complain 
that having written to the “Nurseries,” their 
communications have been treated with “sil¬ 
ent contempt”-The California and South¬ 
ern Land Trust, Cincinnati, Ohio; the Peo¬ 
ple’s Homestead Company, and the St. An¬ 
drews Bay Railroad Land Company have at 
various times been denounced in the Rural. 
The Farm, Field and Stockman is now out 
strongly against all three. A resident in 
Marion County, Florida, for 17 months, says 
he could find no land there worth having for 
less than $20 to $100 an acre. This was the 
personal experience of the Eye-Opener over a 
dozen years ago, yet a lot of fraudulent land 
schemes are offering to give land away there 
for nothing or to sell it for a song. There is a 
great deal of absolutely worthless land in 
Marion County, and this is the kind in which 
these sharpers are dealing. 
XDmwm’s XDotrk. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
S o many book-hungry ones have taken 
“Palmetto’s” offer relative to the little 
work entitled “Wikkey” that it is likely to be 
kept traveling for some time to come. We 
have such a hearty sympathy with those who 
long for books without being able to fully 
gratify their tastes. In a city the poorest can 
get reading matter from the various public li¬ 
braries, but in scattered country neighbor¬ 
hoods books are apt to be rather scarce among 
those possessing slender purses, in spite of the 
many cheap editions. A Book-circulating 
Ten would be a very useful circle of King’s 
Daughters. 
* * * 
Mention has been made of the Order of 
King’s Daughter’s in a former issue of the 
Rural. It is one of the most extensive soci¬ 
eties banded together for good works and one 
of the most elastic. Its laws and regulations 
consist solely of the words, “In His Name,” 
and its work includes all kindly thoughts and 
