53« 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 4, 1908. 
Adirondack Timber Thefts. 
Little Falls, N. Y., March 21.— Editor For¬ 
est and Stream: The conviction on the charge 
of grand larceny of Charles Klock and Harvey 
Gaylord, formerly New York State game pro¬ 
tectors, is a far step toward preserving the Adi- 
rondacks from timber thieves. Unfortunately, 
the loggers have so far escaped punishment 
for their part in the raiding of the wilderness, 
they having been tried and acquitted on the 
charge of grand larceny of timber in Herkimer 
county. Klock escaped conviction in the Oneida 
County Court, where he was charged with steal¬ 
ing $3,750 from the loggers. Klock’s attorneys 
pleaded that the money was paid to Klock for 
an illegal purpose: “The money in question was 
paid by Mr? Gallegher for an illegal purpose, 
namely, to get from the State property which it 
was unlawful for the State to sell or in any 
manner dispose of. The money in question was 
paid to have and to induce the defendant to do 
or omit to do an illegal and unlawful act.”— 
Judge Pritchard, Oneida County Court, June, 
1907, in taking the case from the jury. 
Although the court explicitly quoted the de¬ 
fense with these words, which seem to indicate 
bribery pure and simple, it does not appear that 
the Oneida county district attorney or grand 
jury have considered this open allegation that 
public officials were paid money by State land 
timber cutters to induce them not to do their 
duty. Bribery, it would seem, is a crime not 
worth punishing. 
Gaylord was convicted of the stealing of the 
timber which the log jobbers cut. Klock was 
convicted on charges growing out of other 
cases. Nobody believes that they were ever 
much more than tools in the hands of others. 
But it is thought that the $7,750 was paid by the 
loggers with the understanding it should go 
higher up, and it is thought it was kept by 
Klock, except $500 paid by Klock to Gaylord. 
Klock, it is said, claims that he went to Albany 
and paid the money to an official in the Forest, 
Fish and Game Department. When the au¬ 
thorities came to investigate this, it is claimed 
they learned that the official who was reported 
to have received the money was not in Albany 
on that day, nor during the period Klock said 
the man was in Albany. The inference of the 
prosecution is that Klock pocketed the whole 
amount. But the officials at Albany could not 
do much, apparently, for Klock and Gaylord 
were acquainted with the whole inside of the in¬ 
famous scandal of the Adirondacks, and fear of 
having the scandalous facts known was potent. 
Whether or not Commissioner Whipple did 
all that could be done in bringing these cases 
is a question. Mr. Whipple has been doing 
splendid work in interesting the public in the 
questions of forestry, game and fish. The laws 
seem never to have been so well enforced in the 
woods as at present, while Mr. Whipple’s talks 
on tjie commission’s work have given thousands 
a clear idea of the task he has. The trouble 
has been the failure to punish the timber thieves 
who raided the woods with impunity up to the 
time he came into office. In the Klock-Gay- 
lo-rd cases, it was not until the matter was laid 
before Governor Hughes that adequate action 
was taken in them. Mr. Whipple told me that 
the trouble was in Herkimer and Oneida coun¬ 
ties—his prodding had little effect on local 
officials. A district attorney told me that the 
trouble was in the courts, and a judge told me 
the trouble was all at Albany. My own belief 
is that the trouble is found in the political in¬ 
fluence of some of those who should have been 
brought to book. In any event, convictions and 
iail sentences have cleared the atmosphere con¬ 
siderably. Raymond S. Spears. 
“The Indian Made Good.” 
In Forest and Stream Oct. 5, 1907, we pub¬ 
lished a contribution from Dr. A. L. Leeds, en¬ 
titled, “The Indian Made Good,” in which an 
account was given of the very efficient work 
done by Indians of the Southwest employed as 
laborers on the work of turning the Colorado 
River from its new channel cut into the Salton 
Sink back to the old river channel from which 
it had been diverted. It was shown in this arti¬ 
cle how excellent was the work of the Indians, 
how industrious they were and how, as a matter 
of fact, they were practically the only laborers 
that could be depended on for such work in that 
country. 
This news has at last drifted through other 
sources around to Washington, and five months 
after it had appeared in Forest and Stream, is 
heralded as news in the daily papers in the fol¬ 
lowing dispatch: 
Washington, March 10.—That the Indian is not the 
lazy man he generally is represented to be is told in a 
letter from H. T. Corey, general manager of the Cali¬ 
fornia Development Company of Calexico, Cal., to 
Charles E. Dagenett, supervisor of Indian employment 
at Albuquerque, N. M. The letter has just been received 
at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 
Mr. Corey gives his experience with Indian labor in 
the work of the diversion of the Colorado River into 
Salton Sink, which resulted in the forming of the Salton 
Sea, and also in the attempts made to close the break 
in the banks of the river and again divert its flow down 
its old channel to the Gulf of California. In this work 
500 Indians from the Yuma, Digeno, Cocopah, Mari¬ 
copa, Pima and Papago tribes were employed. In 
speaking of the efficiency of the Indian laborers, Mr. 
Corey says: 
“This Indian labor was in the highest degree satis¬ 
factory to us—in fact, I am certain that the work could 
not have been carried to a successful conclusion with¬ 
out it. 
“These tribes particularly are thoroughly acclimated 
to the desert and to long, hot summers, and seemingly 
work with no discomfort at 120 degrees in the shade. 
We found them timid, but very willing to do their best 
as soon- as they were convinced of the right- track. 
With foremen who understand their character, they are 
the most efficient laborers obtainable in this region.” 
A Correction. 
Worcester, Mass., March 25.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: In an article written by me for 
publication in your paper, I said that I started 
four partridge up to 3 o’clock in the afternoon 
of the last day of the open season of 1906. What 
I intended to say was that I started twenty-four 
partridge that afternoon. 
When I gave three dates in'1907, and-the 
number of birds started, only one appeared, Nov. 
ir, and as that would not be very conclusive evi¬ 
dence that there might still be a few partridge 
left in some localities, I would like to have the 
omission corrected; namely, that on Nov. 11, 
1907, I started twenty-three to twenty-five birds; 
Nov. 16, twenty to twenty-two birds; Nov. 18, 
twenty-five birds, all partridge. Longbill. 
The series of rodmaking articles printed in 
these columns recently will during the present 
month be published in book form by the Forest 
and Stream Publishing Company. This will be 
Vol. I. of Perry D. Frazer’s “The AngleTs 
Workshops and will deal with “Rodmaking for 
Beginners.’’ The book contains t8o pages and 
besides the working drawings, will be illustrated 
with several half-tone plates. Orders may be 
sent at any time, and the book will be sent post¬ 
paid for $1. 
