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VoL. $ mum snu corn —it H*g ©oo&g, J|r£oo (Sootte, CENTS’ FURNISHINC GOODS, Hats, Boots and Shoes, and Choice Groceries. ALL at BED'ROCK prices FULL PARTICULARS BY FARMERS’ EXCHANGE. I MESA BAKERY d CONFECTIONERY —AND — Blue Front Restaurant Jvleals at All Pours MRS, JENNIE B. ELLIOTT, »v. . ‘' * V* . “ CT* <| ■ .Manager ■ ■■■■ I . J For Choice Meats SKILLFULLY CUT, GO TO THE Qentral JyJeat JyJarkel GlUl’li 01.1) STIM). \VILL ALSO HANDLE FRESH FISH and OYSTERS CHICKENS DRESSED TO ORDER. TERMS CASH. BILVER PREFERRED, p. p. BCXiPHVIVIAHr BROS GENERAL -^HARDWARE. Also Builders’ Hardware, Tinware, and Gramtc Ware. Genuine Glidden Wire and Kails at 4\c, pet pound. Agents for Canton Clipper Plows and Mitche) Wagons. Joiners’ Supplies complete. Paints and Oils. HURSHKBR A STJIP hEJ Mesa free press. MESA CITY, ARIZONA, FRIDAY OCTOBER 15, 1897. MESA FREE PRESS ff. D. MORTON. A.P.BHBWMAN. MORTON & SIIEWMAN Publishers; Advertising rates made known op aP" plieation. *; ARIZONA’S PbAOLR DIGGINGS. In an article on the placer mines of Arizona the Los Angeles Times saya In making an examination of thA occurence of the precious metals it is hardly necessary to more than mention the placers, as they do not vary from those regions, and have often been des cribed in the de>ail of thpir environ ment and methods of working. That they are here of ver)‘ great extent is well known. They extend all along the Colorado river, and a large part of the Gila river plains; a large l part of Yuma county, north of the Gila; the Big' Sandy and Santa Maria streams, and all tho streams flowing from the Bradshaw range, the principal of which are the Hassayampa, Black Canyon and Agua Fria, with their principal tributaries. bnrthereast waid they cccur in the neighborhood of Riverside, on the Gila at Greater ville, at the foot of the Santa Rita mountains, and OiQ Bianco district. Large lields are reported in the south western part of Pima county, but In tie is known ot them. The explorers paid much attention to the placers of the small streams in the early days, but soon exhausted them with small sluices and rockers; at least they took off the “cream’' of the deposits. At this time only solitary' washers re main, but they may be found in every stre..m and gulch, and never tire cf relating stories of ohe riches of the past In Skull Valley and in the Weaver districts a dry washer is be iug now successfully used. Some good workers profess to like them ce- ter titan th & old rocker method, The ab sence of water at sufficient heights has prevented the attacking of the large lields by the California hydraulic method. But two attempts have hem, made to use heavy n achinery (Bucy rus machides), one on L) nx creek, eight miles from Prescott, and one near Stanton, both in Yavapai coun ty. The Lynx creek placers are said to go fifty cents per cubic yard, while a claim is made for the Black Canyon district of from eighty cents to sl. Much of the ground in Yuma is re ported tQ go $1.25 per cubic jard. A Company has been formed to take wa - ters from the Big Study for tljese latter finds. Clerk Lee Gray yesterday turned ] over to tbo territory the amount c>l lected from the leases of school land* in this county, SI,OOO. Mr. Gray ia also engaged in the preparation of a, report showing the amount of taxes to be turned over for territorial poses. The county valuation is SB,- 791.942. Ihe rate of taxation ip this county is $2.25 o« each SIOO, The total tax is $107,818,69 1-2. 6f this the territory's share at a rate of 87 1-2 on each SIOO, will amount to $76,- 029.49, nearly one-tliird of the whole amount derived from the territory for territorial purposes.—Republican. An effort is being made by County Superintendent Woods to arrange a joint county teacher’s institute to be held in Tucson some time near Christ mas. He is sending notices to the several school superintendents of the counties in southern Arizona. The counties included are Cochise, Gila Graham, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal and Yurna. —Tucson Star. C. F. Shilling, who has valuable mining property on Mineral Creek, in this county, returned Tuesday from Milwaukee, where he succeeded in interesting a number of promi vent citizens of the Wisconsin metropolis in his ventures. Active development work on the Milwaukee and other claims on the creek will commence at once.—Tribune, The St. James Gazette referring to she formal announcement of Great Britain’s declination to take part in /he Behring Sea conference, to which Russia and Japan might be parties, sayfe. “There will be a feeling of re lief that Great Britain, on behalf of Canada, has finally declined to walk into the trap which was being ar ranged at Washington. America has never paid indemnity for' the illegal seizure cf Canadian sealing vessels, and has exhausted every diplomatic artifice to evade the award, finally demanding a new conference* The Marquis *of Salisbury consented, America proposed that ’Russia and Japan should have seats at the conference, with the obvious intention of outvoting England and upsetting the par s award.” The Globe, commenting on the same- sub ject this afternoon, says. “As a mere matter cf business, it is nut upon the United States in dealing with that country. There is no cause to adopt, the idea that the Marquis of Salisbury almost regretfully refuses to partici pate. In the interest of Canada, it is well to let the United Slates under stand that no settlement of the out s lion will satisfy Groa Britain which will sacrifice one jot or title of the just and equitable rights of the loyal Dominion of Canada.” The Southwestern Stockman has the following concerning the late Irri gation Congress held in Lincoln, Ne braska. It cannot be said that tlje irrigation congress just closed was a very strong body. It will be noted however lljat it got off or tho right foot when it advocated the construc tion of water storage reservoirs by the general government. Yet its recom mendations were confin’ d on the sub je t to endorsing two water storage propositions somewhere in Wyoming and Colorado. It is significant fact that lb* management the pOHgrfEg has been completely changed. This is the third change that has been made in the ter- years of the body. The first set of officials was headed by Win. R. Smythn one of the ablest men in the country, but a man who was thought to be running the thing more for bis own protit than for the good of the movement. 80 he was deposed, though the first years under his administration were the most suc cessful ever known to the organiza. tion. the verge; CANAL. S R. H, Robinson, president of the Minnesota and Arizona Construction Co., passed through Safi’ord Tuesday enroute from Globe to Phoenix. He informed us that the contract is made for the finishing of the Verde canal, and that patties have gone England to secure the money for the enterprise, which will take two years to complete, The construction work of the -canal and dam wiil be under the immediate care of Mr. Robinson, himself. He j will send at once to Missouri for 400 head of fine mules, and thes *, to gether with the 200 head he now has, will make 300 teams with which to do the work. THIS Verde canal will, when com pleted. be 215 miles in length and will cover hundreds of miles of the best land under the sun, where many set tlements will grow up and thrifty farmers will make “the desert bloom as the rose," and smile in contempla tion of drawing profits from their toil, The dam where the water is to be di verted from the Verde river is just above old Ft. McDowell, while the main storage dam is at the head of the Verde valley, about 25 miles farther up. At this point a tunnel will be cut through which the water of the river will be converted during the construction of the immense dam, Where the water emerges from the tunnel Mr. Robinson will set up the machinery that will be used and will use nothing but the falling water to run it. Mr. Robinson's industry is an im mense contribution to the wealth of this country and we shall be glad if his efforts in this venture are crowned with suocess even beyond his present sanguine hopes, —Guardian. SfJHOOL LAND LEASES. The following letter explains itself. Office of Attorney-General, Phoenix, Arizona, Oct. 5, 1897. Hon. A, P. Shewman, Supt of Public Instruction, Arizona, Dear Sir. —Your letter of Sept 27th, referring letter of the clerk of the board of supervisors to me, re ceived. His letter reads as follows, to wit: “Hon. A. P. Shewman, Suft Public Instruction, Mesa, Arizona. Dear Sir. The board of supervisors having been called together in special s- ■ ■■% " > jj session fogr days for fihe express pur pose of Attending to and leasing the school lands of Maricopa county, the question has arisen whether in view of the fact that tfiey are compelled to meet as the board of supervisors for the administration of county business after the amount appropriated for su pervisory work has been exhausted, and since the leasing of school lands in the Toumy has increased the work of the board; is it not just and equit able that the expense of such extra sessions should be paid out of the fund derived from leasing school lands, to gether with such clerical hire as has been necessary and indispensable dui - ing the past month in the execution of the leases and the proper delivery and receipting of the same? The board has so considered the question and I submit the same for .your con sideration and opinion before auditing the regular monthly claims for this month. 4waiting an early reply, I am very respectfully. Lea Gray, Olerfc of the Board of Supervisors.” Replying to yon pn the above com munication, I beg leave to say that the Territorial law under which the school lands are leased is found on pages 122-3-4: 5-6 of the Session Laws of the 19th Legislature of Ari zona. I is law is authorized by a United States Statute passed by the 54th Congress in the early part of 1896. Jt provides that certain Terri torial officials should lease and handle sajd school lands until the Legislature ot the iVrritory should convene and pass a law for the leasing and care of said lands in conformity with said Congressional Enactment. It also provides that such Territorial officials might pay all necessary expenses in cut red in leasing said lauds out of the proceeds derived from the same. The law passed by our Legislature above referred to, places the leasing and management of said school lands in the hand of the hoard of supervis ors, and specifies minutely and at length how such lands shall be leased and handled, and among its many provisions, it says jus* how the pro ceeds from said school lands leases shall be disposed of. Section 18 reads as follows; “The supervisors shall at the end of each ! month pay into the Territorial treas ury all money collected, and must state in their report to the treasurer the amount of funds received from school lands and the amount from University lauds.” Section 11 provides that fl col lected for executing a lease shall be turned over to the school fund, sec tion 13 also provides that any money collected for certifl d copies of records by the clerk of the board of supervi sors, shall be turned over to the school fund as in section 11. There is but one provision in this entire act which authorizes a cent to be paid to any official and that is found in section 17, which authorizes the payment by the Tearitorial Audi tor for books and blanks the superintendent of public instruction or to the clerk of the board of super visors upon proper requisitions The idea of tfio Legislature seems to have baen to sacredly guard any moneys received by the board of supervisors from the leasing of school lands, So that I conclude after a careful Btudy of this act, that it was the intention of the Legislature when passing it that the work of the oonnty officials in leasing the school land* of the Territory is a part of their sworn official duties, for which they are to receive no or additional com* pensatioa, and <Aa t all money* received by them afeotfld be placsd to the credit of the school food. Moat respectfully, submitted, .0, M, Feaeie.;, Attorney General, DU, »UUTT HELM On last Friduy night at about eight o’cock, Dr. Scott' Helm, .one of the most prominent physicians in the ter ritory was killed. He bad rode otto of his favorite horses, a fractious, high spirited animal, such as the doctor al ways took pride in,. ( down to the li. & P. depot to see the Elk’s of which order he was a member, off on their excursion to T-ucsoa. There was a large crowd at the depot and when the train backed down to the depot the horse became frightened and the doctor pulled sharply oa the reins. This caused the horse to rear. The animal lost its balance and fell back wards against a telegraph pole and then to the ground. The "doctor was thrown to the ground striking on his bead with the horse across oue of his legs. It was found on examination by the physicians who were immedi ately summoned that the injury was at the base of the brain. Brain mat ter was oozing from the ears. It was apparent at once that no operation was possible that would save the life of the injured man and as soot} a* possible be was removed to hi* home where he died a little over an hour after the accident. Pr. Helm waa one of the beet known physicians in the territory. He located ip Phoenix in 1888 and in a very short time built up a large prac tice. He was appointed Surgeon General of the Territory soon after his loca tion in Phoenix and held the position for several years with honor and credit to the service. He was an honorary member of the Phoenix Fire Department and the National Guard of Arizona, holding the rank of Colo nel in the latter. The funeral on Sunday was by far the largest ever seen in Phoenix. Thousands of people thronged the streets and all felt that one of the most useful citizens had gone. The procession was over a mile in length, comprising a company of the Na tional Guard and band, the ire de partment, the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows; Workmen and Elk* of which orders he wa* an honor member. At the grave the beautiful rite* of the Masonic fraternity were held and the detachment of the National Guatd fired a last salute over the grave of their departed comrade. rtw , t ■ "\ RESOLUTIONS OF RESPECT. At a meeting of the Oity Council held last week the following preamble and resolutions, were unanimously passed upon the death of B, A. Spragg, City Becorder, clerk and Treasurer. 'ft HEREA3 The deeree* ot the Ruler of the Universe has removed from us oar beloved and honored as sociate and friend David A. Spragg; and Whereas in hi* death we realize that our town and community hae lost a faithful friend and a useful citizen. Be it theubpore Resolved That we deplore the irreparable loss which we have sustained, That this council in common with all the citizens of the town feel that we have lost a wise counsellor, a conscieneious advisor and a never failing friend. That the ohair lately occupied by our deceased associate and friend be draped in mourning for thirty days; that a copy of these resolution* be spread upon the minutes of this coun cil and that a copy thereof be pre sented to the bereaved family of the deceased and to the Free Press for publication. / Signed James R. Tttrman, Mayor Brio. M. Johnson, , H. S. Peterson, Phil Mets, t Rknj. F. Leßabon. } Councilmen, i*o, 6/