Deputy, if he would render him a monthly statement of his business of his account, he would give him $50 a year. Q. What is this monthly statement? A. A statement of their transactions, that have been paid by the office and received. Q. For the month? A. Yes, sir. Q. What is the further history of that bargain? A. It was continued right along. Q. They have paid $50 a year ever since? A. I think they have. Q. Since 1867? A. Yes, sir. Q. Who took the money the first year? A. Mr. Porter did, I think. Q. Who made up the statement? A. I did. Q. Has that been your business ever since 1867, to make that statement? A. Yes, sir; ever since I was in the office. Q. What time or times have you occupied in making that statement for Preston & Co. ? A. Usually in the office, after the office is closed. Q. Now, since Edmonds' administration, do you know what has become of the $50? A. I have got it. Q. Paid to you? A. Yes, sir. Q. How is the $50 paid? A. He usually sends a check for the payment of the current year's statement. Q. A check, drawn in whose favor? A. Those two that I have received have been to the order of Charles A. Edmonds, personally. Q. You spoke, before dinner, of a payment of $50 to you, by a man by the name of Medbury. State how that came to be, how the circumstances were. A. Last June Messrs. Medbury & Mills had a large contract which had been completed. Q. How many acres? A. Some 80,000 acres reserved on the books, for which he was entitled to patents. He came there in a great hurry, to get the patents for those lands. I was otherwise employed. I didn't see to it. I came back to do my other work. I think I got the Commissioner to set some other clerk at it, to help me. Mr. Medbury thought, probably, I could do it as well, or better than any of them, and he requested me to go to work and do this work right straight along, and I did so. I worked mornings, noons, and nights, and all day. Q. Out of office hours? A. He got them made into certificates, getting the patents issued; he came out and received the patents in person, and carried them home and checked them all over, and found they were correct, and sat down and inclosed a check for $50 to me, to my order. Q. Was there any arrangement between you and Mr. Medbury that you should receive anything, before he went away? A. There was not. Q At any time previous to you receiving the check? A. No, sir. Q. Had you any intimation that he was going to send you money? A. There was not. Q. At any time previous to your receiving the check, how is it. Had you any intimation that he was going to send you the money? A. I had not. Q. Did he write anything, when he sent the check, inclosed in the letter? A. I think he told me I had earned that over and above my salary. Q. Do you know why he was in a hurry about this 80,000 acres? What was said to you about that, if anything? A. He told me he had very nearly consummated in New York for the entire list, and he was very anxious to get them immediately, or as soon as possible. Q. How many days were you occupied at that business at that time? A. I could not say, positive, about the days; it was some time, because I had to check the lands over, I think, three times. In fact, I first took the books, and made a list of all these reservations, from the books, paid no attention to his lists filed, but everything that was marked to him on their contracts, I drew into a list, arranged the list in town, range, and sectional order, made them into certificates by counties. The patents were issued by counties. Q. Can you give some estimate of the time consumed? A. I should think it was three or four weeks. I would not say positive. Q. Three or four weeks' time occupied on that? A. I should say it was. Q. And during all this time did you work out of office hours? A. I did. Q. Every day? A. I think pretty much every day. Q. There has been something said here about private accounts kept with these scrip dealers. Will you explain about that matter, if there is anything further to be explained? A. Well, it is not a private account, they are personal accounts. Q. Are they kept upon the books of the office,-these personal accounts? A. They are. Q. Well, sir, are they public or private accounts? Q. State what those accounts are made up of? A. I do not quite understand what you wish to get at. Q. Out of what are those accounts made, these scrip accounts that you keep. For instance, take David Preston & Co.; what constitute the items of that account? A. They are constituted on one side, the credit side, the amount which he purchases and sends orders to the office; on the other side they consist of the payment of his checks or orders; the balance-the difference between the debit and credit side-shows the amount on hand that he has. Q. One side shows the amount of credit that he has from the State? A. From parties of whom he purchases. Q. Well, it would be a credit from the State, would it not, then, on the contract? A. Yes, sir; on the contract. Q. The State owes him so much land on these credits? A. They do. Q. And when he purchases land he sends an order for the amount, and that is charged up to him on the other side of the book? A. If he purchases land, it is. Q. Now, sir, is it necessary, I ask you again, to the conduct of the office, the business of the office,-that these accounts be kept with these various parties? A. It is a matter of convenience with these personal accounts, being large dealers; and we, as I term it, "pool the account," -bring it together. Q. A convenience to who,-the parties themselves, or to the office? A. To the office. Q. Are those accounts kept at the solicitation of the individual parties? A. I think not altogether. Q. Are they not, otherwise, a necessity in your office? A. They are. Q. Referring back to the minutes which you obtained of Crapo and sold, state whether you had any interest in the lands which were described in these minutes. A. I had none. Q. Whether you ever procured any interest in them. A. I did not. Q. Whether you incumbered the lands, or held them in any way. A. I did not. Q. How long did you keep these minutes before you sold them? A. I kept them from the 30th of May until Mr. Medbury was out making up his patents, the latter part of June. Q. With regard to applications for school lands, whether it is an invariable rule to require of the applicant an affidavit concerning the quality of the land, as to whether it is timber land or farming land? A. Whether it is an imperative order? Q. Whether it is an invariable rule to require an affidavit of the applicant as to the land being chiefly valuable for timber and so forth? A. It is not an invariable rule; no, sir. Q. What proportion of the entries are made without this affidavit, would you think? A. There is quite a proportion. I could not say. Q. An eighth, or a quarter, or a third? A. An eighth or a quarter,—somewhere along there. Q. Well, how much? A. There is quite a proportion; an eighth or a quarter, I should say. Q. Will you state what you understand to be the rule of the office with reference to that matter? A. It is a rule of the office that the office must be satisfied |