The Frontier.
VOLUME XXIII.
v O’NEILL. NEBRASKA. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30. 1902.
_NUMBER 18.
II lfiSB
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In our issue of October 16, we published a list of several
tracts of land that Mullen had obtained title to on which he
had commenced tax foreclosure. We showed that notwith
standing he now owns the land he refus'es to pay the taxes
until he can sell the land to the farmers of this county.
Among the list referred to was the case of Holt county vs.
Emma J. Goodyear, case No. 6565 for northwest quarter 34
31, 9. The case was commenced by Mullen and on August
6, 1902, the defendant deeded the land to Mullen for “one dol
lar and other valuable consideration.” Record of deed can be
found in Deed Record 64 at page 641. Taxes are delinquent
since 1893 and amount to $136.12 without interest. The In
dependent of last week offered the following bundlesome ex
cuse for Mullen not paying the taxes:
Mr. Mullen has not yet paid the taxes against this land for
the reason there is a mortgage held against this same land by
other parties, and he certainly would not be fool edough to
pay these taxes and clear up the land unless he could buy the
mortgage which is a second lien against the land, the county’s
lien for taxes being the first lien, and if the equity holders does
not pay the taxes and costs and thereby clear up this land it
will be sold and the county gets her taxes and costs in this
manner.—Independent October 24.
juai id aiiuw nuvv uusuiuieiy lease me auuve suiieineni is
as has every other defense offered by Mullen and the populist
press of this county in the present campaign, we publish the
following certificate from County Clerk Gilmour which shows
there is no mortgage against the land:
State of Nebraska,Holt County, ss.
I, E. S. Gilmour, County Clerk, do hereby certify that the records
of this office show that the title to the northwest quarter 34, 31, 9,
west, is in the name of Arthur F. Mullen, and that there are no un
released mortgages of record.
Witness my hand and seal this 24th day of October, 1902.
(Seal) E. S. Gilmour, County County.
By J. C. Harnish, Deputy.
Mr. TaxPayer, which is the best evidence, the lying state
ments of the Independent or the true statements of The Fron
tier backed up by certificates of the public records of the
county?
Mullen has no intention of paying taxes on this land, (or on
any of the hundreds of acres he has obtained title to in this
way,) until he can sell it to some farmer in this county. This
he is trying to do at the present time, which is proven by
the following letter sent by him to a farmer living near Star.
We withhold the farmers name from publication at his re
quest, but we have in our possession the original letter written
by Mullen, and any one doubting it, we will forfeit $50.00 if
we cannot produce it.
Following is the letter written by Mullen:
Arthur F. Mullen, County Attorney
Attorney and Councellor, of Holt County.
O’Neill, Nebraska.
O’Neill, Nebr., Oct. 10, 1902.
-, Star, Nebr.
Dear Sir: I have been advised that you would like to
purchase the NW. of 34-31-9. I have the title to the same,
and will give you a complete warranty deed clear of all en
cumbrances for the sum of $800 cash. This offer will not
stand for any definate length of time, and is subject to change
without notice. Let me hear from you.
Yours truly,
Die. A. F. M. Arthur F. Mullen.
In this case Mullen is magnanimous enough to offer the
farmer the land for “ $800 cash,” and “ price subject to change
without notice,” that has cost him “ one dollar ” and the taxes
(when he pays them). By this hocus-pocus foreclosure pro
cess the poor woman has been bamboozled out of her land.
In this case Hoit county has paid the District Court costs; the
other costs are unpaid, as are the taxes. Mullen may pay
them when he sells this land to the farmer for $800.
Mr. Taxpayer, we submit to your candid judgment, is
further evidence necessary to prove the true motive of Mullen
with his foreclosure manipulations?
DENOUNCE HIS ACTIONS.
The most rediculous and absurd deception ever attempted
in a campaign in this county is the abortive attempt of County
Attorney Mullen and the populist press of this county to show
that District Cleric Slcirving, County Clerk Gilmour, and
Sheriff Hall endorse or approve the damnable redord of Mul
len in tax foreclosures. To show that The Frontier has the
hearty support of these gentlemen, as well as all other thought
ful taxpayers and good citizens, in divulging the appalling
official corruption of County Attorney Mullen, we publish
below a statement from the gentlemen named showing that
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they do not approve in any way of his acts or methods in the
tax foreclosures. Following is the statement:
O’Neill, Nebr., Oct. 27, 1902.
To the public: It has come to our notice that A. F. Mul
len, populist candidate for county attorney, and the populist
press of this county, are attempting to deceive the voters of
j this county by an attempt to make it appear that we have
endorsed his official acts in connection with county tax fore
closure proceedings. That the taxpayers of this county may
not be deceived in this matter we take this opportunity to in
form them that we in no manner endorse or approve the
j official acts of County Attorney Mullen in connection with
J county tax foreclosures.
John Skirving,
Clerk of District Court.
E. S. Gilmour,
County Clerk.
C. E. Hall,
Sheriff.
This statement shows for itself where the republican offi
cials of the county stand in this matter. No one but a knave
or a fool, knowing Mullen’s crooked record as the officials of
this county know it, would attempt to endorse or in any way
condone his official depravity. Thus the recoil of another
populist explosion has killed off the man behind the gun.
^6 Jti jfk j)t,
THE PIRATES AS TAX DODGERS
The only excuse that County Attorney Mullen and the
populist papers of the county offer in justification of the tax
foreclosure system, as it has been conducted in this county, is
their pretense that their actions are begun to enforce the col
lection of taxes.
One unacquainted with the gang, 1o hear their ravings
anent “tax shirkers,” low assessments, etc., would be led to
believe they were the personification of “equality before the
law,” in matters of assessment and payment of taxes. Not
only are Mullen, Harrington and Eves past masters in hypoc
racy but the public records of this county brand them as the
princes of “tax shirkers.”
We publish below the description of twenty-eight quarter
sections of land owned by Count}' Attorney Mullen, M. F.
Harrington, Judge J.J. Harrington and McCarthy & Harring
ton showing the amount of unpaid taxes against the land:
VY f IIVYI SVV IIWJ I1W SWJ ... p ()| Pi
sw} 13-25-13. 106 76
sw} 23-27-16. 71 50
se 33-31-9 . 88 95
sw} 18-31-9. 55 69
sw} 6-30-10. 70 53
fjw} 19-29-10. 57 95
w}nw} 6-31-12. 67 95
w} sw}31-32-12. 65 58
sw nw} nese6-31-12.'.. 65 67
si se} and sesw} 20-32-11. 107 25
ne} ne}29-32-ll. 38 99
ei se} sw se 29 and ne ne 32-32-11. 97 59
ni sw} 22-30-9. 62 68
ni sw} sei nw} swi sw} 17-25-14. 80 54
se}ll-25-14. 60 64
ei ne} nei sw} sw} ne} 15-27-16. 103 98
Si nw} 27-30-9./. 37 09
si sw} 15 wi nw 22-30-9 . 43 98
sw} 27-26-12. 86 69
se} nw} wi nw} sw ne} 7-29-12. 103 70
sw} 10-30-15.!. 115 41
nw} 10-30-15. 124 01
se} 29-30-16. 13 12
nw} 29-30-14. 132 17
wi ne} se} ne} ne} se} 20-32-13. 62 75
sw} 2-28-13. 105 09
nw} 34-31-9. 136 12
Total.$2,200 52
Title to most of the above described land was obtained by
the parties named either by direct or indirect manipulation of
the (ax foreclosure. This is by no means all the land they
own on which taxes are delinquent and unpaid. They own
thousands of acres besides the above that they have obtained
title to through tax foreclosure manipulation. $2,200.52 with
out interest, is what they owe Holt county in delinquent taxes
on above land. If there was a complete list of the land they
own and on which taxes are unpaid it would show that they
owe Holt county over $5,000.00 in taxes. On some of this
land the taxes are delinquent for ten years.
In the face of this Mullen, Harrington, Eves and the pop
ulist press of this county have the nerve to talk about “tax
shirkers” and compelling people to pay their taxes. How sub
limely ridiculous are the hypocritical pretensions of this trio
of land grabbers.
The work of Mullen and his gang of land pirates would
not be nearly as course and might have a shade of consistency
if they would only pay their own taxes.
The facts are there is no honest motive, sincereity or con
sistency in the reprehensible acts of Mullen and Ins pirates in
the foreclosure business. Their first and only object in the
manipulation of the foreclosure system is to grab land, in
which they have been successful to an alarming degree. They
have obtained title to thousands of acres of land at the ex
pense
spirators get the land and the county does not get the taxes
until they can sell it to some farmer of this county at about
five times what it lias cost them.
xl xviuiicu auu a pupuusi Doaru ul supervisors were 10 De
elected it means that the foreclosure business will open up
again at the old stand and run rampant with all its hellishness
for the next two years, at the end of which time the land pir
ates in O’Neill will have title to nearly all the non-resident
land in the county and then the farmers or stockmen of this
county can buy land to add to their present holdings only by
purchasing from the gang that will hold them up for five to
ten times what the farmers of this county could buy it for by
dealing direct with the non-resident land owner. If the farm
ers of this county fully understood how systemmatically they
have been fleeced by the land pirates, by manipulation of the
foreclosure system, there would not one of them vote to re
turn Art Mullen to the office he has so disgraced. The ques.
tion is up to the farmers and tax payers of this county whether
i they' will vote for their own protection and interests or vote
for Art Mullen whose election means thousands of dollars in
his pockets and the capacious maw of the land syndicate.
i “Poor Women and Help- I gg
I less Girls Their Victms.,> | 1
Through T&x Foreclosure Ma.nipula.tions, R ©
Land Pirates Get Land at Sixty-two Cents k j~=
Per Acre which they Sell Within One Year • |k;
at $15 per Acre. N« Ng g jpg
How T5he Graft Operates. 1 |
Frontier Protests of a Yea.r ago Proven # Wjb
Well Founded. '>« sg M
urTrr. mmmm'm+giiM-immmmmM |gj
The Frontier, in the campaign of a year ago, made the p=J 4
same fight on Mullen, Sheriff Stewart, Harrington, Eves, and Ig |1
the land pirates that we are making today. We were point- g g
ing out then, as now, the means the tax foreclosures afforded fag)
the gang of robbing the helpless people of their land. Refer- |1|
ing to one of these sales in our issue of October 10, 1901, we [==}
had this to say: SaLi
“On October 7, 1901,-E. S. Eves purchased at one of lEllsj
these ‘public’ sales the following described land at prices {3E{
named: Hypij
NE>4 & NNWj{ i5-3°-9» price paid.$100 00 gra
SE^ 32~3°-9. price paid. 100 00 g||
NE# 35-30-9. price paid. 106 00 [Hg
“ He gets 480 acres of land, last Monday, at one of these rsli
‘ public ’ sales for $306, and out of this sum he gets returned |||~|
to him $85 as ‘ printer’s fee,’ so by this transaction he gets 480 g®
acres of good land CLEAR, at an actual cost to him of $221, ||j|j
“The defendant in any of these cases was not a rich non
resident loan company owing large sums of delinquent taxes,
of which you see so much talk in Mr. Ev$s’ paper. The
owners of these lands—before Eves took it away from them
by this legalized robery—were individuals, two of them being
women, who may have their all invested in these lands. As
the records show, the Nj4 N}£ 15-30-9, was owned by Min
nie Hinkel of New York, and she owed $12.70 delinquent tax
against the land when Eves commenced his action to get the
land. The SE>^ 32-30-9 was owned by Martha W. Kinney*
of Massachusetts, and she owed $17.66 delinquent tax when
Eves and the gang conceived the idea thnt they had better
take her land. The NEj^ 35-3°-9> by A. Z. Taylor, and he
owed $58.18 when the gang decided his land should go.
The expose of this transaction of legalized robbery through
the columns of The Frontier a year ago called forth the fol
lowing harangue and screed from Eves, which appeared in
the Independent of October 18, 1901:
THAT “ROBBERY."
The Frontier Editors Who Abused Sheriff Stewart Last Week For
Appraising Land too Low, to Faver Friends, Now Refuse to
Purchase the Same Land at its Appraised Value. *
HYPOCRACY EXPOSED.
Their Crocodile Tears Over Non-Resident Tax-Shirkers as Pitiful as
They are Deceitful.
Ail of the lands which Eves has bought Tax-dodger Cronin can have
today at its appraised value. Does he want it, or did he wilfully and
maliciously lie when he said Sheriff Stewart appraised the land too
low? Not only can Cronin have it, BUT DICKSON OR ANY MAN
IN THE COUNTY CAN HAVE THESE LANDS AT THEIR
APPRAISED VALUE. These lands are but poor grazing lands * * *.
Note: Since writing the above, these lands which Cronin and his
Frantiersays were “stolen,” “appraised too low,” etc., were OFFERED
TO HIM AND HIS ASSOCIATE EDITORS AT ITS APPRAISED
VALUE, and they wouldn’t buy it. Now perhaps they will have gall
enough to deny that they lied. * * * The Frontier says Sheriff
Stewart appraised this land too low. Now this same land is offered to
Cronin, or any other man on earth at its APPRAISED VALUE, yet
no buyer can be found. Here again Stewart is vindicated and Cronin
and his Frontier are proven liars. * * * They cannot say a word
against the honesty and integrity of any candidate on the people’s
independent ticket. They cannot say that any populist official in the
past eight years has stolen a penny or misappropriated a nickel of the
county funds, nor can they make any true statement that would be
anything but creditable to the populist party. Under these circum.
stances they can do nothing but sneak around and lie, misrepresent
and try to lead their readers off the real issues and on some tangent
that is in nowise pertinent to the campaign.
As shown by the article published in The Frontier three Ip
days after the sale was made, we remonstrated that these is
people were being robbed by the manipulations of the pop- ==§
ulist sheriff in appraising the land so low that Eves and ^
the pirates could get it for practically nothing. In res- tjjlj
ponse to our charges Eves published the above bluff and j|jE
bluster thinking he could thereby deceive the public. Eves @
never offered the land to Cronin, nor no one else, so far ps
as we have been able to learn, at its appraised value. His jgU;
published bluff and ruse were simply for the purpose of gg
deceiving. girl
(Continued on page 4.) |«K