Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/320

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getting off easily, as he had had the use of the money involved in the stolen tmber for a sufficient length of time to more than reimburse him for the outlay.

There is also a record of a proceeding in the United States Circuit Court for the District of Minnesota, 4th Division, wherein a Minneapolis Court imposed a fine of $3,244.12 against the C. A. Smith Lumber Company a few years ago on account of a flagrant timber trespass, and this fine was likewise paid without much ceremony.

If I felt so inclined I could dig up innumerable instances where the avariciousness of this would-be saint has played an important part in the drama of depredation, but 1 think enough has already been presented to more than satisfy any unbiased mind that Smith was simply playing to the galleries when he undertook to set himself upon a pedestal of righteousness in the course of his interview with the Minneapolis Journal.

Instead of being a loser to the extent of $150,000 or $200,000, through his dealings with me, Smith has profited to the extent of several millions, and had he not been so greedy, and overcome with the idea of preventing me from making a small commission, he would have been millions of dollars better off still.

The happy family

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