aid land, and has ever since that time been wrongfully and unlawfully in the possession of said land, and has cultivated and broken and harvested and raised crops on said Jand, and is injuring the same, and sapping the said land and the soil thereof of its goodness and strength, and doing great and irreparable injury to the said land and to the right of possession thereof.” The complaint further charges that the defendant is wholly insolvent and financially irresponsible. The complaint is verified on information and belief by C. E. Leslie, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, but the affidavit of verification fails to state why it was so verified, or why it was not verified by plaintiffa Defendant answered the complaint, and, after admitting the incoporation of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, further answered: “Defendant further answering the complaint herein, denies that he has any knowledge or information thereof sufficient to form a belief, and, therefore, denies each and ever allegation not specifically admitted or otherwise denied.
Defendant alleges that on the 20th of September, 1887, he, being a married male person and the head of a family, and over the age of twenty-one years, and a citizen of the United States, made settlement in person with his family, consisting of a wife and four children, upon the land described in the complaint. That said land was and is public land of the United States, not mineral, and subject to pre-emption. That said lands, with other lands, were declared to be a part of the public domain, and open for settlement under the general laws of the United States, by an order of the honorable secretary of the interior, duly made on August 15, 1887. That defendant settled peaceably upon said land. That it was then wholly unoccupied, wild prairie land, and without any improvements of any kind or nature whatsoever, and this defendant settled peaceably upon said land as a pre-emptor, and duly filed his declaratory statement of his intention to claim said land as a pre-emption right under the laws of the United States in the United States land office at Fargo, N. D., on the 20th of October, 1887. That he then established his residence on said land, and has inhabited, cultivated, and improved the same continuously since said date, and has erected a dwelling house, barn, and other build-
