Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1896 — LONG AND SHORT LEGS. [ARTICLE]

LONG AND SHORT LEGS.

Irregularities to £±sr Divisions Due to J the Manner of Measurement. It is a commonly accepted theory that a man step* three feet, and many 3. tract of land has been “stepped off” Instead of measured with a chain. In the west they obviate the difficulties; of surveys .by the land being divided into Sections, bnt In Pennsylvania' much of the property, especially in the mountains, must still be described by, metes and bounds. In one of the conn- 1 ties in western Pennsylvania,' says the Washington Star, axe two brothers, 1 one of whom is tall and lank, the other' short and fat. Many years ago they, purchased a tract of mountain land] calling for a mile square. They divided the labor of measuring it, one stepping off one side, the other the other side.) Then they fenced it in and were per-i fectly satisfied until recently when suitj was brought to recover a considerable tract of the land. Each brother swore 1 that they knew the measurement to be right, and told haw it had been done. Then, as the spectators saw the short legs of the one, scarcely long enough to. reach the floor when he sat in a chair,* and the elongated extremities of the other, there was a general laugh, in which the judge and attorney joined. Upon surveying, it was found that one line was a mile and half long, and the* other only a little over half a mile.