Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1874 — Doubtful Land Titles. [ARTICLE]

Doubtful Land Titles.

People in the North who think they own land on what is known as the Cumberland plateau in Tennessee—and we are informed there are a good many such—will do well to have their titles thoroughly investigated by competent and trust worthy lawyers before paying any more taxes on them, according to a correspondent who writes to the Sun from that region. These lands lie on the top of the Cumberland Mountains, and the State law allows one man to enter 5,000 acres in his own name, and no more, either directly or indirectly; but many persons have entered as many as 100,000 acres or more, using the names of other persons, and afterward having assignments of entries made to themselves. We are told that large quantities of these lands have been sold or traded to people in the North, the purchasers receiving quit-claim deeds. It would appear that the traffic must have been pretty extensive, as the records show that county surveyors have in some, instances certified to having surveyed as many as twenty 5,000-acre tracts in a single day! The great drawback to the value of these lands is that in many instances the owner of a claim for 5,000 acres finds on investigation that there are several older claims for the same property ahead of him, while there is nothing to prevent any enterprising citizens who feel so disposed from putting two or three more entries on top ol his, and as likely as any way the last one will hold good against all its predecessors, so defective and fraudulent have been the practices in relation to surveying and selling these lands. Besides, under a State law, any person who has a color of title and has enjoyed seven years’ peaceable possession of a tract of land thereby acquires a possessory title to all within his bounds, no matter who owns the bona fide title, provided there is one. It would appear that filing claims one over the other upon the same land has been rather encouraged by the authorities. The county receives taxes on all the acres which are supposed to lie in layers several thicknesses deep; various officials receive fees when they are bought and again when they*, are sold for taxes; dishonest lawyers get well paid for making pretended searches ana fraudulent reports; while the surveyors make money every time they survey the same piece of ground for a new claimant. In addition to all this there is the chance that a non-resi-denLowner may have sent the money to pay his taxes to a dishonest agent, who has pocketed it and permitted the land to be sold for the benefit of common schools. On the whole, real estate situated on the Cumberland plqteau appears to be very uncertain property.—lF. r.Sun. The Chicago police have found a den where forty boys are.kept in charge of an old scoundrel who is training them to beggary. He sends them out in the morning (with the understanding that each boy returns at night with fifty cents or partakes of a flogging in default. The ages of the boys range from seven to ten years, and most of them are hired out by their parents for one dollar a week to their intellectual employer. —A little four-year-old girl went running Into the house the other day, exclaiming, “ Mamma, mamma, I’ve seen Jack Frost 1 I’ve seen Jack Frost!” “Where did you see him, my darling r* queried the mother. “ Oh, 1 saw the tip of his tall hanging over the eaves.” Bhe had seen an icicle.