izes cities of over seven thousand inhabitants to require the construction of viaducts over or under streets. This law requires the railroad companies to build the viaducts and the cities to pay the abutting damages, the question of the necessity for the viaducts to be determined by the Railroad Commissioners.

Chapter 17, Laws of 1890, approved April 8, 1890, provides for joint rates correcting what was claimed to be prohibited in the former law.

Chapter 18, approved April 5, 1890, requires all cars to be equipped with automatic couplers and power brakes within a specified time, and all locomotives to be equipped with driver brakes.

The Legislature of 1892 amended the law for putting on the automatic coupler and the power brakes extending the time, corrected an error in the joint rate law, extended the naming of railway stations to unincorporated towns, and authorized the railroad Commissioners to require the railroad companies in addition to the reports required by previous legislation to furnish such information as in their judgment may be deemed necessary and reasonable.

The foregoing gives an outline of the legislation of the State on railways. Matters that are of a police character have been omitted as well as penalties, but enough has been given to show the trend of the legislative mind from the genesis of the railway in the State through the various phases of public sentiment during a period of forty-six years.

Very early in the history of the State the Supreme Court construed a statute to authorize by a popular vote cities and counties to issue bonds and subscribe for the stock of railroad companies. The anxiety for the building of railroads involved most of the cities and counties in the eastern part of the State in indebtedness that it took years to pay. In 1862, the Supreme Court reversed its former ruling and denied the authority of cities and counties to issue bonds for this purpose, repudiation followed and years passed without the payment

of principal or interest. The Supreme Court of the United States when this question was presented, held that the State court having sanctioned the indebtedness by its decision that bona fide purchasers were protected, or in other words, the State court being on both sides of the question that parties having in good faith furnished the cities and counties money on the faith of the first decision should have their rights protected.

The Constitutional Convention of 1857 limited State indebtedness to five per cent. on the valuation except in cases of war and invasion, and also limited in the same manner the indebtedness of cities and counties. It is probably owing to these provisions that the State and the counties are generally in good financial condition. These safe guards were generally at the time understood to have been adopted through the influence of Governor Grimes and Senator Coolbaugh, who though neither of them were members of the convention had great influence through the State with the leading members of their respective political parties. Whether this be correct or not there can be no question as to the wisdom of those provisions. At a period when men were disposed to run wild on railroad schemes, these wise provisions kept indebtedness within limits that our people without serious burdens upon themselves have been able to meet.

The railroad legislation up to 1874 was nearly all enacted with the intent to furnish the railroad companies all the assistance that could be rendered and it would be superficial in us to criticise it. These men in their day acted generally for the best interests as they existed at the time. The legislation of 1874 was a revulsion, and while some propositions were carried to extremes it developed the relation of the State to the corporations and settled the scope of the powers of the State. It was one of the experiments made for the public welfare. The reaction from this lasted several years, to be again followed by the legislation of 1888, and the reforms of the interstate-commerce law. Since that time there seems to be a

tendency in the other direction and a kindlier feeling seems to be growing. It is probable that the experiments will end in a system of railway management and control which, while not working injustice to capital invested, will further as far as practicable, all the material interests of the State.

Iowa City, October, 1893.

PETER A. Dey.

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF IOWA CITY. HAVE been greatly pleased and highly entertained by reading Prof. Shambaugh's "Contribution to the Early History of Iowa,” and as I was myself one among the early settlers of your beautiful city and county, nearly all of the persons therein named, together with most of the incidents related, were personally known to me.

I was a resident of the city during the first session of the Legislative Assembly held in the Butler building, also during the first held in the new, and I was a member of the two last sessions of that assembly held there, as well as a looker-on at the proceedings of the first General Assembly of the new State, in addition to attending several sessions of the Supreme Court of the Territory and State, and all of these opportunities, with a residence of two years in the city, made me familiar with the men and things connected with its first history, all of which rendered the reading of the "contribution doubly interesting to me.

Most, if not all the men therein named, have no doubt, passed away to the silent shore, while many of the incidents connected with them are forgotten, and as one who still survives them, and who knew them long and well, I can bear testimony to their high character and sterling worth, while to me their memories will be ever green.

My brother and I took the contract from Judge Trimble to furnish the rock for the foundation of the old jail, and we

had in our employ for a time a half negro by the name of Brown, who with his wife resided in the city, and he was a strong, powerful man, and witha! a desperate character of the very worst type. One morning after the jail was completed, I was in the law office of Gilman Folsom, when a Mr. Gardner from Old Man's Creek, entered and related. that he had a large quantity of bacon that he had been smoking in an old house on the creek, stolen the night before, and I at once suspected Brown, and taking Mr. Gardner with me to the office of Justice Hawkins, he swore out a search warrant, and the justice authorized me to serve it, and taking Gardner and my brother with me we entered Brown's house unexpectedly to him, and while my brother covered him with a pistol, I began the search, and found a dozen or more of smoked hams, shoulders and sides under the bed with a curtain in front to hide them, all of which Gardner said were his. From the large quantity stolen it was evident that Brown had help, and I afterward found a lot more bacon in the house of a man named Hines, which Gardner also claimed to be his, and of course Brown and Hines were both held under heavy bonds to await the action of the grand jury, and failing to give them they were both sent to the new jail. Now at this time there also lived in the city two brothers by the name of Hoge, one of whom showed me his commission as a Mormon elder, and we had employed one of them with Brown in the quarry, while the other did but little work, and got his food and lodging wherever he could prog it. There were also living in the city at this time two other men, whose names were Wallace and Green, and all four of them were single men. Green did nothing that I ever knew of, but Wallace was a worker, and seemed to be a very nice young man. Now at this time that grim old chieftain Poweshiek, with several wives and daughters, paid the city a formal visit, camped down on the bottom, tied his horses' fore feet together, and turned them out to graze, and here he remained for several days with his wives purchasing their outfit, and tak

ing in the city generally. He was a very large, heavy man, good looking, every inch a chief, and very popular with the white man.

One morning early the old chief came up into town and reported that four of his best horses were stolen from him. in the night, and on this news the excitement in the city was great indeed. Judge Lynch had only a short time before this adjourned his court, and yet in spite of all his judgments faithfully carried out by his sheriff "Larruping" John Adams, here were four more horses stolen right under John's nose. Upon looking about and counting noses, it was found that Green, Wallace, and the two Hoge brothers were missing, and suspicion fell upon them. Now at this time there was a desperate canvass in the county for the office of sheriff, and the "Locofocos" had nominated the old sheriff, Sam Trowbridge, while the Whigs had put forth Walter Butler, and in my hearing some one said to Butler, "catch them thieves and bring them and the horses back or withdraw from the canvass," and in less than half an hour Butler had selected his men, and with fast horses was on the trail, and in about ten days he had overhauled them crossing the Missouri line into Arkansas. With the thieves it was, as they supposed, a race for life, and they too had the very best of horses, and the chase was a long one; but Butler was too much for them, and he returned after about fifteen or twenty days with all of the horses and with Wallace and the two Hoge brothers, but Green had made good his escape. The horses were returned to the old chief, and the prisoners sent to jail to keep company with the negro, Brown, and Hines, until either Judge Lynch or Judge Williams should determine their fate, and now there are in that jail five of the most desperate villains that had ever made a track on Iowa soil. No one knew the construction and weak points of that jail so well as the negro Brown, for he had not only assisted my brother and me, about the foundation, but he had attended the masons while laying up the brick walls, and he had a wife in the city who could