The Gauntlet Thrown in the Land Office
A settler, claiming he was robbed of his homestead, issued a dramatic challenge to the land office register.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The spectator in the U.S. land office, Wednesday morning, was carried back to medieval times by a little incident which occurred there. Jimmy Sherwood marched into the office where Register Krutz was meditating over the uncertainties of official tenures, and after recounting the story of his wrongs as a settler on government land and how he had been robbed of his homestead, drew the gauntlet glove from his hand and throwing it down on the counter strode out with the significant remark, 'I'll be back at 1 o'clock.' With the coming of 12 o'clock also came Mr. Sherwood, but Register Krutz had not been idle in the meantime and Marshal McMurtry was with him, his towering form quite enveloping Sherwood in his shadow as he escorted that individual out where the gentle breezes of Boreas might toy with his golden locks, and allay the fevered heat which thoughts of his wrongs had called up.
“I'll be back at 1 o'clock.”
Land disputes were the bedrock of frontier life, often turning into personal vendettas in a system that frequently favored speculators over homesteaders. This scene reflects the deep-seated frustration with government land policies that defined the early settlement of the Yakima Valley.
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