Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1879.djvu/55

Rh the reservation, when the same were necessary to carry out the provisions of the act; fix the value of property condemned, and to issue a certificate or certificates therefor to persons owning the same. It was made the duty of the Secretary of the Interior within thirty days after said commissioners filed their report and map in his office, to instruct the land officers of Little Rock land district to allow the lands to be entered, and to cause a patent to be issued therefor; the claimant or occupant, his heirs, or legal representatives, in whose favor said commissioners had adjudicated, having the sole right to enter and pay for, within twelve months of public notice of right to enter, at the price fixed by said commissioners, the amount of land that they were entitled to purchase, as shown in the certificate issued in their favor. Upon failure to pay the valuation appraised, within the time prescribed, the said lands, together with all other lands, that no one has an adjudicated right to purchase under the act, are to be sold at public sale to the highest bidder for not less than their appraised valuation.

The moneys obtained from the sale of these lands are to be paid into the Treasury in the same manner as other moneys arising from the sale of public lands, and held for the purpose specified and for the further disposal of Congress.

Under the provisions of the act cited, the President, on the 30th March, 1877, appointed the following commissioners: A. H. Cragin of New Hampshire, John Coburn of Indiana, and M. L. Stearns of Florida. Their term of office was for one year, and in 1878 provision was made by Congress for an extension of their time, but owing to an unfortunate omission in the engrossing of the bill, the proviso relating to the Hot Springs failed to become a law; Congress, however, on the 16th of December, 1878, authorized the continuance of the commission for one year, and the same gentlemen were re-appointed by the President.

A preliminary report recently received from the commissioners justifies the belief that their work is about completed and that the requirements of the statute relating to their duties will be fully complied with before the expiration of their term of office. Their labors have been arduous, and, from their nature, somewhat embarrassing; yet they appear to have been performed with a conscientious desire to do justice to all claimants without doing injustice to the interests of the government. If the final results of their labor shall prove as satisfactory as the zeal and good judgment already shown, they will be entitled to great credit for the just settlement of vexed questions and for the laying out of a plan which, if carried out by the citizens of Hot Springs, will make that place a most attractive resort for those who seek its pure air and curative waters.

The efficacy of the waters of Hot Springs has been conclusively proven by the many remarkable cures which have followed their judicious use. When their virtues become more widely known, these springs