Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 24.djvu/912

 882 FORTY-XIXTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. CHS. 10, 17, 18. 1886, 1887. tract of eighty acres of the unoccupied and unappropriated public lands of the United States in the State of Nebraska, subject to entry, not mineral in character. Approved, December 23, 1886. Jan. 3, 1887. CHAP. 17.-An act for the relief of Pattison and Caldwell. Preamble. Whereas, it is represented that in an attempt to extinguish the tire-by which the distillery of Pattison and Caldwell, located at Hamilton, ` Ohio, was destroyed, water was thrown into, ran into, and become intermixed with certain distilled spirits then in the drawing-oif cisterns in the eiszern-room of said distillery; that by reason of said intermixt. - ure said spirits were reduced twenty degrees below proof; and that, under that provision of law by which a tax of ninety cents is imposed on each and every wine-gallon of distilled spirits when below proof said Pattison and Caldwell were required to pay, and did pay, internalrevenue taxes upon said spirits to the amount of five hundred and ten dollars and thirty cents in excess of the sum they would have been required To pay thereon had there been no uch intermixture: Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Pat t i sou and States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treas- C‘§‘;;*’°l:i f ury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to pay to said Pat- °° ° t°xt°‘ tison and Caldwell so much, not exceeding five hundred and ten dollars and thirty cents, as it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue they have paid as internal-revenue taxes on said spirits in excess of what they would have been required to pay thereon had there been no such intermixture of water and reduction of proof. Approved, January 3, 1887. Jan. 3, 1887. CHAP. 18.—An act for the relief of the survivors of the exploring steamer Jean- —···t— nette, andthe widows and children of those who perished in the retreat from the wreck of that vessel in the arctic seas. Preamble- Whereas, the steamer Jeannette, while engaged in an exploring expedition by authority of Congress and under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, was wrecked in the arctic seas, on thethirteenth day of June, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, and in consequence thereof the lives of many of her officers and crew were lost; and Whereas, a court of inquiry appointed in pursuance of a joint resolution of Congress to investigate the circumstances attending the loss of the said steamer Jeannette, and the general conduct and merits of all the officers and enlisted men of the expedition, reported, aftera. thorough investigation, that, while every officer and man so conducted himself that there was no occasion to impure censure to any member of the expedition, the constancy and endurance with which they met the hardships and dangers that beset them entitle them to great praise: Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United _J¤¤¤¤¢¢f¤ ¤¤¢· States of America m Congress assembled, That to reimburse the surviv- `";""‘· . ,.n ors of the officers and crew of the said steamer Jeannette for losses inpproprlmmin to . . . pay 1;,,. mw, iu, curred by them, respectively, in consequence of the wreck of that vessel, mined. there shall be paid, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the following sums, to wit: To George W. Melville, chief engineer, one thousand dollars; to John \V. Danenhower, lieutenant, one thousand dollars; to Raymond L. Newcomb, naturalist and taxidermist, six hundred dollars; to John Cole, acting boatswaiu, six hundred dollars; to W'. F. C. Nindemann, seaman, six hundred dollars; to