he letter of the
law. Through my work in handling proofs I was familiar with the
technicalities. From actual experience I had learned the broader
fundamental principles as they could be applied to general usage.

I became a sort of mediator between the homesteader and the United
States Land Office. It was a unique job for a young woman and brought my
work to the attention of officials in Washington and several
Congressional public land committees. Slowly I was becoming identified
with the land movement itself, and I had learned not to be overawed by
the fact that some of the government's under-officials who came out to
the Strip did not agree with my opinions. I had clashed already with
several of them who had been sent out to check up on controversies in
which the homesteaders' rights were disputed. They knew the
technicalities better, perhaps, than I did; but in regard to conditions
on the frontier they were rank amateurs and I knew it.

Land on the Brule was held at a premium and landseekers were bidding
high for relinquishments. So attractive were the offers that a few
settlers who were hard pressed for money, sold their rights of title to
the land, and passed it on to others who would re-homestead the claims.
Several early proof-makers sold their deeded quarters, raw, unimproved,
miles from a railroad, for $3000 to $3700 cash money.

Real estate dealers of Presho, Pierre, and other small towns looked to
the Brule as a plum, trying to list relinquishments there for their
customers. But I got the bulk of the business! One of the handy men
around the place sawed boards and made an extra table with rows of
pigeonholes on it, and we installed this in the back end of the print
shop for the heavy land-office business.

Most of our work on land affairs was done free in connection with the
legal work of the newspaper. Then buyers or sellers of relinquishments
began paying us a commission, and one day Ida Mary sold a claim for spot
cash and got $200 for making the deal. Selling claims, she said, was as
easy as selling _shela_ (tobacco) to the Indians. The difficulty lay in
finding claims for sale.

The $200 went to Sedgwick at the bank on an overdue note. He had moved
into a bank building now, set on a solid foundation, instead of the
rolling sheep wagon whose only operating expense was the pistols.

That entire section of the frontier was making ready for the incoming
torrent of the Rosebud settlers to take possession