appeal from its orders granting the
injunctions and appointing the receiver, the court holding that its
orders were not appealable, and, in effect, that its jurisdiction in the
matter was exclusive.
Upon the refusal of the court to allow an appeal, the Wild Goose and
Pioneer Mining companies, which were represented by able counsel,
secretly despatched to San Francisco, on a fast vessel, a special
messenger bearing papers and affidavits disclosing the record of the
court at Nome, upon which to base application to the appellate court,
the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, for
allowance of appeals and writs of supersedeas. This writ, which, in
effect, nullifies the proceedings of the court below pending the
determination of the appeal which it, the appellate court, has allowed,
was granted in the Wild Goose cases by Judge Morrow, upon the giving of
proper bonds.
Meanwhile the receiver business was in full swing, and McKenzie became
known near and far as the "King of Receivers," or the "Big One." After a
while, when the thing was becoming too notorious, the court evinced a
certain delicacy of feeling by bestowing sundry receiverships upon
selected friends of McKenzie, instead of handing them all over to the
chief. Many mine-owners did not attempt to develop their ground,
fearful lest, it proving rich, the receivership jurisdiction would be
thereto extended. Charges and countercharges of bribery and corruption
were rife, and the fight between the attorneys for the ousted parties
and the "ring" became strenuous and embittered.
In the midst of the storm above referred to,--on the 14th of
September,--an exciting rumor spread throughout the town that the writs
from the appellate court had arrived; and this proved to be the fact.
The Nome dailies (three of them) came out with such head-lines as
"McKenzie Thrown out of His Job," "Death-blow to the New York Ring," and
printed in full the writ commanding a stay of operations and a return of
the property.
But McKenzie did not proceed to obey the mandates of the higher court,
nor did Judge Noyes order him so to do, though they both had been served
with all the requisite papers.
With the knowledge that the Circuit Court of Appeals was back of them,
the Wild Goose people took possession of their mines. McKenzie, acting
under the kind of legal advice that he wanted, maintained that the writs
were irregular and void, and absolutely refused to delive
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