April 15, 1896. Menominee, Mich. CHAP. 103.--An Act Authorizing the construction of a fog signal on the north pier of the entrance to Menominee Harbor, Michigan. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, There is hereby authorized to Fog signal author be constructed, at the north pier of the entrance to Menominee Harbor, Michigan, a fog signal, to cost not exceeding five thousand dollars. Approved, April 15, 1896. ized. April 16, 1896. bridge Chattahoochee River. Provisos. High bridge. CHAP. 104.-An Act To authorize the construction of a wagon and foot bridge across the Chattahoochee River at or near the city of Columbia, Alabama. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Columbia, Ala., may States of America in Congress assembled, That the city of Columbia, a municipal corporation under the laws of Alabama, be, and is hereby, authorized to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge for the passage of vehicles of all kinds, animals, and foot passengers across the Chattahoochee River at or near the city of Columbia, so as to connect with Georgia on the opposite shore: Provided, That any bridge built under the provisions of this Act may be built as a drawbridge, or with unbroken and continuous spans: Provided also, That if said bridge shall be built with unbroken and continuous spans it shall give a clear headroom of not less than fifty-five feet above high-water mark, as the same shall be fixed and determined by the Secretary of War: And provided, also, That if said bridge shall be constructed as a drawbridge the same shall be constructed as a pivot drawbridge, with a draw over the main channel of the river at an accessible and the best navigable point, and with drawspans giving a clear width of waterway of not less than one hundred feet on each side of the pivot pier: Provided further, That if the Secretary of War shall decide that navigation will not be injured thereby the draw may be built with one span of one hundred feet clear width of opening over the main navigable channel; and said draw shall be opened promptly, upon reasonable signal, for the passage of boats: Provided further, That whatever kind of bridge is constructed the owners thereof shall maintain thereon, at their own expense, from sunset to sunrise, such lights or other signals as may be prescribed by the Light-House Board. Draw bridge. Draw span. Opening draw. Lights, etc. Lawful structure and post route. Postal telegraph. Free navigation. Toll. Secretary of War to approve plans, etc. SEC. 2. That any bridge built under the provisions of this Act shall be a lawful structure, and shall be recognized and known as a post route, upon which no higher charge shall be made for the transmission over the same of the mails, troops, and munitions of war of the United States passing over said bridge than the rate per mile paid for the transportation over the public highways leading to said bridge; and equal privileges in the use of said bridge shall be granted to all telegraph and telephone companies; and the United States shall have the right of way across said bridge and approaches for postal telegraph purposes; and said bridge shall be so constructed and operated as not to interfere with the navigation of said river. SEC. 3. That said municipal corporation shall have the right to charge and collect a reasonable rate of toll, to be approved by the Secretary of War, not exceeding the rate limited by the law of Alabama. SEC. 4. That the bridge authorized to be constructed under this Act shall be located and built under and subject to such regulations for the security of the navigation of said river as the Secretary of War shall prescribe; and to secure that object the said corporation shall submit to the Secretary of War, for his examination and approval, a design and drawings of the proposed bridge, and a map of the location, giving for the space of one-half mile above and one-half mile below the proposed location the topography of the banks of the river, the shore lines at high and low water, the direction and strength of the currents, and the soundings, accurately showing the bed of the stream, and shall furnish such other information as may be required for a full and satisfactory understanding of the subject. And until the said plan and location of the bridge are approved by the Secretary of War, no work upon the bridge shall be commenced; and should any change be made in th plan of said bridge during the progress of construction, such change shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of War. SEC. 5. That this Act shall be null and void if actual construction of the bridge herein authorized be not commenced within one year and completed within three years from the date of approval hereof. SEC. 6. That Congress hereby expressly reserves the right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act. Approved, April 16, 1896. Changes. Commencement and completion. Amendment, etc. CHAP. 107.-An Act Providing for disposal of lands on abandoned portions of the Fort Assinniboine Military Reservation in Montana, and for the relief of certain settlers thereon. April 18, 1896. Montana. entry. cepted. ex Proviso. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all lands which have been or may hereafter be excluded from the limits of the Fort Assinniboine Fort Assinniboine Military Reservation in the State of Montana shall be open to the reservation opened to operation of the laws regulating homestead entry, except section Commutation twenty-three hundred and one of the Revised Statutes, and to entry R. S., sec. 2301, p. under the town-site laws and the laws governing the disposal of coal 421. lands, desert lands, and mineral lands, and shall not be subject to sale under the provisions of any Act relating to the sale of abandoned military reservations: Provided, That if the entire reservation be abandoned for military purposes this Act shall not apply to an area one ings, etc., reserved. mile square embracing the Government buildings at Fort Assinniboine. SEC. 2. That all entries heretofore made in good faith under either the homestead, town-site, desert-land, or mineral-land laws of the United States upon any of the excluded portions of said Fort Assinniboine Military Reservation shall be held valid, and the Secretary of the Inte rior is directed to reinstate such entries under either of said laws as he may heretofore have canceled because of a construction based upon the opinion that the laws mentioned in section one of this Act did not apply to the abandoned portions of said reservation. Approved, April 18, 1896. CHAP. 108.-An Act Granting to the Atchison and Nebraska Railroad Company and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, its lessee in perpetuity, the right of way over a part of the Sac and Fox and Iowa Indian Reservation in the States of Kansas and Nebraska. Previous entries validated. April 18, 1896. Atchison and Ne and Fox and Iowa In Kans. and Nebr. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby granted braska Railroad Comto the Atchison and Nebraska Railroad Company, a corporation organ pany and lessee grantized and existing under the laws of the State of Kansas, and to the ed right of way. Sac Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, a corporation dian Reservation, organized and existing under the laws of the State of Illinois, as lessee in perpetuity of the railroad lines and property of said Atchison and Nebraska Railroad Company, the right of way for the railroad of said Atchison and Nebraska Railroad Company as so leased, one hundred feet in width, fifty feet on each side of the center of the track, as existing and located on and since the seventh day of April, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-five, through the Sac and Fox and Iowa Indian Reservation in the States of Kansas and Nebraska and over the allotments in severalty of certain Indians thereon, commencing upon the allotment of Sidney Perry at the southeast corner of said reservation and extending northwestwardly to a point one thousand two hundred and seventy-four feet west of the east line of the allotment of Stephen Story in the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section twenty-six, township one north, of range eighteen east, in Location. Provisos. to approve location. Richardson County, Nebraska: Provided, That this grant is upon condition that the grantees hereof shall, within ninety days after the approval of this Act, pay to said allottees, or their heirs, or to a parent or guardian of any minor allottee or heir, or to the Indian agent at the Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency for their use, at the rate of twenty-five dollars per acre for the land hereby granted; and the receipts of any such persons, acknowledged in the manner provided for the acknowledgment on instruments conveying real estate in the State where said land is located, filed with the officer keeping the pub. lic record of land titles in the county in which said land is located, shall be evidence of such payment: Provided further, That said comSecretary of Interior pany shall first file with and secure the approval of the Secretary of the Interior to the map of definite location of the road as the same was located on the seventh day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-five. SEC. 2. That at any time hereafter whenever it shall be made to appear to the Secretary of the Interior that the encroachments of the Missouri or Great Nemaha rivers shall make it necessary for the grantees named in this Act, their successors or assigns, to acquire other right of way through any part of such reservation, the allottees in sev eralty of allotments thereon, or their heirs, are hereby authorized individually to grant and convey right of way to the said railroad companies over their respective allotments in the ordinary manner provided for the acquisition of title to real estate in the above-named States, respectively; or the said grantees may proceed against such allottees, or their heirs, as the owners of the several allotments, to condemn such right of way in the manner prescribed by the laws of such respective States as then existing: Provided, That said company shall first file a map of definite location of the location of the relocated line as provided in section one of this Act. Change of location. Proviso. Maps to be filed. Received by the President, April 7, 1896. [NOTE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE.-The foregoing act having been presented to the President of the United States for his approval, and not having been returned by him to the house of Congress in which it originated within the time prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, has become a law without his approval.] CHAP. 119.—An Act Authorizing the transfer of a cannon from the Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, Illinois, to Grant Park, in Galena, Illinois. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of War be authorized and directed to cause to be transferred from the Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, Illinois, to Grant Park, in Galena, Illinois, a Confederate cannon captured by the Forty-fifth Illinois Infantry: Provided, That the transfer shall be made without expense to the Government. Approved, April 24, 1896. April 24, 1896. Yerba Buena Island, Cal. CHAP. 120.—An Act Providing for a naval training station on the island of Yerba Buena (or Goat Island), in the harbor of San Francisco, California, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Navy be, and he is hereby, authorized to establish a training station for Naval apprentice training station estab. naval apprentices on the island of Yerba Buena (or Goat Island), in the harbor of San Francisco, California; and said Secretary is authorized to designate two officers of the Navy, and the Secretary of War is authorized to designate one officer of the Army, said three officers to constitute a board, who shall select and assign so much of said island lished. Site. as may be necessary for the purpose of establishing said naval training station; and the site so selected, when approved by the President, shall be, by virtue of this Act, transferred to the Navy Department for the purposes of said naval training station. SEC. 2. That all apprentices of the Navy, whether at a training station or on board an apprentice training ship, shall be additional to the number of enlisted persons allowed by law for the Navy. Approved, April 24, 1896. CHAP. 121.—An Act To grant certain lands to the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado. April 24, 1896. Colorado Springs, Colo. tion of Pike's Peak Military Reservation. Boundaries. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following described tracts of land, situate in the county of El Paso and State of Colorado, May purchase pornamely, that part of Pike's Peak Military Reservation described as follows: Beginning at corner numbered two as designated in the field notes of the United States military reservation survey, and running thence along the boundary line of said reservation, south sixty-six degrees west, seven thousand seven hundred feet to corner numbered three of said survey; thence north thirty-eight degrees fifty-five minutes west, eight thousand two hundred and forty feet to corner numbered four of said survey; thence north nineteen degrees twenty-five minutes west, eight thousand six hundred and eighty feet to a point on line four-five of said survey; thence east two thousand one hundred and sixty feet; thence south forty-four degrees forty-seven minutes east, fourteen thousand one hundred and thirty-six and four tenths feet; thence north sixty-three degrees thirty-nine minutes east, two thousand four hundred feet to the northwest corner of the Colorado Springs reservoir grant; thence south twenty-six degrees twenty-one minutes east, two thousand five hundred and ninety-five feet along west line of said grant, to a point on line one-two of said reservation survey; thence south sixty-three degrees thirty-nine minutes west, three hundred and sixty-three feet to corner numbered two, the place of beginning; also, the southeast quarter of section fourteen, and the east one-half of section twenty-three, and the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section twenty-six, and all that portion of section thirteen lying west of said reservation, and all that portion of section twenty-four lying west of said reservation, and the north one-half of the northwest quarter of section twenty-five, and all that portion of the northeast quarter of said section twenty-five lying west of said reservation; and all that portion of the northeast quarter of section fourteen lying west of said reservation, all in township fourteen south, range sixty-nine west, of the sixth principal meridian, containing three thousand ninety-seven and forty-eight one hundredths acres, more or less, be, and the same are hereby, granted and conveyed to the city of Colorado Springs, in the county of El Paso, and State of Colorado, upon the payment of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre by said city to the United States, to have and to hold said lands to its use and behoof forever, for purposes of Use. water storage and supply of its waterworks; and for said purposes said city shall forever have the right, in its discretion, to control and use any and all parts of the premises herein conveyed, in the construction of reservoirs, laying such pipes and mains, and in making such improvements as may be necessary to utilize the waters contained in any natural or constructed reservoirs upon said premises. Approved, April 24, 1896. STAT L-VOL 29. -7 Price. April 24, 1896. Preamble. CHAP. 122. An Act To amend an Act approved August twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, entitled "An Act to authorize purchasers of the property and franchises of the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company to organize a corporation and to confer upon the same all the powers, privileges, and franchises vested in that company." Whereas, pursuant to the authority conferred in and by the Act of which this is amendatory, a corporation was fully organized by the name and style of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad Company by the purchasers of the property and franchises formerly of the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company, and it is desirable that the powers of said corporation should be defined as hereinafter provided: Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Choctaw, Oklahoma States of America in Congress assembled, That the power to construct and operate branches, including those mentioned in section two of this Act, conferred in and by section four of the Act approved August twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, entitled "An Act to authorize purchasers of the property and franchises of the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company to organize a corporation and to confer upon the same all the powers, privileges, and franchises vested in that company," shall be exercisable in the Indian Territory only after maps showing the location of such branches shall have been filed with and Approval of loca approved by the Secretary of the Interior. and Gulf Railroad Vol. 28, p. 502. tion. Construction of branches. Time requirements complied with. April 24, 1896. SEC. 2. That the powers conferred by said section four shall extend to branches intended to aid the development of any coal or timber territory contiguous or tributary to the lines of railroad of the said Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad Company, whether owned or controlled by said company or by others, said branches not to exceed in length five miles, and to the construction and operation of a branch from any point on its existing line of railroad to the northern line of the State of Texas, and for this purpose the said company shall have the like rights, powers, and franchises, as to the acquisition of a right of way and depot grounds, and as to the construction and operation of the said branch, and shall be subject to the like conditions and restrictions as it possesses or is subject to under or by virtue of the provisions of the said Act of August twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and ninetyfour, as to the line of railroad acquired or constructed thereunder. SEC. 3. That the line of railroad which has been heretofore constructed shall be regarded and treated as a full compliance by said company with the requirements of the Act applicable to it, by which it was required, as a condition of further construction thereafter, to complete its main line prior to February eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, and said company may exercise from time to time the rights, powers, and franchises heretofore or by this Act conferred as to further extensions of or branches from its existing line. Approved, April 24, 1896. CHAP. 123. An Act To authorize reassessments for improvements and general taxes in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United District of Colum- States of America in Congress assembled, That the Commissioners of Reassessment of lots the District of Columbia be, and they are hereby, authorized and technically defective. directed, in all cases where general taxes or assessments for local bia. improvements in the District of Columbia may hereafter be quashed, set aside, or declared void by the supreme court of said District, by reason of an imperfect or erroneous description of the lot or parcel of ground against which the same shall have been levied by reason of such tax or assessment not having been authenticated by the proper officer, or of a defective return of service of notice, or for any technical reason other than the right of the public authorities to levy the tax or make the improvement in respect of which the assessment was levied, to reassess the lot or parcel of ground in respect of such general taxes |