ested by
the looseness of our mining laws, and which in a new country so
frequently constitute a species of legal blackmail. These claims, for
the most part, had been purchased from the original owners by the Wild
Goose and the Pioneer Mining companies, large corporations which had
been formed to operate them, and other claims, on a very large scale,
and which, with immense equipment at hand for future operations, were
already, in the early season of 1900, engaged in taking out the gold in
great quantities.

In company and on the same vessel with McKenzie, Judge Noyes arrived at
Nome on the nineteenth day of July, 1900, and (to use the language of
the Circuit Court of Appeals in the McKenzie contempt cases) "on
Monday, July 23, before the court was organized and before the filing of
any paper of any character with the clerk of the court, [McKenzie] was
appointed by Judge Noyes receiver of at least four of the richest claims
in the district of Nome, upon complaints made by persons the interest
therein of at least one of whom had theretofore been acquired by the
receiver's corporation, the Alaska Gold Mining Company." And this, too,
upon papers grossly inadequate, without notification to the parties in
possession, or an opportunity for them to be heard, and, generally, in
total disregard of the necessities of the situation and legal precedent.
The orders appointing McKenzie receiver of these claims directed him to
take immediate possession thereof; to manage and work the same; to
preserve the gold and dispose of it subject to the further orders of the
court; and expressly enjoined the persons then in possession from in any
manner interfering with the mining of the claims by the receiver. By a
subsequent order, and in the very teeth of the express prohibitory
provision of the statute under which the court was created, Judge Noyes
further ordered that the receiver take possession of, and that there be
delivered to him, all _personal_ property of every sort and description
on one of these claims and in any way appertaining thereto. The
receiver's bond in each case was fixed at only five thousand dollars,
though at least one of these claims was then yielding about fifteen
thousand dollars a day!

Thereupon, several of the parties thus held up by this highway
procedure, upon proof and affidavits, moved the court to vacate these
orders, which applications were denied, as were the petitions to the
court for the allowance of an