David Josiah Brewer

“ His failure to deny the facts does not justify the inference which intervenors draw from them. It only leaves the matter for the determination of the court. The other reason is that in equity proceedings a party must prove all the facts necessary to his right, except so far as they are admitted by the adverse party. From these considerations it is evident that as to these two cases no such proof was made of the personal service of demand and notice as entitled petitioners to a decree of forfeiture. ”

“ While one of the witnesses, assuming a uniform thickness of the vein of coal beneath each tract, made large estimates of value, yet other testimony plainly disclosed that which all experience affirms,-an uncertainty as to such thickness, and also made manifest the expense and difficulties attending the mining of whatever coal there may in fact be beneath the property. ”

“ In it the rule was stated as follows: 'But in equity, as in admiralty, when several persons join in one suit to assert several and distinct interests, and those interests alone are in dispute, the amount of the interest of each is the limit of the appellate jurisdiction.' There are no affidavits of value filed with this record. Indeed, it is probable they would not be admissible. Cattle Co. v. Needham, 137 U.S. 632, ante, 208. If we turn to the testimony, we find nothing which satisfactorily establishes the value of any one of these leasehold interests. ”

“ And, more than that, the considerations of the conveyances offered in evidence clearly tend to establish that the total value of no single leased tract, including therein both the fee of the land and the leasehold interest, is equal to $5,000. ”

“ He, too, attempted to give notice bymai l, instead of by personal service; and on the 1st of January, 1885, at Carterville, Illinois, he mailed a notice, of which the following is a copy, to John W. Harrison, receiver, etc., at St. Louis, Mo.: 'Carterville, Ill., January 1, 1885. To John W. Harrison, Receiver of the Carbondale Coal & Coke Company-Sir: There is now due me for rent or lease money on east one-half of the southeast quarter of section 33, township 8, range 1 east, eighty dollars for the year 1884. ”