Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-01-04


to pay scores OF clerks, door keepers,
readers, assistants and reporters, while 1
for luxuriating a couple Of hours per /
week IN the cushioned mahogany Of
the Council Chamber each member
gets 5000 a year.
And what they do there Mr. Parton
graphically tells US. To show with
what giddy and daring recklessness /
these young bar-keepers waste, give
away and steal the peoples money We
Will cite few examples from their ae-
tual proceedings. a member proposes
to lease a building for a city court for
ten years at s., 600 a year. One of the
honest minority objects. He has in
speeted the building and kaot0s that
even. at present inflated rents 1t IS
worth only 81 200 year. but his voice
Is drowned BY cries of Question
Question land the iniquity is perpe-
trated by a storm of ayes.
Another resolution Is offered appro
priatiDg $1,000 to purchase stands Of
eolors, at $500 each, to be presented to
i've regiments Of the city miliila.-I
Honest Mr.. Pullman objects again that
the State Legislature has already ap-
propriated money to present colors to
every regiment in the State; that some
Of the regiments have already received
those colors, and that having seen
tbem he Isa0,rs them to be of great
beauty and excellent quality; and that
the, price named in the resolution is ex-
cessiYe. since the best eoIors could be
obtained for 1870 per stand. But all
in vain The Ring of bull-neeked
baF-keepers have a secret arrangement
with a contractor by which each one
gets so for his vote. The cry of Ques-
ton is raised and the resolution car
ried by vote of Is to 5. 1t may be
stated incidentally that some of the ia
vorite regiments Of New York city
militia have FIVE or six stands of colors
thus presented. The presentation Ger
emony of each set afforded the Coun-
cilmen an opportunity to invite the Of
fcers of the favored regiment to room
in the basement of the City Hall,
where they Joined them in consuming
$500 worth of eatables and drinkables
while the men patiently awaited their
return in some dusty, shadeless park.
Another resolution proposes to raise
the fees Of inspectors of weights and
measures. One of the honest minori-
/ ty declares he knows by personal OBJ
servation that at the present fees an
active inspector can make $500 day.
But the Ring has fat arrangement
with the inspector and the resolution
is carried by chorus of ayes
A resolution is offered directing the
| Street Commissioners to contract with
I the lowest bidder for lighting the whole
island for twenty years with gas-the
price to be fixed Rot0, when coal and
labor are twice their usual price. But
upon examination the words twenty
years" are not found in the resolution
| itself The time is purposely left in
definite that the Ring may make its
own private arrangement with the con
/ tractor and Street Commissioner One
of the honest minority proposes that
the term of the contract be fixed at two
years. The proposition is instantly
voted down and the bill passed by an
overwhelming majority.
We give the above as examples, yet
they but feebly portray the real oolora
of the picture. Time and space utter
| ly fail us in attempting to give an ade-
quate idea of the gross and rank cor
ruption which infests this nest of Off
oiaI thieves. We cannot tell how they
establish offices In order to barter them
away, how they tax the scanty sala-
Eries of teachers in the public schools
in order to line their own pockets,
how they fleece the public treasury Of
immense bills of fees alleged to have
been incurred in opening streets . that
have only an imaginary existence, how
they defraud the city of millions of
dollars in awarding contracts, and how
they do thousand other things named
and nameless, with the sole intent of
stuffing their purses from the public
treasury. A Board of Supervisors au-
thorized eight years ago to build 2
court house costing not more than
S25O, 900, has expended upon it $2, ,5O0,-
000, andit stands to-day just half done.
4 A worthless volume called the Man
ual of the Common Council" is now
published annually In the most extray-
! agant style at an expense of $57, ,172.
From small volume of 140 pages it
/ has in a few years increased to 423 pa
/ ges of most worthless glorifcation of
i these same Councilmen, who make for
themselves at least $4,000 in award
/ ing the contract for its publication
| For the contract of removing dead an
imals from the streets a man pays the
city $50, 900 and then makes $111, 900
a year out of his bargain. It costs the
city $495, 600 a year to sweep its streets,
and the Board Of Health testifes that
/ $780, 900 of the proceeds of this con-
tract are divided among certain politi-
clans, and that lawyer, who engln-
eered the project, gets $4,000 a year
as counsel to the contract" Why, it
has but just happened that G. G.. Cor
| nell, Street Commissioner of the city,
has been charged by the Citizens As
sociation with gross fraud and corrup-
ton in Office, and what has he done?
Ansvvarad the obar0es2 Pv No means.
l but resigned in order to avoid answer
ing them, while it stands proven al
most to absolute certainty that during
his term Of Office hes has, in certain
street grading contracts, swindled the
city out of $4,000
i Such are a fen Of the Vaccinations
Of the Democratic gang of thieves who
manage for their own benefit the mu-