Evening star., 1869-10-05
THE DIRT BUSINESS
TESTIMONY OF MAYOR BOWEN.
NEW DEyELOPMRNTs.'
INfEREsrING AND IMPORTANT EvI.
EGNCB.

lN1ERESfING AND IMPORTANT EvI.
EGNCE.
The Practice Of Aduaneimg Money on Contracts-
About That Hole-Hoc Crane Behaved to Glea.
son-The SPECIFICATIONS on That Bond-Cdn
but One Charge for Excavations and Embank-
poseless Questioning-No Lap or Custom Re
quiring tie Sigpdture of Tie Commissioner in
Making Adrdnces-T Adcdnees Are Not Made,
Poor Men Would Hare No Chance Of Getting
Contract Work-Rich Mem Would Haze Com.
plete Monopoly The Advances Not Made By TIE
Corporation At AH-The Register Equally Re.
sponstble scih The MGyor-Crane's Pay Rolls
The Tally Contract signed By Acting Mayor
Richdrds-H Is In Cranes Handscriting-Kys.
terious DisdRPedranee Of the B'ds-A Ne~ Phase
Of the Case.
The charges OF commissioner Crane
against the Mayor are still In progress Of in
vestgation, and from the fact that the commit.
tee sit with closed doors there have been many
contradictory statements as to the purport of
the testimony pro and con. This has been par
ticularlv the case in regard to the testimony Of
Mayor Bowen; and as much interest is natu.
rally felt in regard to the nature his evidence
we have taken pains to procure very com.
plete synopsis of 1t, as follows:
TESTIMONY OF MAYOR BOWEN.
Testimony OF Mayor Bowen, (examned by
MIR. Holmes at the instance Of Mr.. Crane y Mr.
Bowen presented the original contract wits
paper ne remembered ever having seen at
tached to the contract; the other papers 1.-THE
bid OF Mr.. Donovan and the specitcations) mad
been attached since he signed II. MIR. Donovsn
was the lowest Internationally So he came TO
that conclusion by actual figuring, taking the
four streets together. and comparing them with
the other bids and the estimates made by the
Surveyor OF the amount Of excavation and
surveys-one dated December :, 1855, for M
and K streets, and the other January Ii,
is6g. for M. x, and q streets. These
OF excavation, l6,302' Of graveling, I7,Oes
for X street, 46,S30 yards OF excavation
and 6U,5l1 yards Of graveling; for q street,
yards OF graveiing ME-. B. here explained the
nature OF some of The bids, and the relative cost
under them Of the grading, sraveling, &c. |
Surplus earth taken out OF enc street and pus
into another street was not TO be paid for. Mr.
b. was here handed copy Of a bill or estimate
from the Registers office, ana In reply TO the
question: There are payments there for en-
bankment on both q and streets" said there
tract; il rs merely an advance upon work DONE
not payment; do not regard 1t as payment
at all; It is usual to advance money upon con-
tracts; IT was done IN this case, as in I'll Others
to enable the contractor TO 60 on with the work;
II registered as a payment that is a matter for
the Register, not for me. Mr.. b. did not under
custom, to have the signatures OF the Commis.
sIoners or Assistant COmm missioners TO ad yances
made upon work done; these were only neces-
sary upon the final payments when the work
was complete. He had his information from
the City Register; Mr.. Klopfer, who was long
bis clerk, and many others, and he knew
what was the custom. Yes, there was a
deficiency bill before the Councils for the pay I.
ment Of a claim OF Mr.. Gleason; heard from
Mr.. Crane that Gleason, in excavating a Ger.
tain street, had left hole, which he had ordered
to tll, but which he had not done; did say to
Crane that Gleason would not get his
payment until the hole was filled; heard
from Gleason of Cranes malignant per.
moSy Of nuSer ns1 the hoIe dae% wss sss Drcp
erly flled, and accordingly ped the bills
hrst, because acquainted personally with Mr..
month earlier-when ne was introduced to
him by q gentleman respecting poiiucal mat
<rs. Gleason had always Complained that
Crane behaved towards him IN very ma
iignant manner in everything pertaining 10
the work; he has complained bitterly He mad
heard from others OF Cranes persecution OF
Gleason. so far as this contract is concers
when Crane brought IL to hum to sign BE
bond was the only paper attached to the
specifications were not attac he'd TO il &hep;
these were subsequently attached; nor did he
see the contract after signing it until upon
his return from New YORK, when his atten-
tion was drawn TO II BY Cranes charges
against himself His office had been searched,
and every contract tor grading and graveliug
had been exam ,nec, and THIS contract is ths
only one which has such papers attached.
In reply 10 Cranes question, "What, then, is
the meaning OF that clause which refers TO the
specifications annexed!" Mr. B. replied: "It is
clause Of your own Insertion. NAV have
seen j. and may not; probably did, ana made
no Hofe Of il; II would, however, have made no
n mad
their men, suffering for pay, had threatened 10
quit work; they would have been compelled to
abandon the contract, and II the corporation
had been in q conditIou to advance money I
should have advaR ced II, even though Knew
Of that clause. 1t was customary" Here
many questions were asked respecting the
composition and prialing Of the specifications,
DC, but nothing was elected OF importancel
In reply to the questions. "Why did you not
make the advances on account OF X street,
where there was something due" Mr.. Il. re.
piled: made the advances upon the contract
not upon any street, OF upon any poruop OF
any street; the ad dvance was made because the
work had been done, and so reported by the
Surveyor. In reference TO the clause, aThe
contractor is TO receive pay only for excavation
or mban kment, as he may elect" &c, Mr.. B.
said, required Crane TO put that into the con.
tract before would sign it-this he did to save
misunderstanding and the city from litigation,
&c.
Mr.. Bowen said: In making this contract be
relied upon Mr.. Bliss estimate; this Crane
knew very well; he and Crane had gone over
then took the bids and made calculations, and
Crane admitted that the contract with Donovan
would save the city large sum Of money;
that was one Of the reasons why this contract
was made. II was not only made with Cranes
sanction. but by his advice, No payments have
been made, eitnor for embankment or excava.
uon; Crane knew as well as he did that these
estimates are merely Approximate ones
not made with a view to settlement, or
anything Of that kind but just made
~ Ssre nss me
cient quantity Of work done TO justify the Cor.
poration IN making an ad vance 70 that amount
without any possibility OF snfering loss in con.
are on Iy approximate-that they are not n1ada