The Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1870-1875, 1870-12-01

menI OF one rallrOaO anu tue CCA-
struction of another, and chiefly for
the benefit of this city, and most of
my time absent from home, may be
hardened not only for not know
ing Of all these abuses, but for
not using my humble efforts
to reform them. tits only row,When
this abuse has become utterly in
tolsrable. that | have ieltimpelled to
raise my voice against it, and l again
thank the CoNrjer for coming to my
assistance at the opportupe moment,
aud exposing, as it has done 10 It's
schedule of twelve public ouiragCs,
something like the extent and
hideousness of this great glngrenops
sore on the body polite. That paper
does not state the cost IL these several
ca. es, but. it Is fair to suppose, from
the cost of the cases which l have
INQUIRED into. that it will average
50 600 to 81 600 each And il thus
appears that whilst burdened to the
sinking point with taxes for necessary
purposes, We have recently quanoered
tens OF thousands of dollars on
private appropriations for improve
msnts which each locality, SO i'm
proved, was boun1 By every principle
of Justice and equity, to make at its
own expense if it had determined to
have them.
1 have no more interest in the out.
rage in the Chandler case than in any
other Of the same magnitude, not yet
perpetrated. | protest against any
body of men, or any power whatever,
making weekly mortgages on. what
little property | have on any such
fiimsey and transparent pretexts for
the public good. 1 have not had the
opportunity to look into the partIcu-
lars of more than one case Of the
twelve furnished me by the pCliteness
of the Courier, and l will state these
particulars for the benefit of whom it
may concern, promising that the case,
when looked into, is so glaring, 50
utterly unjust and oppressive that 20
amount of suppressed indignation BY
those who don't swear. and no
amount of profanity by those who do,
can possibly do the subject justice.
This is the case Of f. w. Brinkmeyer
Now. in this connection, pray remem
Der the invariable rule OF justice, that
every parcel of ground coming into q
town, and laid off, or to be laid off IN
blocks or lots, is bound to furnish its
quota of streets for its own use. This
is the case. Twenty years ago, Brink
meyer purchased, for So, 050, seven
teen acres of ground running from
what is now the centre of Ann
Street, on which it fronted about
300 feet in width, TO the back CT
what is now Sharp's Enlargement,
say one half mile in length.
Brinkmeyer has never made any i'm
provements on this property except
two very cheap, small cottage houses
on the front, and has been making
brick off of the soil ever since its pur-
chase. Other proprietors have laid
out the ground all round this Brink
meyer tract, and have sold the lots to
men of small means, who have built
houses and beautified the surrounding
property. till it is now worth about
$4,000.
Ann Street, on which this brick
yard fronts the 300 feet, is one mile
long. Thirty feet in width, on each
side of the street for this whole mile,
with possibly a trifIng exception in
Lille5ton's Enlargement, had been
freely given by the proprietors of
lands, as they severally laid their
lands of into Blocks or Lots. Stock
we'll and Ingle gave thirty feet for
one half mile; Willard Carpenter,
Peter Sharpe, and Abe Sullivan gave
thirty feet in width for all the rest of
the half mile. On the north side of
the street, where the Brinkmeyer
ground lies, HeidIebaeh, EIsas & Co.,
have lately, in laying out the Long
worth tract, freely given thirty feet
in width and half mile In length, on
the north side Of the street, and here
and others have given all the balance
posing Aun Street.
| Upon the top of all this, will it be
believed that, under this delectable
rule of paying for opening streets out
of the City Treasury, the Council has
| lately paid Brinkmeyer s., QUO for his
thirty feet in width by three hundred
feet in length of Ann Street?
understand that Brinkmeyer's OLD
houses, which would be an eye-sort
in any neighborhood, came in fol
| 81, 100 out of the $1,000 damage:
awarded to him, leaving $1,000 to 81
for the land, which is at the rate o.
$4,000 and upward per sere for brick
yard property. Was il fair to all the
poor men who have built hundred
| neat cottages all round his brick yard
and COW pasture, and had trebled and
quadrupled his land in value, WheI
he would neither sell nor improve it,
to make them pay him an outlandist
price to open Ann Street, on ever
/ principal Of justice. he was bound t.
| open for the benefit of his own prop
erty, and without opening which b.
co uld not get fair price for a singl,
To- on that street? Was it fair to tn
rest of US proprietors, who had ireel
given fifty times as much o
Ann Street, and by GU
sales at low prices had enriched
him? That City Council hat
no more right to pay Brinkmeyer 70
opening that street than they had t.
sell the beds from under all the poo
men In the city, in order to raise tn
money to pay that rich man that out
rageous bonus on his wealth. an
Brinkmeyer has no more right, tn
fimsy forms of fraudulent law to tn
contrary Notwithstanding, 10 tina
piece of half street than he has
my spoons or cooking stove. l Civ
this as a fair example Q
the workings of an iniduitou
rule adopted by former councils ur
der weak legal advice, and unfortu
nately followed all too vigorously b
our present council, which I comics
has been a very enterprising and az
tive one, and has done many thing
! that are good and praisewortb,
What, then, are these Councilmen dii
honest or corrupt? / have nevt
said it, or even thought it. [ haJ
not the pleasure to know them al
but 50 far as | do know then
! they have the reputation Of NJ
right business men, but it is in
possible for their honesty or bushes
! ability to avail US. whilst they conser
to actupon the principle of paying fC
opening or Strengthening streets OF
of the public treasury. The principl
|, is vicious, unjust and fagrantl
! wrong, and acting under it, the yer
best men in the city conld not fail
do acts OF gross Injustice. In shor
the rule is rule under which it is {
impossible to arrive at an honest cor
clusion as it is to bring light out {
, darkness. JOHN INGLE, JR.
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THE French prisoners in German
are not only to be employed In larg
mum hare m Paruna and N srH.rok~s g.