Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-23

I A visitor to Memphis for the first time
seldom fails to observe the remarkable
results of private enterprise and note
the utter absence Of anything suggestive
Of public improvement, save, perhaps,
Court Square. We have blocks of
buildings on Front, Main and Second
streets that vie with those of other and
more favored cities, but we cannot ike
these points to City Hall of noble di-
mansions and approved architectural
beauty, nor to Law Court Building or
pOstoffice. The corporation, in all the
years Of its existence, has done nothing
but cut streets through mud-banks, OF
mark them out on levels, in nothing
bettered by the act We have Court
Square, and Market Square, and Auc-
ton Square. The first is worthy the
name, the second approaches it, but the
last is only an enclosure Of very com
mon ground. Our river front is part
" paved, and we have several
miles Of Nicolson pavement, but this
last is rotting under the piles of filth
which have been allowed TO accumulate
ankle-deep. Looking in every direc-
ton, We fail to see any improvement of
a public character, anything Indicating
movement by the present city govern
ment toward an advance upon the work
Of its predecessors. We are saddIed with
a bonded debt, according TO Mayor
JOhason, Of three million eight hundred
thousand dollars, even the interest Of
which he has not been able to pay. Not
only this, he is not able to pay the en-
PlOyes Of the city. When he entered
upon the duties of bis Office three years
ago he promised fairly enough. By the
aid Of an accountant Of highest charac-
ter, he rescued the city accounts from
perfect chaos of statement" the laby-
rinths Of which it took months to COM /
pass and understand, and by some sort 1
Df financial hOous-pOcus, he met one or
two interest payments. Here he stopped. /
He has been fiOundering and fiumuxing .
ever since, and has utterly failed
70 meet the accruing liabilities. Before
he close Of his first year, realizing that
lis chief difficulty lay in the non-collee-
ion Of taxes, he went before the Legis-
allure andproeured an amended charter,
lnder and by virtue of the terms Of
which he proposed to be able to sur
mount these difficulties and compel the
taxpayers to the performance Of their
iuty. He failed in this, too. And still
ne whines about his inability to collect
axes, and throws the blime Of that ina
,ility upon those whom be boosted he
had encompassed with an arbitrary law.
IN this point he used 10 claim he was
and yet il appears to be
lis weakest. Having failed in that, be
eturns to the habit Of his predecessors,
nd we have monthly Statements"
ne as lucid as the other, and all Of ,
hem together "confusion and a stumb-
Ing block" to plain citizens. The float
~ debt is increasing every day, be-
ause the possibility Of meeting accru-
az liabilities grows less "untn the !
meets" when the Mayor
ill secure vexatious law, such
5 that which seizes the personal q
rOperty Of the citizens for taxes due on g
al estate. Without something like 4
lis be cannot make any of the assets {
and even with it we doubt a
lst he can do half what the people Q
ave a right to expect Of him. he has {
lied in every respect, and leaves moth &
lg to be hoped for from him Of repara- Z
on or Improvement. Nothing would
} become him as his final taking or