The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-04-16
KELLOGG AT HIS TRICKS.

KELLOGG AT HIS TRICKS.
Kellogg is never 50 unfortunate as when
he rises to explain, which, by the way, ne i
called upon to do very frequently. lie Is
forever doing wrong, illegal and outrageous
| things, and then trying to explain u al
away. So much practice has made him quite
an adept in the art explanatOry-a rare sort
Of OILY Cannon in fact. AS Thackeray makes
one of his characters say of another III
Esmond it il a very difficult matter indeed
to tell when he is I, telling the truth.
For instance, he Genes out in the follow
| inc letter, which has about it an air OF SIM
| cerity and candor which is well calculated
| to impose upon those cTedulous persons
who have not the misfortune to know the
de tacto:-
STATE OF LOUISIANA,
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
New Orleans, April Ia, 1874.
Si-An editorial published in the Plea
yune on Sunday last, headed, "The Levees
and the Levee Company" conveys an init
| nation that funds due the Levee Company
from the State have been improperly di-
verified, and that the operations of the COM
pany have been in some way hampered by
iniunctiOns placed upon State bonds due
them l have applied to the financial Off
GERS Of the Government and to the Attor-
ney General for information whether these
implied charges were founded on fact.
From the replies received, | am enabled
to state that the receipts during the year
1872 Of taxes levied for levee purposes,
amounted to S437 200 Oh, and the dsburse
ments during that period to the Levee Com
pany, to 100000. For the year 1873 the
receipts were $3.50, 875 63, and the payments
made to the company We're S549,2 200. Added
to this the State has quite recently paid the
Levee Company thirty thousand dollars in
advance Of collections, in order to assist
them in their present emergency.
1t will be seen that the allegation that
the funds collected from taxes for levee pur-
poses have been diverted is entirely I'M
founded.
As to the other accusation relative to the
Injunction of State bonds, am not aware
of any bonds emitted to the company since
it's organization. nor that they are entitled
to the issuance of any bonds and cannot I'M
derstand how the Levee Company should be
in any away affected by injunctions against
bonds issued for interests foreign to the
company's. Very respectfully,
WIN. p. KELLOGG.
Now, the truth in this letter is very inge-
niously concealed, while just enough fact is
used to make a plausible showing. The
truth is, and nobody knows it better than
Mr.. Kellogg, that the Levee Company has
not received by more than 100000 the
amount which is due them for the work al
ready done. He knows that the amounts
which have been collected for the Levee
Company have never been properly credited
to them. He knows that the credits have
been made arbitrarily; that there is large
amount dne them on back taxes; that they
have not received one cent of the taxes for
1873, and he knows, too, that the amount of
work done by the Levee Company is in ex-
cess by some 80 to 4Oper cent. of the amount
paid them.
All the facts are well known to him, and
it was utterly useless for him to attempt to
hide behind a statement from his man
Friday, whose accounts are VIGOROUSLY in a
mu die, and who will be called upon soon
to render an account Of his stewardship.
The letter is Kellogian in every sense, and
the attempt Of its artful author to crawl
out Of the responsibility for the wretched
that has been and will be wrought by the
flood, is about as lame as his attempt to get
out of that shameful $1,000 Shreveport dona
ton matter.
II TO f,v Int
true, that in everything he undertakes to
do he does badly. Whether it be to usurp
a position to which he has no claim, or to
urge the passage of bad laws, or to appoint
murderers and bad characters to office, or to
empty the Penitentiary of convicts, or to
make a charitable donation of $1,000 to
Shreveport sufferers, or to refnte an allega-
ton, or to contract for State House, o.. to
make a promise, it matters not, he makes of
everything a bungle, and brings himself
md party into disgrace-if that be possible
There is one way by which this whole
matter may he definitely settled, so that
there can be no dispute about it whatever.
Let Mr.. Kellogg order Mr.. Wands and Mr.. |
Harris to bring forward that smothered re-
port of theirs. Let even their statement of |
the condition of the Auditors books be pub |
ishcd, and then there will be something |
other than assertion to 60 on.
If we are not greatly mistaken that re-
port will throw sunlight upon some extreme
y dark places, and give pretty correct
dea of what has become of the money that |
Clinton illegally collected, illegally depos-
ted in bank to his individual credit, and |
Tor which he and his bOndsmen should be |
held individually responsible.