The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1874-06-25
THE BLACK SHEEP.
MORE OF LAMBS "G00D JOKES"
This Time at the Expense
of the County Treasury. "
$lo5in One Single Item.

BOLD AND CONTINUED sTEALlNGs.
$lo5,in One Single Item.
$75 in Another.
VARIOUS SMALL srEAL1Nas.
FACTS AND FIGURES.
Last week We touched lightly on tho
moral make up Of W. H. Lamb, editor Of
the St. Cloud Times, and noticed one Of his
attempts at stealing, which he had oharso.
terized IS "goed joke" We intend, this
week, to give facts and figures throwing
light on numerous other ''good jokes'' Of
tho same nature, showing that Lamb has
been engaged in systematically stealing
from the county in the way Of overoharges
for work done. That he is without moral
honesty, everybody knows and has known;
but that he would boldly and in open vio-
lation of the plain letter Of the law make
these raids on the county treasury, which
has given him whatever life he has, was not
for moment suspected. The facts show him
to be quite as mean and good deal more
audacious in his rascality than we had
charged last week.
At the last meeting Of the Board Of
County Commissioners bill of W. H.
Lamb, for $4e5, for work done since
the previous meeting Of the Board in
March, was presented and allowed, having
been first duly sworn to as ':just and true"
The very first item in the bill is tho fol-
lowing:
To publishing tho financial state
ment Of Stearns county, MIMI,
$50 squares, at rs cents per
square for first insertion, and
373 cents per square for two sub
scquent insertions, according to
law, $4,000
As will be seen, Lamb swears that this
work is charged for according to law"
The law is very plain. It is found in Bis
sells Statutes Of Minnesota, page 974,
(vol. p Sec. 20, and reads as follows
FEES OF PRINTER.
"For publishing any notice, or any Or
der, citation, summons or any other pro-
ceeding or advertis ement, required by law
to be published In any newspaper, not
more than seventy five cents per folio for
the first insertion, and thirty five cents
per folio for each insertion after the first,
and for the purpose Of computing the same,
foio is hereby declared to be equal to
the space occupied by two hundred and iif-
ty ems Of solid matter Of the kind Of type
used"
Tho Financial Statement was set in
BREWER type. The columns Of the Times
are 10 ems BREWER wide and 206 ems brs-
vier long, so that computation Of the val
ne of the advertisement is very plain and
simple matter. In one column there would
be 1914 ems BREWER. The Financial
Statement occupies just seven columns 80
that multiplying the number Of ems in one
column by 7, would give the total number
of ems in the entire job, which would be
27,S9s. Dividing this total by $50, the
number Of ems which the law says shall
constitute one folio Tor square, as it is
usually called by printers) We find that the
whole number Of squares in tho Financial
Statement is 100 and fraction over, al
lowed by law to be counted as full square.
So that instead Of 100 squares. for which
Lamb charges "accordisg to law" and
spears that the charge is s'true and just -
there are but ITO squares. These ITO
squares would be worth, at Is cents per
square for the first insertion and 81 cents
per square for the two subsequent inser-
lions, $165, instead Of $270-showing q
clear steal by Lamb, in this one item, Of
$105. A "goed joke" Taxpayers will
probably appreciate it.
The next item in the bill is the follow.
ing:
To 200 copies Of thepaper contain
ing SAID Financial Statement, fur
nished the County Auditor, $1,000
The County Auditor informs US that
/ Lamb did not furnish him single copy Of
the paper containing the advertisements
| He furnished simply 200 half-sheets print
/ ed on one side ; and for these he charged
his retail price for his full-sheet paper, s
cents per copy =; or several dollars more
than he would have charged for 200 copies
of handful Of the same size, including all
the cost Of type setting, Of which there
was nothing in this job.
Under date Of June 9Th, is this charge :
To 80 Court calendars and bind
ing the same, $24 90
The calendar consisted Of fourteen pages,
| including the cover and four pages blank,
! simply enclosed by border. The pages
are 63x44 inches in size, including the
border. The outside price ever charged
for such work is $1.00 per page; and
when 1924 is charged for q l4-psge ealsn-
dar there is clear steal Of $40. THs
JOURNAL Office printed the calendars, IL
pages, same size and number Of copies,
for the December term, 1872, and it,
bill for the work was $l2. Lamb prints
lawyers briefs and paperbooks, thirty
| copies Of about the same size a. this
calendar, and involving twice the work,
for 81 per page, and il anxious for al
such jobs. He seems to consider the
| county treasury fair plumber for the
publisher Of the "oddcisl paper"
Very fortunately, the order for this bill
had net been issued by the County Auditor ;
and on the application Of . large number
Of the leading citizens and hes West tax
payers Of this city, the County Attorney
notified the Auditor that an appeal will be
taken to the District Court against tho a.
lowanoe Of the bill. If Lamb can satisfy
the Court that his bill is, a. he swore it
WAS, ':just and true" and ''aecording to
law" it will be paid him in full; If he
can not, tho steals will be stricken out and
the Taxpayers Of tho county protected from
his rapacity.
| A little further examination Of the rec-
ords shows that this stealing on the part
of Lamb is no new thing, but has been 60
ing on for some time. His charge for
publishing the Financial Statement in
1873 was as follows: