Montgomery County sentinel., 1878-08-30
Blabber's Letter.

Mr.. Editor IL notice that A. B. G. D. ant
other alphabetical correspondents are indulg
ing in comments-deprecator ones at that-on
our county expenses and some Of them, for
getting, or, perhaps, maliciousy remembering
Mr.. Justice Dogberry's diclum, that 'com-
parisons are odious," are amusing your read
ers with comparative statements OF Loudoun
county, Virginia, and our own county. Now
| this is all very unseemly. What If our people
do pay county tax Of $3.50 each, while Lou
doun, -supposing her school and road taxes
| the same as ours, pays but 81 .03 each
| Ought the aforesaid alphabeticals attempt 10
dissatisfy our people with such a state of af-
fairs2 BY no means, for doesn' il demonstrate
clearly that there's nothing mean about US.
We pay our taxes $3.52 each, on the average,
or submit cheerfully to having IT charged,
like little men, and don't thank the alphabets
for suggesting that we submit to tax of only
$lO3 each, and maybe not that much, for
am not sure that Loudoun's road tax and
school tax are so generous as ours, though
they are presumed to be the same in the calcu-
lation that shows our respective averages.
No, indeed, we pay generously, and how
generously we are served for i'll Let US fol-
low these comparisons and we will see it
clearly.
First. The Sheriff Of Loudoun is paid by
the county q hundred and twenty-five dollars
Now what kind of sheriff must that bel A
hundred and twenty-five dollar sheriff Our
county wouldn't have such a sheriff. Oh no,
not by long-shot-ne!hing less than a
twenty y-ive hundred dollar sheriff can put US
in Jail. That hundred and twenty-five dollar
fellow may suit Loudoun people, but must
they not feel mean about it? Just think OF an
F. F. V. having his meals passed through an
open work checker-board by hundred and
twenty-five dollar sheriff
Next comes along the Clerk Of the County
Court--some miserable outcast who tamely
submits TO be paid four hundred a year. No
wonder we don't hear of him as a candidate
for Congress-nor of addressing honest
grangers or even innocent Sunday school
children He recognizes the fitness of things
and keeps in his den. No, sir, nothing less
than a twenty-five hundred dollar clerk shall
issue our beer license-we'd feel conscience
smitten and go into decline on a four hundred
dollar man. Four hundred dollars may do
well enough to promise school teachers; its
enough for them, as nearly all Of our teachers
have grown rich in the last few years by SELL
ing county orders at exorbitant premiums.
In fact they have become so well Oft that some
times they need teach for pay only three quar-
ters in the year, and teach the fou rth quarter
just for the fun Of paying their own board.
But no four hundred Clerk of the Circuit
Court Of Montgomery county for US il you
please Messrs. Alphabeticals.
| Next the Commonwealth Attorney Of Lou
doun gets Elk hundred year and forty dollars
for assistance. Now that is pretty liberal for
Loudoun. But just where Loudoun is almost
liberal we are almost mean, for our attorney
gets only eleven hundred and twenty-eight
dollars and two hundred and six for eight as
sistants. Now considering that our man can
acquit two persons to the Loudoun county
mans one, why it is about stand off, and
further comment might make it appear that
we are mean TO our good-natured States At
torney.
Even in so unimportant thing as Stationery
Loudoun only affords hundred dollars worth
to our two hundred and seven, besides sey-
enty-6ve worth thatswe enjoy mixed with our
fuel. Here, however, is meanness in the mean
est kind OF form-just contemplate it Loudon
pays the contemplate sum Of hundred and
three and sixty-ive cents for printing, while
we, void of meanness, pay two thousand and
thirty five dollars and forty-five cents.
How cheap mus. the Loudoun man feel when
he visits Montgomery, and, reading our cheer
full road petitions and other interesting matter
that our county cheerfully pays for, realize
that in his own beloved county he is debarred
that pleasure. Then think Of those beautiful
and thrilling compositions called claws of
Maryland, published by authority" and paid
for by our generous tax payers. What would
we do without them2 Oh, Mr.. Editor, if you
could have been in our rural districts any day
last winter when the Sentinel or Advocate was
due, and could have seen how eagerly the peo-
pie watched the arrival of the mails, that each
might If possible, be the first 10 read the pre-
cious documents, you would never regret the
| antQPnrca vnu ,sndartool, 10 oaf II,
the hours of labor and drops of perspiration
you spent in setting them up. The old man
and the elderly lady wiped their spectacles and
blew their noses as they read those beautiful
enactmenis; the man of business was no more
man OF business until he devoured The last
word OF it and concluded By reading the zap
proved by the Governor for then he
knew it was right. Brave youths and maid
ems fair, read them and marked many an ele-
giant period, to be incorporated into some
tender billet dour; children at school, ''got
EN- by heart and declaimed as Friday evening
| compositions. Even the infant at the breast
as well as the cooer in the crib cried and yelled
till 1t almost was black in the face and had to
be beaten in the back to make it catch its
breath, and all about the ''Laws of Maryland,
published by authority" and paid for BY the
cheerful tax payers. II Loudoun county can
contemplate all this happiness and be satisfied
| with her hundred and three dollars and sixty
i've, we pity her. IT'S no use appealing to her
better nature any more.
But passing over many items, a comparison
| ofwhich in the two counties uniformly con-
trasts our oren-handed liberality with Lou
doun's close-fsted economy, we come to one
in which we delight-our roads. Yes, sir,
the roads OF Montgomery. especially Of the
western part, are our pride; they are our
'main holt and we dwell on them fondly and
lingeringly (almost any one will dwell linger-
ingiy, 1t not lovingly, who travels over them J
! can't compare our road expenses with those
OF our sister county-or is she our pretty cous-
inf-across the river, but no doubt our s l6. :
o00 stand against some pitiful 81, 900 or So
Uncover there. II matters not however, whether
II be little or great we will still stand up for
our rights and maintain the excellence of our
roads. Why, II you were to take five times
our road levy, hye times SIG, 500 to wit $50,
300, in gold, silver, greenbacks, national
BANK notes, or even gold bearing interest notes
with coupons attached, and throw them liter.
ally on our roads il would make them no bet.
3 ter than our present system of road working
does, nor worse either for that part. | think
now Messrs. A. b. G. D., &c. to X. Y. Y. will
see their folly, and no more throw uchear
'ohn' Loudonn into our generous faces.
iours' BLABBER.