Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-03-29

Poly Carp Letter in Chicago Times.
GREAT MEN OF ST. PAUL.
HOW They LiUe, Move, and FIGHT for Public
Pap.
81. PAUL. March N.-The county officers and
the mayor have been at loggerheads, and now
the imbroglio is thickened by the rousing un-
pleasantness among newspaper men and Public
Examiner H. NJ. Knox, with the badgered
county auditor, 8. Lee Davis, as the unoffend-
ing caSus beli. Knox had an unwise Partially
for the vehicle in making his report pub
lie. 1t should have been given to the evening
paper, but Knox said Gov. Pillsbury forbade
his giving it to the Dispatch. Honest John
fatty denies the statement-and there they are.
Mr.. Knox is an elder and Sunday school su-
perintendent in the official tabernacle, the
House Of Hope, and John 8. Pillsbury is gov
ernor of Minnesota. Take your choice. His
e1cellency will hardly fb or sneak, but he has
deft deputies at times when the contract is
heavy and binding. Presumably he was indif-
ferent whether the examiners report saw the
light in the Pi. Press or in the Dispatch. The
evening paper was enGltleQ to 1t, and 1T was
purposely withheld.
But all this unpleasant skirmishing only
leads right into the true battle field of the
county auditors Office. The most important
fighting of the late war was centered in Virginia,
and the most belligerent tendencies of Ramsey
county just now are grouping about this be-
sieged Office. A few weeks ago the county
treasurer, b. M. Rice. refused to honor the con-
tractors bills for building the Mendoza bridge,
and IDSiDuafa0 at crOORadpoce in
sons bank, as regards county monetary tran
sactions. Mayor William, of the thousand lots,
retaliates in a document as long as Bardwell
Slote's threatened speech, and in this paper,
read to the bridge commission, he dissects MIR.
Rice. Then the godly Mr.. F. Driscoll, of the
House of Hope and the Pi. Press, is convinced
that the county funds are in danger, and he
keeps up drive about them. having it inferred
that the dark and threatening official mslfeas-
ance is primarily due to y. Lee Davis giving
the tax list of Fl. P. Hall, of the Globe. The
printing is the rub. Talk about vipers and
| things nourishedin ones bosom and turning
| upon it, of thankless children sharper than SER
pents teeth-they are dull and innocuous be-
| side this systematically brisk Hall who learned
under Driscoll's very eye his methods to such
perfection that the gritty little devil is like
emery in the journals of the mills which ere
while coined money for the godly Mr.. F..
Driscoll.
While Halls novitiate under the expressive
eye of the PA. Press manager was liberal ed
work On-manhoOd and honesty. He will not
lie nor steal. neither will he take the bread out
| of anyones mouth. He isn't public praying
| man, nor the head centre of Sunday school
| district. He isn't hampered nor confronted
with professions of any spiritual kind, and he
| just gives mammon its head, dealing with hui
mainly the while Gin broad and cheerful
Ia, rSt 49,
Examiner Knox's report.) OF course this is
wicked, but quite consistent with the
career of such journalistic guerrilla as Har-
| Ian T. Hall, who charges into the ring which
the godly MIR. Driscoll used to call his own,
| and bears off the spoils under his awfully ex-
pressive eye.
Poor s. Lee Davis is prodded and gored for
all. AS Hall has been the migrate to turn upon
the bosom of the magnanimous Mr.. Driscoll-
so has he-the big Drummond light of the
House of Hope-darkened upon the audacious
| county auditor. He was one of 8. Lee Davis
bondsmen to control that printing, and now,
alas! with this detection of the spoils he seeks
to rend him by having this ferret of an exam
iner go through him to prove Democratic de-
/ talcatlOn, evasion of an rOn-clad tax law. and
all else.
| The Office of public examiner was created
just as Eve waste help Adam out of his di-
lemma. Twas foreordained for b. M. Knox.
1t had reference to no one else, although few
were rash enough to have aspirations while the
project was moldsng. There was Tracy Met
calf who had a penchant for the position. He
had been commissioner of statistics, and he
bad actually displayed genius in grouping his
figures SO that bis report was decidedly inter-
estlng and spirited. 1t is likely to be immor-
tai in onenesa-in this State.
| Gov. Pillsbury, on Icing solicited for the
position, asked Metcalf why he hadn't taken
time by the forelock-with touch of grim
| irony-when Adam Knox was the first man al
ready for the post created for him, through the
agency and influence of tho quadrilateral of
I. P.'s-Pennock Pusey-and The Pi. Press.
Then Mrs. Metcalf didn't sing, was not effec-
tive In tableaux. and Mr.. Pussy, cardinal Sec
rotary of Minnesota. didn't admire her. 80 how
could her husband take time by the forelock?
Metcalf and Knox are antipodal in character
and looks. Knox is lean and weakened, and
blinks like bat, as if all light were too
strong for him. He is suggestive, in his pres
ent office, of Mr.. Nadgett, in MARTIN Chuzzle-
| VIII, that mysterious messenger, detective,
and runner for Mr.. Montague Tigg, whose note
| book held the most far-fetched and damaging
information, and whose shadow appointments
| were SO shaped into eliminating substance that
| he brought Junas to his doom, as he would
have brought any one else at Tgg's behest.
Metcalfs eye is as trusty and humane az
Abon Ben Adhem's. He is blookishly given,
and is noticeably rounded with adipose tissue.
| 1t is just as we'll that he couldn't 'take time
by the forelock." God gave him mental
mechanism which couldn't be made ductile nor
alert enough for the role of Fly cop." digni-
| fy it by any title and emolument in the gift of
| the State.
The nub of the whole unpleasantness is that
| the irrepressible Hall has the city and county
printing. Henry M. Rice, county treasurer,
| ignores the contract. and gives the bulk of his
printing to The Pi Press, on the plea of better
facilities. Hall lately received the largess of
80 cents for printing Rice's financial statement
and The Pi Press $3.50, for the same month.
The bushwacking about s. Lee Davis
| through suggestions to the grand jury,-the re-
port of Examiner Knox, and the insinuations
of q. NJ. Rice, all seem to lead up to that print
ing in the alien hands of Hall. Meanwhile Lee
Davis. the large target of county auditor
blonde as Cedric the Saxon, and about as
doughty-holds his arm against the combi-
nation. Hall has his hands full, what with
fighting lax Democrats in the Donnelly con-
test, and having pull at the public udder,
while the godly Mr.. Driscoll is doing his best
to salt the free-giyinp animal clear aWay from