The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-04-06
MORE ABOUT RRIpGRs.

1ade some remarks last week about the
ridge across A len creek, on the Dow
reek road, in particular, ard county
ridges in general Our friend, l. A.
Wood, of Americrs, ex-county commits
Toner, and the inC iVidual whC superin-
ended the constr 1ction of he Allen
;reek bridge alluo ID to, took very de-
;ided exceptions Il our article and pro-
its staten snts false. He went
70 far as 10 say had based our state
ments on mere I mor. Our informa- |
lion for the stat nents in II article |
came from q sour we consi Tered re-
liable. We said the article last week
that the Allen CT ek bridge was about
to tumble down.; at il had tn be closed
up to keep thosep II posted a. to its con
dition from using it; that the e had been
Q great deal of olishnesa or rascality
or both about bridges in this
county; that thi particular bridge had
been built three lines since the begin
ming of 1874; tina it had only been built
three years; that Wood, then a commits
sioner, had superintendent the work;
that 1t was stated that a carpenter in
this city who helped build the bridge,
when he heard It was in bad shape, told
just where the trouble was, and re-
marked that he knew when it was built
that il would break at the part he
named, as the timber was broken when
1t was put in; that the same, "fne
Italian band" seemed TO have got in its
work on several bridges named, particu-
larry the LOckerman and Ruggles
bridges; that as originally constructed
they were mere man traps; that the
fault of a good deal of the trouble
might have been with the people of the
neighborhoods where the bridges were
built, who were impatieniiy demanding
the building OF so many bridges, and
that the commissioners, who were try
ing 10 accommodate all, had to make
the limited means at their command
cover too many bridges, and that the
consequences were a lot Of cheap, tum-
ble-down structures. We said it would
be better to put up one good, permanent
bridge, like the three first erected
in this county, in i've years than
TO build one of the tumble
down kind every six months
We expressed the hope that the commits
Sioners would set their faces squarely
against any more such structures as that
which Is now useless on Allen creek
and protested against squandering any
more public money on such structures.
We have thus "briefed" our article OF
last week that all may see jIst what we
said, as this is probably not the last of
the bridge business.
A great deal of complaint has been
made to US, from time, in regard to the
character of the work on several of the
bridges built while Mr.. Wood was on
the board, and since, and we have been
very careful not to print rumors, but have
told all il they would furnish facts that
could be substantiated We would give
them to the public. Only one man, ia
cob V. Carter, put his complaints over
his own signature. We were Of the
opinion when We printed the article of
last week that its statements were true,
and since Mr.. Wood pronounced
them false, We have taken
some care to ascertain the facts, by in
quiry from respectable men. So far We
find that Overy statement we made can
be substantiated. And not only this, we
find that other items, in that connection,
if worked up in good shape. would have
a tendency to largely increase Mr..
Woods wrath. II he is going To under
take the task of bouncing everybody
who delivers unfavorable criticisms
upon the bridge work done under his
administration, We advise him TO take a
hearty breakfast before he starts, because
he will get very hungry before he gets
through with the job We believe it
would not be very bad idea for the
present board of commissioners to get
one or two competent men to investigate
this whole business of bridge bIilding
in this county, in order that the people
might know just what was done with
the money. The report would undoubt-
eddy be interesting reading matter.
The object of the article last week was
to call attention 10 the subject of bridges
in general, and prevent any more such
work as has been done in this county,
and we confess our inability to see why
Mr.. Wood should take it upon himself
to fly into passion about the matter.
He was not accused of anything person
ally, and had no more right to get mad
than others. The blame was partly laid
upon those in the different neighbor-
hoods of the bridges who had urged the
commissioners TO construct so many of
them that they had necessarily to be
cheap ones. In this way the money
was about as good as wasted, because
two of them, at least, have already IN
dergons costly repairs, and three
or four of them are likely
to fall down before they are five
years older. A useful lesson should be
learned from our experience in bridge
building, and no more money should be
wasted. So far as our friend named
above is concerned, we have only to say
if he constructs a shoe out of our re-
marks which fits him, and insists on
wearing it, We shall not interfere to pre-
vent his doing so. A view of his work
as bridge-builder, as exhibited at the
Allen creek bridge, would not, We fear,
secure him job US contractor or gu
perlntendent on any great work of in
ternaI imnroyement