Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-04-04

year 1881, but last years audit OF Cne
sherif's accounts by tho county auditors
must have or should have included these
as we'll as all jury fees collected during the
year 1880. The last board of county au-
ditors failed to find any jury fees due the
county, Notwithstanding the fact that the
amount collected by the prothonotary
could have been had for the asking. Their
report was appealed from by the county,
argued before the court last September
and now awaits a decision. As to for
feited recognizances, they seem, for sew
eral reasons, to vanish in the gathering.
One is that the defendants may have them
respited or remitted Oh presenting them
selves for trial or compromising their
difficulties with the prosecutors, and this
is frequently done. Another is that magis-
trates have frequently taken worthless
bail from whom nothing could be collect
ed when the recognizance was sued out
SO that of the dozen or more recOgnizances
sued out by me during the last two years
only one hundred dollars has been collect
ed, and that has been paid into the county
treasury, as shown by the county treas
urer's receipts in the county commission
cr's receipt book kept in the commission
er's Office, dated January 3, A. d., 1882,
as by reference thereunto being had will
fully appear.
Upon which the Nc,v Era drops to the
original position of the INTELL1GENCER
that "the fact of bad system of book
keeping in relation to the different Off
ces is still apparent, and it isto be hoped
the board of auditors now sitting will do
what their predecessors failed to do, and
that the court will no longerdelay in de-
Gliding the question argued before them
on the county's appeal SO long ago as
last September
Upon examination and inquiry in
court house circles we fail to find that
there has been kept in the shesiff's office
and returned to the county treasury an
account of the fines, costs and recogni-
zances received for the county. In the
miscellaneous receipts - of the treas
urer for the past three years no such items
appear, and it is said no such receipts
have been had. If received at all
County Solicitor Fulton intimates that
the sheriff ' would credit that amount
on his bill against the county and have
his bill for the balance approved by the
county solicitor, and get a warrant from
the county commissioners for that sum-
He ought to know that this is not a
proper procedure. He should not ap.
prove any bills made out in that way.
The moneys paid to the sheriff for the
county should be paid over to it and
should appear in full on the books of the
county treasurer in his statement, and
this system of accounting ought to be
inaugurated without further delay. Last
year, at least, the sheriff claimed
and was granted by the auditors
exemption from accountability for the
jury fees in civil cases on the ground that
the prothonotary, and not he, had re-
ceived them. This position is not tena'
bic because it is his business to collec,
them, and if he deputed it to the pro
thonotary or allowed him to usurp it, he
cannot escape liability for them, though
he may have his remedy against the
prothonotary. The new prothono
tary, VIC are informed, refuses te
take them, and before entering a yer
dict requires from the parties recovering
Judgment that they show a receipt from
the sheriff for the jury fee paid.
But even this lame explanation viii
not explain why there have been, or al
least appear, no payments Of costs, fines
and forfeited recognizes from the sher
IFS office into the county treasury
Sheriff High should at once provide 9
public record, upon which he should
cause to be entered moneys received by
him for the county, and the county com
missioners should enforce settlement,
of that account at least monthly, IRE
spective of the sheriff's bills against the
county, SO that parties who are interest
ed to know whether moneys paid OF
ordered to be paid to the county evel
reach the treasury can ascertain the
facts.
The county solicitor is eminentl,
right in his complaint that forfeited re-
cognizances "vanish in the gathering:
for reasons which he enumerates. Had he
examined series Of cases recently dis
posed of in the quarter sessions, he could
have discovered another way by which
costs taxed failed to reach the county
treasury. For example, in four cases in
which J. Kahler Snyder was sentenced
to pay the costs, a total of GIG, which be
lOnged to the county and would have
helped to defray the expenses these cases
subjected 1t to, has been RENTED bu
County Commissioners Myers and
Sunny. This was clear give away''
of that much money belonging to the
county for the benefit Of a man who in
CURED the penalty of paying it in a
blackmailing enterprise at law. When
commissioners themselves indulge in
that sort Of looseness, the public cannot
expect any different sort of housekeep-
ing and bookkeeping than that which
the auditorsHare now laboriously exam
lining, and which We venture nothing in
saying will expose condition of rotten
ness and malfeasance that demands
swift punishment of the wrongdoers,
The preservation of our forests and
the replacing Of our timber lands is a
subject that should never be allowed to
escape public attention. Despite the
loud alarms which have been sounded,