Daily Republican., 1882-10-28
BATURDAY. OCTOBER 2s 1851.
Illegal Fees.

What do the Democratic workln
men of Wilmington'and of the whole
State think of the immaculate honesty
of the office holders of their party since
the expose made of making over"harges
and taking illegal fees for writing and
recording legal documents? If it were
not that the documents were in exist
ence with the illegal charge marked
upon them in black and white, their
organs might cry out and say tht
charge was a liO ard the people nigh
be made to believe it was a lie' But
unfortunately for the Democrats the
proof is upon every document in black
and white and the legal charges are
easily computed by the number OF lines
In every deed, ten words making a line
and the legal fee being one cent a line
1t seems that the overcharge by the re-
Corder of deeds is general, requiring no
searching for this CT that particular
deed to establish the proof of over
charge. All that is needed is to pick
mn q bundle of deeds anywhere
and look them over and from 10
cents to dollar and even more lllega'
charges, it will be seen has been made
How is thia to be accounted tor? Is ii
a mistake? If so why has the same
mistake been go peraisLently MADE? Ii
is not likely an error would be made
in every deed Tie law regulating the
charges is very explicit upon the point
and cannot be readily misunderstood
1t establishes the tee for recording
deeds at one cent line, and then fear
ing advantage might be taken by max
ing short and sparsely filled out lines
1t throws bulw against this loop
hole to an overCharge by saying tha
ten words shall constitute line. Thu
If q deed has 900 words on it, 1t Is di
Yidsd by 10, which makes 80 lines, ant
90 lines at ole cent a line makes y
ce nts, and in addition the Recorder i
allowed 80 cents for acknowledgment
which makes in all 81 20 as the leGa
charge. But according to Democratic
practice, instead of legal charge on
deed, the recording of which woul'
cost $12O, the charge is 81 and over
thus taking 80 cents, more or less, iron
the pockets of the working men, 10
which service is not rendered. Thl
money goes into the pockets of tn
officials. Now what do Demooratl
working men lhink Of this? Demo
cratic speakers tell the people that if tn
Republicans gu ,19ed there will be
great change for the worse. Can IL d.
worse than this ? 80 well" somebod,
says, sit is only 65 ceuts or q dollar, l
will neither make nor break anybody.
1t may not break anybody, bnt if ther
arc enough deeds to record in the cours
of the year, it would goa great way
ND"hEuS M0hlu6 O ohNS AAS"@N PS41 -
site for the Recorder. Suppose ther
are 1000 deeds record ed i'll a year at a
Oyercharge Of a dollar on an average
tho little overcharge perquisite wou!
amount to $1,000. Working men, Whs
do you think of the picture? Will
the Democratic cry of honesty On
economy has been flung in your cal
until it has become old and thresdbar'
and while it has been shouting til
lOudest, you have been charged wit
illegal fees for legal documents. Man
of yOu working men have been strul
CLING hard to gel a little home of you
own. Every dollar Of hard earne
money has been carefully laid ava
and kept to meet monthly payments
the loan, or the semi annual interest
mortgages, but this did not deter DemC
cratic officials from reaching ava
down in your pockets and taking frol
yOu in overeharged fees from 65 cent
to dollar of the money earned by to
and sweat. Think of it working mel
you who are struggling to get hom'
for yourselves, think of 1t.
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