Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-08-20
TEN TALENTS,
Which Have Been Entrusted to 0hi
-. ...... County.
Yiguettes and SiIhouettes of the Halt Sec
of Gentlemen Who Form Our Board
of Commissioners. rD -.
PEN PICTURES AND SKETCHES

sons might even prefer ring For the
use of this article, family" is preferred,
for reference is had to the County Board Of
Commissioners, and family" brings
home to us all. Ohio county is small ana
not very wealthy. and consequently canno
support large household, and its ten chill
dren are an elegant sufficiency. If they
| were or could be reared in sweet idlenesss
and dandled on the lap of luxury we
might hare more, butsuch-i not the case
! The Commissioner is not toy or an orna-
| ment, but good solid prop, and upon
his brow lies heavily the Adamic
curse of labor. Within the next two
months there will DO such a struggle for
admission into the family as might lead the
| average ignorant spectator to suppose a
| commissioner wandered in q boundless gar.
den of the Hesperdes and spent his brief
term in fairy land of wealth and happi-
ness. But this is a mistake. The comm's"
sioner faces all the hard and unromantlc
realities of life, with none OF It's ideal
| charms. He feeds the poor, tends the SICK
and makes the county laws. His board has
licensing powers in the country district
and country towns. to keep public high
wavs and bridges in order, and does other
| things for the public veal immune able and
is withal q. devoted band of public slaves,
with much work and little pay-no glory
and less reward.
The commissioner in public and the cont
missioner in private life are two different
| individuals, The old axiom to the contrary
Notwithstanding. This fact will De the
more apparent from the
vIGNETTE SKETCHES
which are to follow. When the Board is
duly assembled, on the first Monday OF
each month, there is a hauteur and dead
weight of dignity that works complete
metamorphosis,a and no one would recognize
| in Mr.. President with ais, "now, gentle
| men, this thing cannot be" the Joe Speidel
| of busy grocery fame. In the committee
room when eng a ged in less momentOus work
than investigating delinquent clerk or
settling with sheriffall stiffness is relaxed
and MIR. Commissioner Caldwell Is PLAIN
| Frank. and Commissioner SChultze' is
unadOrned Bill. These moments, how
| ever are the ordinary, as at those times the
| bosses are clOseted with themselves and not
| on public exhibition, sometimes even the
| modest, though ubiquitous rel 'orter having
been denied the steps OF the throne. Now
let us see.
Not to be partial in portraying some Of
the county barons, it is right and meet and
our bounden duty to begin with the chair
man and boss,
JOSEPH sPETDEL.
The term "boSs' is applied advisedly and
not disrespectfully, and the chairman says
he does not object to it. In fact, Mr.. Spei-
del is so clear and level headed that he re.
CognizeS at once that no effort is being
| made to tiatter him or turn his head, by
calling him boss, anymore than one would
imagine a be-diamonded crown on Bill
kSchultze's head when he is called Kaiser.
Mr. Speidel has decided Republican lean
Ito the Board by the Clay
t9wnshippers on account :. self
/ made man, and has reached that state of
bank account which gives a man generally
happy and satisfied air. He has brought to
the Board the qualities which made him a
| business success, and when he was elected
| TO the high seat under the clock his friends
| admiringly applauded. While he inter
polates considerably, in the chair, he pre-
sides very well, there being no presumlng
| uBrudder Penstock" in the county club TO
bold a dictionary or manual over him.
j Personally there is a pleasing air of neat
mess and freshness about Mr.. Speidel-au
Lair of youth which makes us wonder why
not
:. son his brow deliberation sat
l. And public care"
This verse, borrowed from Milton, by per-
/ mission would more appropriately refer TO
IMr. Commissioner
I:# b. F. CALDWELL
whose features, when in repose, might have
furnished model for the blind bard when
be frame the lines. There is something
vastly appropriate in bringing in Caldwell
NEXT 10 Speidel, for, beside the link of Re-
p1teanlsm which binds them, they pull
teacher on various ideas. Which one car
Il fiss fbe lure is another question, but it is
Il generally believed the signal is promptly
Il answered. After term in Council from the
4 democratic Fifth ward, by grace OF split,
4 Mr. CALDWELL was sent to the Board over
A Uncle John Boring, which veteran,
Il slaughtered by treachery in the house OF
II bis friends, consoled himself, like the
H Socrates be is, by putting on the rose chains
\ of matrimony and adopted for his own the
motto Of Q noble Scottish house
4 ~ bide my time"
i M Caldwell had too much sense to
4 flotirish in Council, and succeeds much
better among the great heads Of the Board.
He chairman OF the finance committee,
and accordingly the watch dog of the
treasury, though his worst enemy could
never accuse him Of using any demOgogical
cry of "s0uandering the peoples money"
His ideas of how public money should be
spent are very good and generally right.
The largest figure in the Board, speaking
in the sense Of influence, is that. undoubt.
edly of
JOHN WILLIAM SCHULTZ
to whom is accorded the honor OF represent
ing the Independent Republic" In per-
sonal appearance the Kaiser is pocket edi.
ton of Daniel Lambert and the only OBJ
lection to him is his small size. II his
body were in proportion to his heart, he
would be three times his size, for this de.
velopment has caused him 10 be known as
the "friend and father of the Eighth ward"
The Squire has the honor of being Justice
and Commissioner at once, which some
claim is in defiance of Law, but the 'Squire's
sea of serenity is not TO be rutfied by such
little thing as that The Board has
way of smoothing his feathers that
keeps him in the very best of humor,
and has led certain malicious men
to intimate he is stuck on himself and has
not a rival. But this is wrong. In Coun-
ell, which he also ornaments, he sometimes
shows as much gun cotton as oil In his dis
position, but never in the board, where his
voice is raised for peace, and where his
tongue, when it cannot praise Is chained.
His eccentricities are the outcroppings OF
genius, and the man who calls the Squire
iool merely uses that small form for mir
Tor and sees himfelf
These three men are Republicans The
prominent Democrat OF the Board, both
from long service and attentive useful
ness, is
| GEORGE Il. cARNAHAS.
Mr.. Carnahan has also been in Council
sid this frequent doubling up might lead
the unthiRking masses to believe material
is scarce, but shrewder observers will only
recognize the compliment to the men them
selves. Mr. Carnahan is the conscientious
member, apd his vote, when given for an
expenditure, is generally only after mature
ddiberasion. He is not very sociable in
tht board and has received no sobriquet
either there or in committee; and generally
| il Is found in the discussion of q subject,