The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-26
LETTERS FROM TIE PEOPLE.
Exclamation md Apology.

To tho Editor of the indianapolis Journal
The naked figures given in the Journal show
ing the cost of keeping our courthouse in pre-
sentable order need a word of explanation. To
some they may at first seem eXhavagant, but
a moments reflection will convince any reasona-
BILE man that they are not but rather bordering
on parsimoniousness considering the size of the
house and the amount of money we possess.
Take, for illustration, the item of ice Now no
reasonable man would expect the over-worked
and underpaid officers Of this county to do with
out ice, and an average of POO pounds day is
none too much for such establishment.
Least of all will any reasonable aX-payer think
that so indispensable an article to well-kept
court house should be paid for by the several
officers. They might as well pay for their own
cigars or beer. Country readers will
wonder, too, why the bills for Decem-
Der and January were each higher
than for last July but they are
an unsophisticated set and rather hard to
please, any how. Country people are.
Then there is the item of janitors. Janitors
are necessary 1t would be cruel to ask the
clerk, and sheriff and treasurer to sweep out
their own rooms They have not time to do it
themselves, and cannot afford to hire it done,
and certainly they would not dare to ask one Of
their clerks or deputies to do so mean a thing.
If left to them, their offices would soon be as lit
terary and dusty as an average lawyers office.
No, the county having furnished such costly
rooms, and agreeing to warm them, it should
also sweep them. Then there are those immense
corridors. They have to be swept nearly every
day and mopped over occasionally. No voter
who ever saw that brigade of sweepers and
moppers at work, keeping step like soldiers,
will beSrudge the small sum of about $l5
day in the winter, and $l2 in the
Of tod Con re
purpose. And then such sweeping and mop
ping One woman, with a good mop and with
the abundance of water that the county furnishes,
would take the contract at dollar day to do
decent job by removing the mud, not leaving it
as it is now left smeared over and smoothly
spread. Did anybody ever see a he ianitor
wiring at his mop and try to wash out the dirt
As a consequence Of this smearing process the
floor is dscolored and stained by the mud that is
so smoothly spread by these ianitors. No, this
small army of sweepers and moppers-about
seven to ten all the time is necessary-we can
not dispense with without going back to
primitive simplicity, and requiring every officer
to sweep his room, requiring the court
baiffs to keep the court-rooms clean, all of
which would be resented, probably by resigna-
tons strikes.
Then there is the small item of gas, only
50. 982. 60 per year. assuming that the current
quarter will be equal to the quarter ending Jan.
l. This does not include the cost of the cleo
trio light in the corridors but is wholly or chiefly
the gas used in the several offices and the court
rooms Now, in the rural country, where the
emoluments of office liberal, the several
officers pay for their own coal oil and furnish
their own lamps, the county usually paying for
what is used in court rooms; Sut this cannot be
afforded by our county officers with their starva
ton incomes. If compelled to pay their own
gas bills, as if compelled to sweep their own
rooms, there would be much less gas burned, as
well as fewer brooms to buy. 1t is unjustifable
penuriousness to complain of these little extras
Of course furnishing the gas, we should furnish
the Matches hence that little bill for forty eight
thousand matches.
The Journal does not say so, but there is good
reason to imagine that it thinks these and sew
eral other items unjustifable. Would it have
us go back to the days of the old court house and
Robert Duncan's or John c. News or William
Walace's timer Perish the thought! Our taxes
are more than quadruple what they were then
and but for such genteel iberality we would
have more money in our treasury than it would
be safe to trust with any one man. In other
words, what are you going to do about it? The
county commissioners have Topped off several
perquisites. Dare they tackle the sweeping
brigade the ice gouge and the gas monster! If
they dare and if they do, then let them try that
forty cents per day for boarding prisoners.
There are thousand men who would be glad
to take the job at twenty cents.
INDIANAPOLIS. The PEOPLE.