The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-16

| by the government for the time he acted as
challenger" for the Republican party at the last
presidential election. AQUILLA JONES"
After copy Of Mr.. Joness answer had been
served on the independents, the following charge
against Mr. Wood was substituted for the one
| first made;
Upon my taking charge of the Office on the
18th day of April last in order to hamper me
and distress the public service as believe, two
| of the three men in the money order depart
| ment abruptly left me, and feared the public
| business would have to stop in that department.
| At the same time. while thus embarrassed and
| short of help, word came to me that Mr.. Wood,
the remaining clerk, would quit unless more help
was Immediately obtained. | had succeeded in
getting the services of Mr. Wilder, the present
head Of that department, but expert help of the
kind desired was hard to obtain. When this word
came In regard to Mr.. Wood and also word that
he was unwilling to work at nights, as the pr
sure OF the work then demanded, / did not think
him good man to rely on in case of an emer-
gency. In order to pacate him, him, however,
ana TO induce him to remain, l increased his sal
airy one hundred dollars per annum. / felt then.
as feel now, that he was no person to serve
either me or his government. | had no fault
TO ind with the manner in which he performed
his duties, and when he came to me with a re-
quest to sign a recommendation did so, believ-
ing that it is always better to say kind words
than harsh ones.
The Mugwumps are by no means satisfied
with the answer of Mr.. Jones, and do not give
credence to many Of the statements
which the postmaster has published.
One of them, on being questioned as
to the manner in which the charges against
Wood and Wilmington were met, said that Mr.
Jones deliberated twenty-four hours to file his
answer to the charges against Wood, and then
could not write the facts they actual
ly were. The talk of expert help had no
relation to the matter, as there was but one
fill the place from the civil service list.
dsa and Mr. Af Wood any th f4r
protested when the work became SO ardtlous
that it could not be handled by working night
and day. He asked simply that the vacancy be
filed. His salary was raised unexpectedly and
without solicitation on his part The Commits
sion were shown these facts by witnesses and
affdavits.
Concerning the charge against Wilmington,
the speaker said 1T was false. When the charge
was shown to Schreckengast, one of the signers,
he repudiated it, saying that he had attached his
signature to it simply because he saw the names
OF other signers, and he would not assert
that Wilmington had ever acted as challenger.
John 2: Frantz, another signer, said he did not
know Wilmington by sight, and that he was
waited upon by certain persons desir-
IN, m;, to obtain statement against
wilmington, which he signed, relying
upon the representations made to him. part
of which he afterwards found to be
false. Mr.. Plummer, the actual challenger,
and the committeeman, were also introduced,
who showed that Wilmington was at
the polls only few minutes at noon, and that
he had at no time acted as challenger The
commission were cited to the books at the
depot, which proved that Wilmington was there
all day long receipting for packages After
pursuing such course the independents were
INV %ho%f
find Mr.. Jones to be innocent of the charges pre-,
ferred against him.