Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1885-10-23
More About That "JOb."

more ABOUT Inat "JOD.
We commented last week upon the Job
which Mr.. Southerl,nd succeeded in snak,
ing through the Legislature at the last
session, without the knowledge of the tax
payers, whereby provision was made for
a general index Of the land records Of this
county At a most extravaganrly excessive
compensation which work has since been
done 10y Mr.. Southerland under previous
arrangement wi h the clerk and an equal
''divy" share and share ike made between
Mr.. :. and the clerk of the spoils.
In our review of the matter we sta ed
that the c"mpens tim paid for doing his
there being slways two names indexed,
was necessarily 16 GEMS Tor each deed "a
gaiHst 8 Gems paid for doing the same
work in Dorchester county. by an act al
the same Legislature, while it frequently
happens that move than a dollar is paid
for deed with several parties We have
since been informed that We were in error
In fixing the minimum compensation Mt Is
cents deed, but that under the job, as it
is onsrued and operated here, the mini
mum of compensation claimed and award
ed is thirty ttco cents for each deed of two
names
The deed is first indexed from The gran
tor to the gran'ee; and then in another
place. in its proper alphabetical order, it
is indexed to the grantee from the grantor,
making the grantees name appear in the
leading column, according to the proper
rule in such cases. This, of course invel-
YES the writing Of each of two names twice
and this We are informed has been CON
strued by the benefciaries of the job into
indexing four names and compensation
claimed and received accordingly. This,
however, is not a fair construction Of even
the job as il is worded, and it dill not &C
cur to US, when writing our former article,
that such an audacious Interpretation had
been put upon it. We had not supposed
that even our board of county commission
ers would audit such an account. This is
another illustration of the evils of having
the plant tools OF the court house ring for
the auditors of the Indebtedness of the
county and the holders of the purse strings
of the treasury.
Our informants say that th.re is NO
doubt of this ex'rsvagant aud unwarrant-
ed construction having been placed upon
the job by its benefciari,s aud accepted
by the commissioners. We have not bad
the time or the opportunity to examine the
mater personally, but it seems that the
question admits of no doub,, for it would
have been impossible for the large sum Of
$3.50 to have been footed up for the PAT
iial performance of this work which las
already been done 10y any other computa-
ton.
There is another feature OF the job which
did not appear to US at the first reading
of the act, which 10y subsequent more
careful examination We have perceived -
1t seems that, no, content with extorting
from the tax burdened peop'c Of the coun-
ty 32 cents for every deed indexed
down to the year 1854. against mise cents
in Dorchester; the job has gone s'ili fur
ther and provided that The clerk shall con-
tinue for all future time to keep this in.
dex up 10 date at the same most outrage
Gus compensation. And this in the face
OF the fact we referred ia last week. that
in Talbot and other counties of the S,.,e
in which this system exists, the clerk 10
required to keep this index up to ds'e for
the same compensation be receives for
other recording required by law, viz: one
cent for eeery ten cords
Oh, of all odoriferous jobs. this surely
emits the most fou and repulsive odor-
The people will have to say on next Tues,
day week whether The men that concocted
and carried into execution by an under
derhand sccresy without the knowledge of
the tax payers, this job, shall again be re-
turned to the legislative halls TO do more
OF the same kind of work. We shalt see.