The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-01-20

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Board of Freeholders.
The regular monthly meeting of the
Board of Freeholders was held at Flem-
ington on Wednesday of last week. We
take the following report from the Demo
crat. Adrertisef
The yexed and vexing question was
what to do with the Tramp
By bills presented for payment it was
shown that between September last and
this time there was committed to the Jail
in Pennington 263 tramps at the expense
of the county. A resolution was intro.
duced to appoint committee of three to
investigate the committing of tramps and
to report what could be done to relieve
the county from this onerous burden.
The Director appointed Freeholders Ma
thaniel Higgins, George w. Cole and
Godfrey G. Lott as such committee.
The committee reported the following
resolutions for adoption by the Board:
Resolred, That tho committee be in
structed to at once procure stone to be
broken by said tramps now in Jail and all
others that may hereafter be confined in
the county Jail at the expense of the
county. That when at work said tramps
shall be under the supervision and direc-
ton of the jaier or such person as may
be chosen by the said committee.
Resolged, That hereafter no fees shall
be paid for the arrest or commitment of
tramps, but that when application is
made by any tramp to the .jailer for shell
ter, the .iailer be and is hereby authorized
to receive and commit them to the county
Jail over night and furnish such tramp his
breakfast for which said jailer shall re-
ceive and be paid by the Board of Chosen
Freeholders the sum of twenty-five cents
in full for such; provided, that it shall be
the duty Of such iailer or such other per-
sons as may be chosen to see that each of
such tramps shall perform one.half days
labor at breaking stone or such other
work as the committee shall furnish to be
done.
A letter was read from Sheriff Corcoran
saying that he understood something
would be said about the tramp question.
That the only person whom he knew to
be interesting himself in the matter was
Mr.. A. b. Allen, who was "crank upon
the subject and would, like his father, en-
sleayor to bulldoze the Board into some
action. The Sheriff said in his letter that
there was not a jail In any county in the
State but what had from twice to three
times as many tramps as our Jail had, and
that wherever work houses had been tried
they were to his personal knowledge
failure.
Mr.. Allen being present, by consent of
the Board, replied that he didn't care
whether he was called ''crank' or not,
but he did think the money of the tax.
payers ought to be saved. That thou
sands of dollars were spent thus every
year, and that the tax payers of the coun-
ty of Huntcrdon were burdened by great
debt by this useless expenditure. He
presented with a large bill for keeping
tramps, our bordering county of Somerset
had paid only about four hundred dollars,
its Board Of Frceholders having passed a
resolution requiring tramps to work.
That Hunterdon county could rid itself
of tramps as Somerset had done. That
the tramp was too lazy to work, and al.
though much work might not be got out
Of them, it would cost little to get ready,
and when tramps found they had to work
here they would go TO some more congo
NAL place.
After remarks from Freeholders Lott,
Palmer, Phihower, Bray and others in
favor of the report, the resolutions were
adopted, and the committee continued to
investigate the bills of Stephen G. Gano,
J. p, for $3s for committing 1872 tramps,
of John II. De Mott, j. p, $i2 for COM
mitting 48 tramps and John Ramsey, con-
stable, $l3l.50 for arresting 963 tramps.
There was no bill in for the committing
of the SO tramps not in Gano and De
Motifs bills, nor had the Sheriff put in
his bill. These no doubt will come in at
the next meeting of the Board.
1t appears from the examination of the
commitments issued by Gano, that no
legal testimony was taken by him. The
law requires the oath or affirmation (the
latter being taken only when the person
is conscientiously scrupulous of taking an
OATH of one or more persons to convict,
yet nearly all convictions were had upon
the affirmations of William j. Poulson,
John Corcoran, the Sheriff, Wilson Run
kle, Joseph Mallcy (the Sheriff's NAM,
George Fulper, A. J. Closson and others,
who always were understood not to be
conscientously opposed to taken an oath.
The committee met on Thursday and set
the tramps at work shoveling snow and
breaking stone.
There was n decidedly animated dis
cussion over bill presented by John f.
Leigh for stone used in the abutments Of
the Sidney bridge in which very strong
language was banded about and accusa-
tions of contractors "greasing" other fell
lows were freely made. Mr.. Leigh got
the floor and insisted that he should be
paid for 1873 perch Of stone at "a per
porch, which according to his measure
ment he had furnished. Jacob Agans,
who does the measuring for the county,
said by proper measurement there was
only 111a perch, and that as the price
was high he didn't think the county could
afford to pay for any more than it got.
Freebooter Lott explained that Mr..
Leigh had had fat contract, as he had
got moro than half dollar more per perch
than it could be had for from others, and
had been furnished with derrcks end
other aid in unloading, which contractors
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