St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-14
THE sHERIFF's REVENUES.
Statements Which Explain the
Apparent Falling Off-An Inter-

THE SHERIFF'S REVENUES.
Statements Which Explain the
Apparent Falling Off-An Inter-
esting Showing.
The statements of the receipts of the
clerk of court and sheriff for the year
1887, which were fled with the board of
county commissioners at their last
meeting, showed such a small amount
OF receipts in comparison with what it
was thought these offices were paying
that several persons concluded that
they would investigate the matter. AS
a result of this investigation it is said
some very queer things have come to
light, which tend to show that the sys-
tenn of bookkeeping in these offices must
be very faulty. or else jim making
up the statements which were sub
mitted there must have been some mis-
takes made in the figures. 1t will be
remembered that the county commits
SiOners were very much dissatisfied
with the exceeding brief manner in
which the statements were made out,
for instead of being "a statement in de-
tail of all the costs, fees, percentages,
penalties, allowances or other perQuiS-
ties of every kind charged in these
offices during the year." as is required
by statute, there was in these state
ments nothing but the total amounts
said to have been received as
revenue from certain sources, while
other sources of revenue which
are known to exist were omitted
altogether or Jumped together under
the head of Miscellaneous Receipts"
10 show the utter wOrthleSSnesS of
statements made out in this style. it
might be well to compare the three last.
statements submitted to the county
commissioners, and as 10 statement was
submitted from either of these offices
for the year 1885, the statements for the
years 1884, 1885 and 1887 will be taken.
The statements from the sherff's office
for these three years were each made
by different SheriffS, and are as follows:
Sheriff StOddart'S statement for the
year 1884:
Receipts from civil business. -. S4.69J "A
Receipts from criminal business. 1920 81
Receipts for court service ....... 1883 90
C,I. '''''- '''''''' 3'5529 ~
Prisoners fClty ................. A, 24o3S
J outside county ..... SOP 03
Expenditures 80. ......... 1902 90
Receipts, less expenditures . Sl7, 361 &c
Statement of Sheriff Bracket for the
year 1885:
Receipts from civil business. Sc, 265 90
Receipts for court service. .. 1885 45
Receipts from criminal business. 3,5II 20
Boarding prisoners. .......... 1852 II
Total receipts. SI6,8l5 %
Expenditures...... 1872 81
Receipts, less expenditures ...... S,943 OF
Number of prisoners committed to
the county Jail during the year, 1927.
Statement of Sheriff SwensOn for the
year 1887:
Receipts from civil business. 1878 40
Receipts from criminal business. 6,793 so
Receipts for court service ..... 2.0I6 90
Boarding prisoners ........... 2,0S5 4S
Total receipts. S17,76s SO
Expenditures. ............ 1926 80
Receipts, less expenditures. S8,532 O8
1t will be seen by comparing the 1
statement for 1884 with the one for 1885
that the receipts of 1884 are greatly in
excess of those reported for the follow
ing year. and yet Sheriff Bracket had
in 1885 the revenue resulting from the
collection of the delinquent personal
taxes, which revenue must have
to something like $1,000. The
collection of these taxes had ALWAYS
been done prior to the year 1885 by the
treasurer, so that it looks a little
queer that with this increase of receipts
of this Office and also with the increas-
ing amount of court business, which is
done each year, that the receipts of this
office for the year 1885 should fall so
much below those of 1884. AS for the
statement of the receipts of this office
for the year 1887 there should be some
allowance made for the loss of revenue
from two sources: The erection of
a city wOrkhOuse, and the conse-
quent loss of all revenue received from
the city for boarding city prisoners, and
also a slight loss in the receipts from
civil business growing out of the fact
that the constables, for the three city
justices, who were created by an act of
the legislature of 1856, now serve a
great many papers that the sheriff for
merly served. One thing which is not
often taken into consideration by per-
sons in estimating the emolumentS re-
ceived by the sheriff is the fact that he
is saved the expense of house rent. for
the county furnishes him with hand
some house with all the modern i'm
while the other county
officials are compelled to provide them
selves with a home at their own eX-
penSe. The investigation in the clerk /
of courts office is said to have yun-s
earthed several sources of revenue,
which it is thought were omitted in
making up his statement, but the re-
ceipts of that Office will be cOnside red
at some other time. 3