Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-02
THE TUNNELS BAD LINING.
The Military Court Continues Its Inves.
LEGATION To-day.
INSPECTOR LUCAS rELIs OF HIS KrroRrs TO PRE-
VENT BAD voRK-HK RECEIVED PAT from THE
CONTRACTORS - WELL. As FROM rHx GOVERN
MINT.

The military court of inquiry investigating
the bad lining in the new aqueduct tunnel con-
vened at the War Department. a, o. clock to-day.
1t was intended at the time Of adjournment
yesterday 10 begin again with the examination
OF witnesses at 10 o'clock this morning. but the
delay IN the preparation Of the records caused
the court to change their minds, and the hour
| OF to-days session was postponed until
o'clock shortly before that time the court
met ana the recorder began reading the
records of Tuesdays and Wednesdays pro-
ceedings.
INSPECTOR LUCAS RECALLED.
This took nearly half an hour. Then Inspector
Lucas was recalled 10 the stand Col Craig
hall began his examination. Lucas stated that
he voluntarily performed services for the con-
tractor by seeing that good work was DONE He
had to direct the men and compel them by
| ders to do the work. There were several fore
men OF the masons, George Kendall being one.
He was inclined to force the work beyond its
capacity, and Lucas was kept in a fight all the
time to keep the work right. He undoubtedly
| considered it his duty at times 10 interfere,
because Kendall did not perform his
referred to the work done at the place called
"Malone's Bend" in East Champlain heading,
where his duties had to be divided between two
places. In passing between them
He FOUND BAD WORK BEING DONE
continually, and he had hard work to keep II
straight. He reported this fact to Kerlin, but
not to Lieut.. Townsend. He received so cents
an hour from the contractors in addition to his
pay from the Government. This was for re-
manning over hours. He could not remember
from whom he received the money, bat he re-
ceived it, nevertheless.
The period for which he received this extra
pay was just before O'Brien was appointed.
sons. Some men were employed whom witness
| had to put out of the tunnel
BECAUSE THEY WERE INCOMPETENT.
In his opinion the packers were common labor
ers and not mechanics. He thought, however,
| that they could do the work, which was differ
| ent from that Of building retaining walls,
and did not require much skill About the
same gang of men were continued on the work,
except one man named Martin, who was too
| shrewd a packer for me, and l objected to
him." He was sent away TO the west end of
The tunnel. In response to question by Lieut..
Townsend he said that he had received in
structions to discharge any bad workmen whom
he might discover.
coLonED PAcKIRs STORY.
| Lucas was then discharged, and Henry Jones,
colored man, was called. He testified that
he is a laborer and was employed ON the aque-
duct tunnel from the 18th of last June to Aug
| packer, as some one called it." Mr.. D Brien,
| he said, must have hired him. There were
two more packers with him. His first work
was at night
FIRST TINE HE HAD EVER BEEN IN A TUNNEL.
He packed with stone and cement 1t was
the first time that he had been in a tunnel He
first flung in some stone with his hands and
then threw in LITTLE cement with a
trowel All Of his work at night
Sometimes he had orders to pack on one bay
and more frequently on two. Once he had
| orders to wait until three bays were up. He
received his orders from O'Brien. When he
was packing at two bays at once he could
not put the packing back more than four feet,
He did not carry the packing up to the roof of
the tunnel, but holes were left above the
stones. In places he carried up the stones
| to the top whenever he had a chance to do il.
work was carried up to the top at the end
of every center. Witness thought that
about third of each center was
left with holes above the packing. In the
| packing on the sides there more stone than
mortar. In some places he would put about
a foot of stone and then cover it
| with mortar. Sometimes the mortar
which was thin, was poured in from a bucket.
At other times it was thick and stiff, and could
be put in with a troweL 1t was not the
g.
In the Howard University heading he worked
in the day time and did the same kind
| of work. The packing over the arch was no
better than in the other heading and also the
Craighill witness said that he began his night
work at about O'Clock. Mr.. O'Brien was
THE BOSS OF THE GANG.
| The stones used in packing were rough and
varied in size from as large as a mans head to
so large that two men could hardly lift them.
No shovel was ever used in putting in the stones.
| The biggest stone that he put over the kew was
as big as one man could lift. He had to lift
such a stone about high as his waist
| and roll it over the arch as well as he could
He did not know why the stones were put
in. MIR. O'Brien stood on the platform
almost all the time. Witness threw
the mortar in with his trowel
with a kind Of dab; knew that it went some
where on some of the stones, but not
| sure where. He knew that there
was q hole behind the stones, but
| THOUGHT THAT THAT WAS THE WAY TO DO IT.
No one seemed to care: Mr.. O'Brien told him to
throw the stuff in, but never told him that such
work was not right
Upon. a straight question from Col Craig
| hill he said that he did not really know
| what packing means, but thought it meant
| dashing stones into the place above the arch.
His pay envelope had the word packer on it.
| ton, learning that the witness was first
told to come to the court to testify
last night. Previous to this time, about two
or three weeks ago, a young man came
| to his house and asked him if he
had worked in the tunnel, and
witness told him all he knew about the
| tunnel. No one had ever told him what to saw
Nobody discharged him, but he just came out
| himself because rash word one
of the masons used towards him. He
| worked one night in the Rock Creek heading.
and did this same kind Of bad work that was
| discovered. He never worked there as "A
packer again at night, but did in the day
While he working under Mr.. Mac" be
worked much harder and better than under
Mr.. OBrien.
THE EXAMINATION OF WITNESS CONCLUDED.
At O'Clock the tunnel court of inquiry con-
cluded the examination Of witness and de-
cided to adjourn until 10 o'clock Monday
morning.
He Was Shot I'm the Arm.
A ROT WOUNDED By A PIsToL-sHoT FIRED rhoM
TRAIN.
Wednesday evening two Bsltimoreans, under
the influence Of liquor, got ON a train at the
Baltimore and Ohio depot and started for their
home. There were in the car about twenty five
hovc Ooipo IN he voce track Will Al. 49,