Omaha daily bee., 1888-08-10

Little Schemes of Certain Members O
the School Board.

Little Schemes of Certain Members of
the School Board
For some time past there has not been
harmony in the board of education. The
handful of members who sought the place
as n means of preferment are con-
%tinually scheming to work some political
favorite into a contract or position. Only a
few weeks since the secretary of the board
advertised for bids to furnish single desks
for new school rooms that will soon be COM
pleted. Agents for the manufacturers
quickly responded with bids and sample
desks. Tn rivalry was between two GER
tain kinds of desks, the agent of one of
which was a gifted talker, and soon obtained
promises of support in behalf of his desk
from some members of the board. The
question of making IA choice resulted in an
earnest squabble, and the delay of several
days effected no change. AT two or three
meetings the evenings were very warm and
the attendance small, and neither party car
ried his point. The time had come when
something decisive must be effected, or the
desks-nearly three thousand-could not be
ordered and shipped in time to be placed in
the rooms at the beginning of the scholastic
year.
None of those whose support the talkative
agent obtained had ever given attention to
the requisites of an approved desk. But they
could vote, and made a stubborn stand in
favor of purchasing desks that had never
Deen UrleQ IN Jne SCnOOl-fOOmS OF the city.
Most Of the members of old board, the super
intendent of school buildings, his foreman.
all of the j~anitors who saw the desk, and
some of the teachers, favored the desk that
had been used in several of the schools, and
proved to be good, and in the construction of
which the most healthy attitude of the pupil,
when seated and at study, is maintained.
This favorite and tried desk IS a little less
expensive, and Its mechanism superior to the
other.
nA -l .-
against the new and inferior desk with the
close combination. They called to their help
one Marrow, a man who is in the employ of
the board as a plasterer, and whose knowl-
edge of the points of a good desk is equiva-
lent to naught. w. A. Kelly summoned
Marrow from the work he was hired TO do,
and set him at doing the bidding of the little
end of the board of education, and intensity
ing the disagreement among the members of
the board as to the merits OF the desks of the
competing manufacturers.
AT the end OF July, Marrow presented a bill
to the board for alleged service as plas-
terer. In this bill he had charged the
board of education with twenty-four
days work at So per day, and for a boy
helper 50. 70 per day. The charges were for
sand and hauling, about $40, making IN the
total s225. The superintendent refused to
accept the bill as correct, and sent 1t to the
committee on claims with the following note
appended, in substance:
Tothe committee on claims: Accompany
ing this claim is the bill of William Marrow.
He IS the mar who does the patching of
plustering in the school buildings and makes
out Potter blackboards on the walls. i shall
not q. X. this bill, except directed by you to
do so, for the reasons given below:
He informs me the per diem he charges
was itemized by the board long since.
| notice he charges for twenty-four days
work during the month; but |
am nearly sure he has not
worked nine hours any day, and some days
and parts of days he has not worked for the
board at all. M / am almost convinced
that the same amount of work for which he
charges more than 300 can be performed for
one-half that sum-
Marrow included in his bill the time he was
acting as Kelley's mouthpiece in trying to
get the model desk on the market. His game
wouldn't work, however, and the bill was
cut down to cover the actual time Marrow
put in as plasterer.