Omaha daily bee., 1889-09-20
Mr.. BALCONIES BLOCK GAME
1t Was Played With Seeming In
spiration of Prejudice.
INSPECTING PAVING MATERIAL
The Council Committee Holds a
Breezy Session Mt Which Mr.. Gray
ana Inspector Donovan EN-
change Compliments.
Inspecting Nauele's Charges.

lut COuHCll COulIllbbtG dppuiuNtu W III
vestgate the complaint made by ]. "A.
Naugle & Co., against Major Balcombe's un-
iustifiaDly rigid inspection of cedar block
paving materials met yesterday after
noon. Members Bailey, Kaspar, Couns-
man and Snyder were present, Mr..
Sander, the other member of the committee,
failing to appear. Major Balcombe was pre-
pared for the visit of the committee, and had
his notes all arranged for q lengthy speech.
He had paving block taken from Farnam
street near Twenty eighth which had been
down one year He placed this up along
side bright new block which he has on
hand for sample and mounting these, made
his little speech. He denied that he
had at any time or in any manner exceeded
his authority and claimed that no had al
ways acted upoa the decisions of the board.
He explained his failure to notify his inspec-
tors of the resolution of the board that the
color Of the cedar blocks should not be con-
sidered by stating that the order had not
been made record of the proceedings and
that he had forgotten it. Coming down TO
the trouble on Harvey street he said he
acted on the order of the board, passed upon
the ground, not to allow blocks of the char
acter presented to be used in paving.
The major waxed eloquent at the
tfSse tSas 0he his owed sD0F' rred aSa SesrsS GrsS
personal debt of gratitude for taking the
supervision of the new city hall out of the
hands of the board of public works.
Mr.. Gray had not received any notice of
the meeting of the committee until after the
meeting had been in progress some time,
when personal friend of his notified him
by telephone that the meeting was in pro-
gress He appeared just as the chairman of
the board was closing his peroration.
Paving Inspector Donavan appeared be-
fore the committee and gave his unqualified
tl,t ln1 hal 4
said.
'No good blocks are Intentionally rejected
by me-" said MIR. Donovan, but when Is or
20 per cent of them are poor some of the bad
ones must go in.h
"Are 20 per cent of them bad, as ruieF'
asked Mr.. Counsman. ..H.
"Oh, no." replied the inspector. every
often we get lot in which not X of per
cent are bad l rejected a load on Leaven-
worth street last night because the blocks
were old and red, the same kind that was re-
jected in the work on Harney street"
Mr.. Gray then asked Mr.. Donovan If he
had ever received any instructions from
Mr. Balcombe to reject blocks on account of
color.
mot directly; we rejected red blocks be-
cause"
But MIR. Donovan didn't finish his explana-
tion.
"On that Harney street work." asked Mr..
Gray, didn't the board decide that red
blocks would be allowed on that street but
not on any further work, and didn't YOU
stop the work the same afternoon on Major
Balcombe'S order because the blocks were
redln
Mr. Donovan couldn't remember.
"Come, Donovan" said Mr.. Gray, "be
man or a mouse
swapping eyes, He didn't want his manhood
questioned, he saId by Mr.. Gray or anybody
else. He was as good a man as any of them
Mr.. Donovan finally admitted that when
80 I,ll
on Harney street it was understood that the
red blocks were to be used TO finish the
street and a resolution was adopted to that
effect, but that afterwards Major Balcombe
had the work stopped, as his construction of
the resolution was that no more red blocks
were to be used.
"The resolution said So nterjected Major
Balcombe, and he read it for the seventeenth
time.
weren't there two resolutions adopted by
the board" asked Mr. Gray, "in which it
was expressly stated that blocks should not
| be rejected on account of their color."
Major Balcombe admitted the fact, but
asserted that the red blocks had been re-
jected not on account of their color, but on
account of their inferior quality.
After some further discussion the com
mlttee proceeded to Thirty eighth and
Leavenworth street. where the work
of paving had been stopped by
Major Balcombe on account of poor
material. The wagon load of blocks re.
iected by Inspector Donovan last night stood
on the street, and Major Balcombe immedl-
| ately climbed to the top of it and began gath
ering up what he called defective blocks.
The first one picked up by him and decided
to be defective was taken by Mr.. Counsman
and split open. 1t was found to be perfectly
sound, plainly showing that its red color led
to its rejection.
This disconnected Chairman Balcombe
and he gave another speech. He
said it was perfectly plain
that the material contractors had sent out a
good load expecting 1t to be inspected by the
committee. If this load were passed poorer
block would be run in at once.
A BEE reporter was then selected as the
honest man of the party to throw a hundred
blocks out of the wagon for inspection. They
were thrown out and inspected by Mr. Dono-
van very carefully. He rejected thrty-five
of them as unfit for use. OF these five were
thrown out as being less than five inches in
diameter, although Mr. Donovan admitted
that the were sound and in ordinary work of
paving would be used. The other thirty were
split open and about half of them found to
be fairly good blocks, up to the average used
in paving.
Mr. Gray explained that the red color of
the blocks had been caused by the timber
having been tioated down the river before
the posts were peeled. The blocks were, he
said, cut last winter and were perfectly dry.
They had been packed in cars long time
and were not as bright looking as some ma
terlal, but were perfectly sound. If such