The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-02-16


rant found a table and said
"Hey, Mister, what have you for sup
perY"
"Cold roast beef, cold roast veal, cold
lounge, beefsteak,'-
Bring me some beeisteak. And say ~
he said rs the waiter moved OH, you
can bring me that piece Of pie that left
over from dinnerh
Net long ago, while ordering a oeefsteak
for dinner, stepped upon the butchers
scales and found my weight Indicated one
hundred sixty-seven pounds. During the
same morning | CHANGED To enter another
butchers shop and found my weight to he
three pounds less, | then became rather
curious about the difference In the scales,
and tried taird shop. Here tipped the
beam ut one hundred seventy, Three 9th
er places gave my weight at one or two
pounds above OF below. To satisfy myself
tried the scales at one of the express of~
fees and found the first butchers scales
correct. Now what is the matter? II is
lust this. The absence of market master,
whose business 1t should be 10 visit every
butcher and grocerymaH, at least once a
month, has given the city sort of goas-
you.please standard of weight, In fact no
standard whatever. This Is not so at the
coal and grain offices, because the average
farmer owns scales and knows very near
ly what his wagon and load should weigh,
and the owners of city scales keep them In
order out of necessity The city ordinance
provides for the appointment of an in
spector of weights and measures and fixes
the date for inspection. Why this matter
has been neglected | do not know, but it
should have prompt attention, tor whether
1t be intentional ,or no, somebody Is be
Ing beaten and have very we'll formed
suspicion that " somebody" is the fellow
who trades with the man who owns the
scales. Let the city council take some &C
ton on this matter, even If the inspection
of scales does cost ten or fifteen dollars per
month.
r.
| notice, with a great deal of satisfaction
that the park committee have placed
thick coating Of gravel on the walks in
Washington Park. The need of better
walks In the park has been pressing one
and, might say that the need of more
pains In the care of our parks Is even more
so. On wet days Washington Park, Is a
swamp. and one cannot walk on the lawns
without sinking into the sod up TO the
ankles. When the walks about the court
house we're built, the lawns were filed up
to a height which guaranteed good drain
age, and just why Washington Park is al
lowed to pass as a swamp, when for few
hundred dellars it could be raised six
inches and made beautiful, Is problem
which those who pass through 1t each day
have been puzling their heads over for u
month
am told that those interested In organ
iziug county or tri county league do not
have in mind the hiring of team, but in
tend, If any action be be taken TO organ ize
the concern on the percentage principle.
do not think paid nine would pay, for
the reason that II costs too much to main
tain one, No man, who can play ball, will
hire for less than sixty dollars per month,
and as at least three extra men must be EN-
ployed the expense for salaries alone
would be about seven hundred and twenty
dollars per month, which with ground
rents, secretarys salary, railroad fares and
hotel bills, would make an expense of not
less than fifteen hundred dollars per
month. Now the club must needs make
$4,000 per month to pay expenses and
profit. aud how five hundred dollars per
week can be dragged out Of such cities as
La Sale, Streator, Princeton, Pontiac and
the like is beyond my comprehension
Still the percentage system remains and
what is it, Why the club Is organized
and the players get certain per cent Of
the net profit of each game. That Is all
right, you say. 50 1t Is; but when players
are under this sort of an engagement, they
are practically under no agreement at all,
and will do about as they please, and play
when they feel like It, 1t IL, however,
the only way in which small town clubs
can be run, rs II Is fairest to both managers
and players, for when the game does not
pay expenses they lose alike, and when 1t
does their gain is mutual, so that neither
can kick with any intention of fairness.
~
There Is a callow youth in Marseilles
who is just now, to his own mind, the most
important parsonage In the village. He
came to this city the other day and stayed
until night, when he ana couple of Otta-
wa boys went forth 10 have time was
passing along on Court street, on that par
ticular evening, and encountered the trio
who were wiping their mouths in front of