San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-10-18
COMING TO LIGHT.
THE INSIDE WORKINGS OF A
RING EXPOSED.
A Nice Mess, But Every Word Said
to be True.

10 De true.
The fact that work on the city hall has
been stopped, that there is hitch be-
tween the contractor and the city au-
thorities, is an old and well known fact.
A portion of these troubles have been
aired through the columns of the LIGHT,
especially the trouble about the bridges,
about the difference between Archi
tect Kramer and Contractor Bra
den as to the Interpretation of
the terms, 'stone faced and rock
faced, However, beneath all this
there lies sea of trouble that will some
day become apparent to the citizens and
form pool in which the clique will SOON
er or later find its political grave. A
LIGHT man accidently caught a glimpse
of the suppressed turmoil annalyzed it as
best he could. 1t is needless to say that
certain city officials and even Contractor
Braden were as non-committal as clam.
Alderman Guerguin was approached but
all the light to be obtained from him was
that in his estimation the city could legal
ly take the contract out of Braden'S
hands. as proposed by Alderman Weber.
IL was delicate question, he thought,
and nothing could be safely said concern
ing the matter until the building commit
tee had reported, which might possibly be
next Monday.
One of the junior partners of the firm
of Ed Braden Il Sons, was also question
ed, and he proved but little better. The
only opinion he had to express in this
matter was that the Building could not
be taken out of their hands without any
legal proceedings and he was confident
that their firm would come out on top in
such case. He also admitted that if the
contract could possibly be taken out of
their hands it would entail loss to the
firm of some eighty or ninety thousand
dollars.
Beyond the above information it wa S
impossible TO pump" anything more
from either the contractor or the city au
thoritieS on the subject. That the con-
tractors, and perhaps the city authori-
ties are able to tell some startling facts,
there is no doubt, but they both are not
anxious to explain matters just now.
During many years of association it has
and so it came to pass that some of the
good old people who stood by Callaghan
and the ring, fell out about one thing and
another and still carry with them the
whole inside workings of the affair.
One of the old eX-ringsters, who has
thrown off allegiance to King Bryan and
the clan, gave to LIGHT reporter the
mitted to use.
Cant you recall" he began his story,
'the time that old Maury was our city
engineer? Well from that time on the
trouble began. AT that time Old Man
Braden was doing street job, don't re-
call just what, but at any rate he was
working for the city, and Mr.. Callaghan
thought that he would be good man to
build the city hall. So things were ar
nfh ar tro tow laI
don't you know Mr.. Reimann thought
sure he would get the job?-to hand in
their bios, and Mr.. Braden was awarded
the work. Everything worked well for
some time. All of US fellows got plenty
of work, when the old man Braden took
sick with brain fever. The young, fellow,
Will Braden, got cranky some way and
fired the whole crew of US, and set in new
men. Yes, it was during the old mans
sickness, ought to know, for was one
of the men knocked out of job. Soon
after that fell out with the crowd.
want you to understand that ] have no
particular love for any man in the
Braden family, but what l now
say in regard to this matter, is
the solemn truth, so help me God.
After Braden put in the other men
foundation was laid so | understand, the
trouble about the ''stone faced" and
rock faced" work began. Architect
Kramer decided that the entire building
above the basement must be this smooth,
filed stone, instead of the rough etch.
hear that Braden had protested from the
beginning but proceeded with the work,
saying that he would hand in the claim
for the change later. How true this is,
can not say, but | heard it very recently
from some of the contractors friends.
And so you see the claims for the extra
expense, 100000 comes in there"
"There are $1,000 for extra work on the
foundations" suggested the reporter.
That's So" returned the informant,
that was due to some blunder of City En-
gineer Maury, before Callaghan compell
ed him to resign: He gave the
wrong lines, and Braden, who
started to work on them, had to
do a pile of work over again, when
the corrections were furnished. 1t seems
to me all the way through as though the
contractor had fallen in disfavor with the
city administration from the start, and it
had undertaken to perSecute the firm in
consequence.
They gave him the job of doing the
bridge work, erecting the piers, etc , and
don't you see what trouble he is having.
/ just tell you there will be bushels of
startling developments If the matter ever
gets fully aired, or goes to court, and
fully believe that ii will be satisfactorily
settled rather than let it get too public"
A Bargain.