The Critic and record., 1891-05-13
FROM TIE DISTRICT CAPITOL.
Items of Interest from the Commits
siOners, DHicc,


Commissioner Douglass was not at the
District Building to-day being detained
at home.
The application of j. d. Gallagher, 25i9
ii street northwest, for retail liquor Ii
cense has been approved.
The Commissioners will not render their
decision in the case of Lieutenant Boteler
until the return of Colonel Robert. The
taking of testimony was finished yester-
day.
Captain Lusk has recommended that
the old pipe sewer on the east side of
Vermont avenue, between n and str sets,
be placed upon the schedule for replace
meIt during the next fiscal year at cost
Of 5000.
Representative Lee of Alexandria, Va,
was among the callers at the District
Building this morning. The General
wanted to see the Commissioners in the
interest of some of the Georgetown candl-
dates for the assistant assessorships.
il has been suggested to the Commits
sioneis that they promulgate an ordinance
requiring the owners of dogs to have them
in leash when outside of their own en-
closures in the city. This plan, the sug
gester says, is found to work very well in
many European cities, and causes comfort
and safety to all.
An inquiry has been received by the
Building Inspector as to the legality Of
tearing down a one-story shanty and
building atwo-story house on it, simply
raising the old tin roof and sheathing
with il in twelvefoot alley. This, the
| writer complains, is being done in an
| alley between Seventh and Eighth, d and
! Il streets southwest.
The Attorney for the District, in the
case of the petition of Mrs. Mary Hallem,
| for cancellation of certain special as
| sessment against lot / square IA, has de-
| Cided that she is entitled to the relief
asked for. The assessment was made for
| alleged improvements and the opinion of
| the Attorney is based on decision of the
| Court in Equity in the case of Timothy
| Brosnan.
Some time ago the Commissioners re-
ceived request that the electric-light
pole in the alley of square 263 be removed.
| Numerous complaints have been received
| against electric light and telegraph poles,
but no manner in which to avoid them
has yet been devised. Captain Rossell
says that these matters might be arranged,
| as in the case of the poles in Georgetown,
| by requiring the companies to get the
consent of abutting property owners be-
fore erecting the poles.
| Superintendent Miles of the District
Telegraph and Telephone Service, reports
| that a receiving telephone has been stolen
| from the Henry School Building, Seventh
aud z streets northwest. He says that
the theft had been reported to the
| detective office, but whether the in
strument or thief will be found is uucer-
tain. The stolen phone is the property of
the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone
Company, but of the class that is ON the
wires owned by the District
To-DAY's ORDERS. Rs.--Among the orders
issued to. day were: That new pumpsbe
constructed on the east side of
Fourth street, between p and q
streets northwest; that the mac
adam taken from Fourteenth street
be used in making needed repairs TO Will
ling Place and Meridian avenue. That a
six-inch water main be laid on Thirty
six street northwest, from N to 0 streets,
Georgetown. That new pump be erected
at corner of Twelfth street and Florida
avenue northwest.
JUNK DEALERS AND THE PCsH-CART MEN.
The District Attorney yesterday, in an
opinion requested by the Commissioners
| III IHDly 10 u ItlttI Ol DEOutTtCk DIOtlSTS
Junk dealers at 1l07 B street northwest
decides that the push.cart men who dc
the business of buying and collecting
old iron, rags, paper and other old mater
ial and articles, are not liable to the Ii.
cense tax of $40 per annum imposed by
the act of March 3, 1891. The said act is
applicable to those junk dealers and
dealers in secondhand personal property
who have places of business at which
they buy and sell such articles. Tht
opinion was approved by the Commits
sioners.
SEcoND-H HAND DEALERs.-Upon the re
quest of the Commissioners in the case o.
Shloskey ~ Shopperi, who requested
an opinion as TO whether they would hav,
TO pay junk dealers license fora second
hand store in which most of the stock Il
new, Detective Block to-day made re
port He says that Shloskey II Shopper
! run .hree separate stores and though tn
; purchasing is done in one store only, tn
selling of secondhand goods is done il
all three. The act of March require
! in the business of buying ant
selling secondhand personal property
And, in addition, it subjects those person
to all the valid laws, ETC., governing sucl
, business, one of which, being section 6 o
, the license regulations, providing tina
licenses granted by the District of Colum
bia shall only be good for the conduetin
of business at the location named therein
! Any other construction of the law, th
detective says, would be unfair to tn
District and TO dealers having but on
: store.
> To TEST AN INSPECTION LAw.-For som
. time past the Commissioners have bee
: receiving complaints relating to the il
Z spectlon of lumber. II was charged tha
IL. "A.
n lating the law by not having their lumbC
. inspected or measured. This morning, {
. the request of the Commissioners, repr,
. Jackson & Co. and Barber
3 Ross, appeared before the boar,
- They frankly admitted that they did M
: permit an inspection Of their lumber, {
: they thought the law was invalid an
unjust. Besides this they say that th
inspectors not only take the legal fee {
thirty cents per one thousand feet mea
ured, but, in many cases, demand ft
of forty five cents, the extra amount beir
to pay them for the trouble of handlir
the lumber. They had refused to pay an
fees in order that the validity of the la
= governing the measurement and inspe
y ton Of lumber might be tested in tl
c courts. The law requires that the il
" spectors shall he entitled to receive
. compensation for inspecting, measurr
. and marking, the sum OF thirty cents pl
y 1000 feet measure; one half TO be pald
5 the buyer and the other half by the selle
The dealers claim that the eSpressc
buyer and seller is ambiguous, as it dot
not explain whether the persons fro
which the dealers buy are referred to
the sellers and themselves as the buyer
or whether the parties TO which they (tl
Dealers sell are the buyers, are mean
The law provides for penalty OF so f
every violation. The matter will
tested in the courts by the lumber men,
1 In the Equity Court.
u Judge Hagner presiding-Whitney '
Il Duncanson; certain money ordered d