Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-04-04
MINING JOURNAL.
FROsTBURG MD, APRIL 4, 1891.
The Milk i'm the COcOanut.

Since 1t has got INTO PRINT IN this
town that the present Water Board,
or part of it, "have not been COM
petent," it would be interesting to
learn who are competent"
1t would be more entertaining, if
possible, to learn the qualifications of
the Judge of competency set up in this
case?
He says:
The present state of affairs could have been
avoided In the first place the board should
have secured a competent engineer to make
an estimate of the cost of constructing the
works. Then if on an intelligent estimate
$4,000 would not be enough the old works
could have been bought and improved for
less than $4,000.
If we err not the sage was here when
''the present state of affairs could
have been avoided" But he never
suggested a word about securing a
competent engineer" etc, and, if he
took any position at all on the subject,
he, with the vast majority, was opposed
to the purchase of the old water
works
He instructs the people further:
1t is a mistake to elect to any. office man
who thinks he knows it all, and in this in
stance an awful blunder was made in elect
ing as member of the water board a man
who thought he knew all about engineering
and the construction of water works. We do
not blame any man for being ignorant of the
science of engineering but if we as citizens
and taxpayers endorse this jackof-all-trades
administration we deserve to be taxed to
death.
If the above premises be true, who
among us is ehglblee Who is it that
wants the position that does not think
he knows it all Not a single man
surely who spoke in the affirmative at
the old water works Indignation meet
ing in Meats Opera Hall last summer ?
There was not a single, solitary, lone,
lornold water works orator who did not
know the whole business from the end
to the beginning. And they got their
information so suddenly, too. They
had sat still and seen the people go
blindly headlong into electing Jones
and Haverstick they knew of a man
named Hoffman who had come here
and made estimates of costs and Wis
ible supply; some of them had been
projectors of the new works, and yet
they, like Paul on his way to Damas-
Gus, We're all at once, somehow, some
way stunned by conviction that
overturned all their consistency MS
fnanciers and public economists.
Then they knew more than anybody
else could ever learn they knew more
IN one minute about the old water
works than they could ever think of
in all their lives before.
But, fellow citizens, it is the topic of
that meeting that still sticks in the
craws of old water works partisans.
The scheme to force the old works on
the people of Frostburg at old eoater
porhs figures is not dead. The corpor
ate election, now at hand, revives it
with the hope that enough friends of
the old works can be sneaked into the
Council to carry out the deal.
A great long drought next summer
cannot be secured so easily, but if
hope and prayer will avail anything,
that will be an excuse for carrying out
the project. Then your water works
will cost you SIS, 900 or $4,000, with
nothing to show for the last S., 900 or
$4,000.
People, the true reasons for the sug-
gestion to turn down Jones and Haver-
stick are not given, but if you will
take the trouble to trace one of them
to its source you will infallibly strike
it in some interest of the old water
works.
AS to the Frostburg Ledger, its hind
sight is just as reliable as its foresight,
and neither are worth cent on the
dollar with ten days history to figure