The morning call., 1892-04-23
" GOOD And W0RKMANLIKE.'
How Street Work Is Done in This
Biz City of Ours.
Easy.Going Ways Of the Inspectors - The
Great "Y" Steal in
Sewers.
CERTIFICATE or INSPECTOR.

Sen Francisco, Mdy 90, 1899.
To James GiUeron, Superintendent of Pub
Eic Streets aud High,cays:
Sir: hereby certify that the laying of
the ir0npipe Setrer ia street, from Thirty
si1tJt to Ihirfy-serenth streets, has been
completed Iva a good and tcofIniaIfihe man
aud strictly ia accordance trffh the sIDe-
cifcations contained in and dnnered to the
contract uHder srhich the has been
constructed. JOHN JONES, Inspector.
L hereby certify that scas actually emf
ftoyed Secen days in experimenting the
aforementioned tcoTIt.
JOHN JONES, Inspector.
Subscribed and s,corn to before this Esd
day of Mar. 4. ID. 1892. JOHN DOE,
Deputy Superintendent Streets.
Even down TO the word certificate" this
is an exact copy of the form Of oath taken
by street inspector, who draws 81 day
from the property-owners to see that GER
tain work is properly done.
Occasionally good piece OF work is done,
but more generally ii is bad. This, how
ever. makes no difference 10 the inspector.
He reports it as good and workmanlike."
A man who has served as street inspec-
tor many times during the past few years
gave the following information to CALL
reporter yesterday:
amount.to anything. 1t is not taken in all
cases. In fact i don't believe that one in
spector out of 10 really understands that he
must make his report on oath.
'lt don't matter in any case. Very few
street jobs are done in accordance with Lave
and with the specifications.
Take sewer-pipe laying. Now the con-
tractors are required under the specfica-
tons to lay the pipes 10 feet below the sur
face OF the street, but they rut thGm only
seven feet and often only five. l will
venture TO say that if the Street Committee
should examine all the pipe work done dur
ing the past two months il would find that
few of the sewers are laid as deep as eight
feet, and that more of them are.six.
ABOUT the quality of the pipe | cannot
tell, but / am Informed that instead OF
furnishing drst-class pipe it is generally
second-class.
There are dig steals going on under the
noses of the proPerty-owners every day OF
the year i'll the matter OF pipe connections
with houses. III order to make these con-
neetions the rule OF the Supervisors requires
that VS. must be provided every % feet
along the sewer on either side. These vs.
cost from SIS to 81 30 apiece. They are
never put Ii except when they are actually
necessary to give house sewer connection,
and often not even then. a pipe-seYer
laid out in Mission street was built 400 feet
without a single being put in. Compute
the steal at 81 \ for 81 Us, and there was
SIPS deliberately stolen from the property
owners along that block. How much was
made by the laying of the pipe seven feet
deep instead of 10 cannot tell, as am not
an expert.
Are not street inspectors experts as
rule"
'Only for the laying Of brick sewers.
Then man must be member Of the
Bricklayers' Union. But for other work
a lampiighter, q woOdturner, n hodcarrieT,
a tinker or tailor is acceptable. provided
he has friends in the Street Department.
He has to be solid with the crowd or they
will not take him in.
when a contractor begins his work he
always makes n great show Of providing
plenty Of material tie will haul all the
necessary Us 10 the street, dump them out
aud lay them around consplcu0usly; but
they are never put in. as they are carted of
after dark and taken back 10 the company
from viii h they were purchased, where the
money paid fer them is refunded"
But the prOperty-Owners are charged for
the uDus d pip?
Certainly; every time"
ado the inspectors and contractors ever
have tr0uble?"
sometimes. YOU see, the contractors are
very suspicious set. They eye closely
every body who comes near their WORK.
Now. as matter of fact although street
inspectors charge "a day, and that amount
comes out OF the property-owners, they are
not around, as rule, more than two or
three hours day, and often not that. IL a
contractor should see an inspector looking
at his work very closely, and asking lot
Of questions, and going about among the
workmen, and seeing that they don't put
too much sand In the cement or leave the
vs. out of the sewer, he would get sus-
pieious of him at once. He would 20 to the
Street Department and ask to have another
man sent out, and If he could not get him
he would quit work and not resume il until
he could get another and Tore easy gOing
man. That is the way the thing is done,
and ii is very dlscouraging to honest inspec-
tors"
The basalt paving on Mason street, from
Vallejo 10 Broadway, was not finished before
the depressions began TO show. When the
property-owners complained they were told
thar II was not their business, because the
inspector was on the ground and the work
was done 10 HE satisfaction.
The property-o along Fulton street
declare that there are no ''I's" in the
sewer along that street from Lott 10 Lyon.
Complaint is made that the sewer in Dan
vers street, from Eighteenth and Falcon
south TO Casell, is seven feet out Of the
street center. This work was done three
months ago.
John r. Roche, with Francis & Valentine,
was the first property-owner on san Carlos
avenue, between Twentieth and Twenty
first streets, 10 sign petition for the paving
OF the street. lie asked for no special
privileges or terms from the contra tors on
this account, but their solicitor signed an
agreement With him allowing him six
months from the completion Of the work in
which TO pay his assessment for the - feet
owned by him. Mr.. Roche was very much
astonished when bill for S67 80 for the
work was presented to him a few weeks
after IFS completion. He reminded the con-
tractors Of the agreement, but they paid no
attention TO his statements, and when he
refused TO pay until such time as might
please MIN within the six months, lien
was placed on his property. This added
S11 to the bill, which MIR. Roche was forced
TO pay.
Il was out making a quiet little inspec-
ton of my own the other day." said Mayor
Sanderson to a CALL man. 81 told the
payer he was not laying the blocks right.
Il know it, said he, rather mpatiently,
as he did not take me for city official, but
that's all right
How is il all right?'
HE came over and whispered very sig
nificantly in my ear:
Cant you see? This is city work. y"