Morning journal and courier., 1892-03-25

tand. During the course of his testimony
le said: I was member of the Park COM
mission several years, I have always
'ound Mr.. Kent a faithful, efficient and
capable man. have had more to do with
Mr.. Hill in connection with my duties on
The Park commission and have always con-
sidered him faithful, competent and eff
quainted with and always found him cour-
teous and agreeable. have never found
him discourteous to me or any one else, or |
uafaitnful to his duties. consider the re-
moval of three such tried officials detri-
ment to the city's interests; all the more 30
when the removals are made so suddenly.
On cross-examination by Mr.. Doolittle:
Mr.. Gladding was employed, believe, by |
the Board of Public Works and paid by the |
city, but always understood that he was |
subordinate to City Engineer Hill and
never saw him experimenting. In my
opinion Mr.. Hill was always the head and
front of the entire matte.
FRED H. wALDRoN.
Mr.. Waidron was the next witness. I
have been employed, he said, by the Board
of Public Works as clerk of the board and
clerk of the superintendent of streets since
1870. In 1882 I was offered a position in
bank. but did not accept it, as the board
wanted me to stay with them. opened
the records and accounts as they are at
present kept, as previous to that time
there was not even a memorandum kept.
Up to 1870, when n. G. Lewis was mayor,
the laborers of the city were obliged to
wait until the 10th of each month for their
pay. Mr.. Lewis made an arrangement for
weekly check and the men were paid on
the highways until the time when Mr. Hol-
comb became a commissioner. I was by
vote of the board. 1 think, instructed to
prepare pay roll of the men and pay
them off at the supply house at 5 o'clock
in the evening, and this was the only
change made in the bookkeeping of the de-
partment, so far as I am aware. do not
recall any complaints that were ever made
| as to my conduct of the Office. do not
remember ever disobeying any order of the
Board of Public Works. I had no notice
of my removal until I received it in the
| depot. Commissioner States told me L think,
that they (the commissioners) were putting
| up job on me; that Sullivan and Maley
| were in combine to GUST me, and that my
| successor had been named as Thomas K.
| Dunn. replied that 1 had no fear, as I
had received assurances from Mr.. Sullivan
that he was favorable to me, and that he
would not be party to nay removal, and
then only upon charges in writing, and
upon which 1 should have a chance to be
heard. Commissioner Sullivan not only
gave me these assurances himself, but also
sent them to me by means of other per-
sons.
Here the witness was interrupted by At
torney Dooiittle, who asked: How do you
know the assurances came from MI. Sulli-
van which were delivered to him by some
outside persona
"Would you believe it if someone came
to your Office and told you that Mr.. Suli-
van had sent some message to youi" re-
piled Judge Stoddard.
Mr.. Waldron then stated: have had
some difficulties with Commissioners At
water and Todd, with Commissioner Sulli-
van yes and no, with Commissioner Maley
no. On a number of occasions have been
compelled in my official capacity to report
to the Board of Public Works w. j. At
water for violations of the city ordinances.
I can show these cases in the record. (Here
the records were produced.) Che cases
in point are the connecting of block of
six houses on Nash street through
one eewer; placing drain through South
Front street without permit for this Of
| tense MIR. Atwater was censured in execu-
tive SESSION. These complaints W ere made
by me. The board had assembled to sp.
prove bills May, 1891. During the ap-
prevail of bills Commissioner States held
| up three bills and asked, Whose are
these? He did this second time, but
receiving no answer asked me, Whose bills
are these? l replied they are Mr.. At
waters. Shortly afterward Mr.. Atwater
came into the room, and Commissioner
Todd gave him the bills, saying: "Here
are some bills for you to approve" Mr..
Atwater inquired, 'Whose bills are theseg'
Mr.. Todd replied: "The clerk says they
are yours" Mr.. Atwater said: well, my
name is not Moriarty, and it will be to
| your advantage, Mr.. Waldron, to attend
to your own business aud not try to watch
too much, and you will find that out soon
or or later"
Here bubble arose between Attorneys
White and Doolittle as to the admission Of
| the question whether the witnesses had
ever been asked by any one to report these
matters to the board, but after a short de
lay Attorney Moran said let them have il
and the question was allowed.
Mr.. Waldron replied: ~ was asked BY
one of the commissioners, Mr.. Joseph B
Sargent, to report all such cases to thu
board" (Here all of Anthony Carroll'l
evidence collected in last years trial of tn,
Board of Public Works was offered il
; evidence and marked Exhibit CO.
"Win you read it all to-night2' inquired
Mr.. Doolittle, referring to the book, which
contains something over 800 pages.
1--WE shall do as we please" replied
Judge Stoddard.
Here bubble as to the admission o.
certain extracts from the book was made
by Attorney Hamilton, who claimed tina
| it was not proper to read extracts and pas
sages here and there from the book, ani
| objecting to the reading of certain por
\ tons unless the whole was read. Afte,
, | some discussion upon the subject it wa
decided to leave the matter alone for tn,
present, and on the arguments each sid
,, should have the privilege of reading ex
tracts from the book if so desired.
The direct examination being then re
sumed the witness referred to the matte
: of securing earth for the filling in of tn,
Boulevard sewer, where tie vote was dis
.. solved by tho mayor voting to award the
! contract to the lowest bidder, but in ex
ecutive session the superintendent Of
streets was instructed to remove the dir
from Denslow's property. There was NJ
There are several instances on record
where the delay was much longer ane
where several thousand dollars were in
volved, this time on the cobble cutters
: amounting to only several hundred dol
lars In reference to the matter of keep
ing the Office of the Board of Public
Works open the witness said that in 1885,
there were no regular Office hours; in 1885,
the Office hours were made from
s to Il o'clock and later the
=: next year Mr.. Atwater stated
! that the plumbers were complain
ing of the Office hours of the board. ]
3 then showed him a letter from the plumb
8 ers of the city denying his (Atwater's
statements. We then had few persona
? words in reference to the matter. The
communication from the plumber was re-
3 ported to the board and placed on file
I never saw any petition in circulation
among the plumbers in regard to the Office
hours Of the board, but l have
heard that such petition wa,
: started at the solicitation and with
the cooperation of Mr.. Atwater
; Commissioner Atwster stated in my pres
enee in room II of this building that h
was after Hills scalp and was still after
It,"
The witness then related the efforts of
Commissioner Sullivan to cause cessation
Of hostilities between Commissioner Todd
and himself. At this time Commissions,
, Sullivan said. "Why don't you tell him
Todd, that it will b. for his interest to use
his influence with his aldermanic friends
| m eyof than RI vofa aoaipat Mayor Gu