The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-12-08
OUT OF SIGHT.
Members of the Street and
Water Board Scarce"
Last Night.
COULDN'T BE FOUND ANYWHERE.
Contractors Try To Explain
Their Dealings With the
Commissioners.
EVERYTHING PROPER, THEY SAY.
Most of the Scandal a Relic
Of the Late Orestes
Cleveland.
COULDN'T BE FOUND ANYWHERE.
EVERYTHING PROPER, THEY SAY

In homes. 10 political clubs, In social
clubs aud places OF public resort, the sole
topic of conversation last night was the
fling of the charges against the Street
and Water Commissioners.
Democratic politicians were pleased be-
cause the defeats In the last two cam
palgns have been laid at the foot of che ac-
cused officials. To their wilful disregard Of
the citY's interests has bean charged the
origin of the discomfort which prevails
and to their e%xtravagant methods Of con,
Quoting the business of their department
the destruction of the confidence Of the
people, which was at one time reposed in
the Democratic party.
One old democrat, who Ia an owner of
property, In speaking Of the accusations
made against the officials, said, son,
give us n new board or give the present
one the city" and then supplemented his
ejaculation by saying, III you don't give
1t to them they will steal 1t and give 1t
away"
what could anyone expect" he added.
"They grabbed up our money aud It
into a for the good IL has done.
Since Mayor Wauser has been In office.
has he not shown the people who were
supporting the accused officials, that
behind every public contract there has
lurked a scandal in which the clty's
funds have been involved every time"
THEY COULDN'T BE FOUND.
Ny mission was not to interview de-
| lighted property owners. but the people
implicated in the charges. particularly
the accused officials. Commissioner e.
| j. Soniers wa, not al his homo last night.
| He was in New York, i5 was said. Cons
missioner William r. Cook was not to be
found at his beautifully furnished home
on Hamilton Park.
President john f. Madden was not at
the PARK House. and IL was considered
doubtful if ne would be around a. ali
during the evening. He has a child
suffering from diphEheria. Commits
sioner Dugan did not even put in an APP
paarance at Phil Muldoon's. Had he. he
would have seen tears In Phil's Indians
eyes.
Steve Voc was also amongst the miss
ing. No one advanced the theory that
shame kept the accused officials away
from their accustomed haunts.
AS to the contractors, VINO are named
in the charges. Patrick Condor was not
home on time. He was PROBABLY ex-
planning to friends how he came to do
about $30,0 600 for the boatd without bid
ding for any Of it. l couldn't find him.
HENRY EXPLAINS.
Henry Byrne, VINO Is also on the list OF
suspects. but VINO has a happy faculty of
being on the right side OF everything,
was boiling over with indignation over
the fact that his fair naaie has been
drawn into such a mass OF corruption.
| So. 900 worth of work in Bay
| street without q contract, he said
ut appears the Fire Commissioners
had been mixing q kick about the de-
| plorable condition of Bay street lin front
of Fire Headquarters. 1t was almost Inn
possible to get a out OF Headquar-
| tiers without wrecking it. II was ordered
to repair that portion OF the street. l did
so, aud subsequently property owners
between sErie and Grove streets
kept asking that that block
to proceed, and I did 80. Then followed
the block between Grove and Henderson
| streets, and ii, too, was repaired, and |
ray the work was we'll done and could
not nave been done cheaper had bids
been called for. am . contractor and /
| asl In it to make money, and when | am
offered work / wou't refuse it. l do
what is given me well aud l believe salts
| factory TO every one"
JOHN NoRAN's PIECE WORK.
John Nolan was the next contractor l
found. He said:-"All the work 1 did
was what we call piece work. When yon
| begin TO repair a street as ordered you
never Know where you are going TO get
through. Special stress seems to ave
been laid on the work done by me az
Bellevi.le. 1 did all of that
work little by little as
| was ordered, aud was necess ary. 1t is
more than a year & since tue work was
done, but l have never received a cent
for it. l rave invited Mayor Wanser and
other city officials to Inspect my work
there. 1t shows for itself. Mayor Wanser
has nor complained about the
work. not has any one else.
If the Street and Water Conn
missioners were mislead in the mat
ter OF giving out the work as thew did, as
they believed it to be necessary I do not
see why l should he made to suffer.
again. take the Grove street work.
When the contract for the paving of
| Grove street was given to me, | had to
repnve 1t from Newark avenue tn Seven
teeuth street. When l got that far
all the property owners on the line OF the
street petitioned the Board to extend the
Improvement to the Hoboken line. | was
asked il l would do the work to the
Hoboken line at my contract price,
and ] sud / would. ] was told to go on,
and that Is all / ever thought there woull
be about it. The work / have lone fer
the city ] point to with pride"
COLLECTOR DUGAN'S OPINION.
County Collector DuRau considered the
matter a joke. Waen I spoke Co him
about his feed bills, IA pleasant smile lit
up his face, aud he said:-fWe all know
what these charges mean. IL is a game
of politics. This town Is the 49, ever
saw, and there are the - people ia it |
ever saw"
Why. bless their dear hearts. officials
years ago tried to advertise for feed.
they kept 1t uD one month and then
dropped it for a bad job.
II say that it is not feasible for the
Street and Water Commissioners to ad
yertise for feed If it would be che per
to do 1t, why don't livery stable keepers
do it? Why dom indtvi dnals do il?
$50 far rs all this concerns me, / say it
is rot. The city gets feed.at market prices
from me every lime. aud | don't believe
anyone eau do any better"
THE PILE DRIVER NAN.
Another Instance cited where the board
Violated the $500 law Is ia the case Of
Patrick Conneily for piiing ip the Hack
ensack River.
Il am . pile driver. 'said he. II know
my business, aud well at that. say that
when ! went ont in The Hackensack
10 do pilirg for the city. ]
showed the Com missioner work, which IL
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