The morning call., 1893-02-03

Langhorne & Miller sought fees OF $500.
Before passing upon this claim he first in
Quired what services had been rendered TO
cause such bill to be sent in. When ne
foundl Int was for work done In the COM
promising a suit of $4,000 against the
Harbor Commissioners he made up MS
mind that If the 5000 had gone into the
HarbOr Commissioners fund 1t should have
been paid out OF that fund, and II the money
had gone into the State treasury, then the
State should pay it. In pursuing his ID :
yesticatlon he inquired of the State Com
troller If the SIS. 600 had been paid to him.
When he found that it had not he traced IL
to the pocket of the Attorney-General. who
has had this money in his possession for
more than year.
AT the session of the Legislature two
years ago bill was introduced, passed and
signed by the Governor providing for the
compromise of the suit for $4,000 Lang
horne & Miller complied with the pro-
visions of the bill, collected the money and
paid 10 over to the Attorney General
This was more than year ago and Hart
has had the money In his possession ever
since. telling no one Of it.
Hart stated to-day that the reason why
he had not paid the money into the State
treasury was that he was holding it until
the courts had decided to which fund 1t
belonged. This excuse might have worked
all right if any suit had been brought TO
determine to what fund it belonged, but M
to the present time no such action has been
commenced, The Controller says that
although be knew indirectly that Hart had
this $4,000 in his possession, the knoWl-
edge did not come to him officially and he
had no right to demand the money from
| Hart. He maintained that 1t was the
Attorne Generals plain duty TO have paid
the money over to him and tie response
bility Of placing it in the proper fund would
have deyolyed upon him.
Hart gave out a statement to the press
this afternoon to the effect that he had
taken the advice of his attorney, I. /. Bergin,
who advised him to hold the money until a
suit could be brought to determine where
the money rightly belonged. Hart also
says that the acton was to have been
brought some time next week. The bill
which was passed compromising the suit
has r shady look about il, for Langh0rne
& Miller have stated that the Judgment OBJ
tanned was for Sl14,000, aud was against the
milliOnares. who could have been forced to
pay, but the bill which went through per-
mitted them to settle for $4,000, and even
that sum has been held ont If The State
treasury. Even the deputies in Hart's Office
knew nothing about his having this money.
and if Mathews had not made the investi-
CATION hart would still be in undisputed
possession OF the money.
Jim Neal, the notorious arranger of Slog
| ging matches in san Francisco, is the en-
| crossing clerk of the Assembly. From
developments that came to light to-day il
seems that he is doing what little lies in his
! power to help along the manly art Early
| in the session Bledsoe introduced bill TO
make prize fighting felony. The bill was
read the second time on Monday last and
| ordered to engrOssment and third reading.
| Instead Of being attended TO at once the bill
was not sent to the printer until this morn
| ing, although a number of measures that
| followed it on the file were sent to the
printer early in the week. Kennedy of San
| Francisco is chairman of the COMMITTEES on
! Engr0ssment and his attention was called TO
the little oversight Of Meals this morning
| He lost no time in investigating the matter.
when he found that the ant-prizs- fighters
| bill had been detained in the Office of the
| engro,sing clerk. Neal was severely repri-
/
| His oversight has held back all of the other
! important bills that followed it on the file.
The Joint Committee on Counties and
| County Boundaries. in executive session
! this morning.. decided to report adversely
! on the propositions to form Putnam. Kings
aud Bgena Vista counties out of Tulare
| County. The hearing on the formation of
! Santa Ynez County out Of Santa Barbara
! County was taken up.
| Senator Fay says that the Mahoney FIRE
| pill. which was finally passed by the Senate
to-day. merely holds the old corrupt fire
| crowd in power In San Francisco. The
measure was given to Mahoney 10 introduce
! by sam Rainey, who doesn't want to see
| any OF his friends interfered with. Fay
contends that if his bill was unconstitu-
tional. as Attorney General Hart said it
was, then Mahoney's IS also. Fay says
that his bill was passed upon by such at
torneys as Coogan and Craig, who declared
- l.