The evening world., 1894-04-09
One Firm Tried IT. Was Turned
Down and Has Been Frozen
Out" Ever Since.
LEARY'S RELATIONS WITH E. S. STOKES.
Partner OF the Man Who Is Known to
Havo the Biggest Pull with
Croker"

Another chapter OF the Dock BOARD
iniuuitics, Here is the story of freeze
out!
Henry Du Rois' Sons of No. ll9 South
street. are drcdgors and do "a large bust
ness The house was established many
wears ago by Henry Du Buis. The bust
ness Is now Carried on by his sons. Of
whom Charles is the head of the firm
They have n high reputation for bust
ness integrity. IIut they are not In poll
ties, and they have no "pull' at Pier
A. They used to do n good deal of city
dredging but not now. They have been
frozen out.
Charles pu Bois had had ono eye on
james J. pholan and the other on Nor
ris & Cummings. the firm name for James
u. Lcnry. who Is Commissioner pholan's
bondsman. as told In Yesterdays World,
ever since Mr.. rholnn began distributing
Trcasurcr's orders. When Mr. rhclan
was absent last summer Mr.. Du lIOis
made bids twice for dredging. and on
both he secured trcasuror's orders for
( work at the foot of Fifteenth street,
North River. and Forty-siIth street East
River. Commissioner Cram, gave out
| the orders.
| In this matter OF Trcasurer's orders
while unanimous consent OF the board Is
| necessary. II is well understood that the
! Treasurer is put into that place to con
| troll ;he machinery. 1t IL he who sends
out specifications for proposed work tc
| whomsoever he pcases In this way ht
/ may limit the number Of competitors or
| estimates to the charmed circle.
MIR. Du Bois. having had his eye upor
Mr.. Phelan. bided his time. Early las
! fall Mr.. Phclan was back at his desk
and sent on; specifications for dredging
at the foot of West Fifty-fourth street
the amount involved being only 100
cubic yards. The price prevailing 70
this work was close to is cents a cub
yard-none below II cents. Mr.. Du Boi
had made up his mind to ascertain 'hoy
Jim Leary got his pull" Mr. Du Boi
went to a friends office. not more tha
1--WE minutes distant from pier A, Mort
River. and alone and I'm seclusion, tel
minutes before noon. the hour for clos
ing the building. made n bid OF 10 l.
cents n cubic yard. Not another persol
on earth except Mr.. Du Bois knew tn
figures in that sealed bid.
A young man in the office was sent n
messenger with the bid to pier A. IL
arrived five minutes before the time O
opening the bids. These bids are openc
in Mr.. Ph"lan's private room. and Mr
| Ihelan does the opening. There Is n
representative of the Comptroller pres
ent, as required at other public biddings
! Mr.. phelan sharp on noon opened tn
lids and read them off. Among tn,
others he rend off the Du Bots bid n
10 IL cents. 1t must have startled him
1t surprised everybody else. Never ha,
dredging been done at such low figure
Mr.. Phelan kept on announcing tn
bids until the final one. That was Jane
ID, Leary's bid. Mr.. Phelan looking n
the document. called OUT Morris & Cum
ings 10 Ia cents"
Then there was sensation. The d,
3ois bid was regarded as n wonder be
cause none Of those present could d
dredging at that rate without losin
money The drop from II l-2. the aver
: age bid. to 10 l-2 was at once interprete
as having Il meaning. When Mr.. Phelar
however. announced the Leary bid O
10 IA cents there was an exchange O
| glances. and one of the bidders imme
, diately demanded to see the bids. es
pecially the Leary bid. Mr.. Phelan re
fused to show them.
= Charles Du Bois has not tried to hi
since Their. He has given up trying I
, bill lower than Leary. Mr.. Phelan ha
got tired OF MIR. Du Bos. too He ha
, not since then sent an invitation to tn
2 firm to compete on engineers estimate
: for d Treasurers order. The firm
frozen out" for all time apparently.
Mr.. Leary has been n child Of fol
tune in the West Washington Marke
n dredging. This is the area in which III
new American line pier now stands Th
original contract was given on Eng
n nccr Green's estimates, and Morris
- Cummings secured 1t on Feb. S. 1899. tn
amount being $50, s95. \ year later III
D Dock Board reported the job as havin
D been completed before Dec. Il, 1899. III
L expectation had been that the BaltimoI
. and Ohio Railroad Company would hay
the new pier, which was on the site