St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-05-25
FOR BUILDING A SCAFF0LD
OVER $4,000 A YEAR ALLEGED
TO BE PAID OUT TO HIS
ASSISTANTS,
AND A SNUG $4,000 LEFT OVER
The Sheriff,s RaIxe-Of Is Il Royal
One in Size, Despite His
Loss of 5000.


Sheriff Chapers principal CRAFTS on
Thursday morning-and incidentally
demonstrated how the board of county
commissioners had succumbed to his
blandiShments-it gave simple state
ment of facts that could not be con-
troverted. And not even the Sheriff
himself has mustered up courage
enoughto excuse or attempt to palliate
such a fragrant attempt at unlawful
plundering of the public treasury.
Since the bill first appeared before
the board the price of erecting and
clearing away the scaffold has been
raised $50, probably to correspond
with the fuctuation in the price of
lumber. Competent men say that
the rough box which Enclosed the
scaffold itself, could have been erect
ed and removed for $50. But the
public was expected to foot this bill
of the sheriff, so the figures were
properly siffened.
Something that is not realized by the
general public is the fact that Sheriff
Chapel claims to pay out a. vast sum
year. The amount ranges anywhere
from $4,000 to $25,000 a year-and still
he admits that he nets $4,000 a year
clear money. 1t may not be generally
known, too that this modest public
servant has charged So day for half
a dozen bailiffs who are alleged to
render services in the municipal
court Undoubtedly these same bailiffs
are on the pay rolls of the sheriff's
Office as "keen-eyed'' officers of the
law.
1t would likewise be interesting to
know the names of the watchmen who
are charged for in the $3.50 bill. 1t is
not at all unlikely that they are regu-
larly employed deputies; and in this
respect the bill is defective, even if
there was any law for it, which there
is not. A properly itemized account
would not bunch them as two watch
men,"
The special fee bill under which
Sheriff Chapel is getting rich, specifies
exactly every itern for which he may
charge, and every separate item must
stand by itself. There is not even a
suspicion of authority In that fee bill
for the allowance Of the 1890 so quietly
bestowed on the sheriff by the county
commissioners.
Another point to Chapers personal
advantage is the big fees that he is
charging in this county; they are much
higher than in Hennepin. The latter
is larger county, both in area and
population; but the Hennepin sheriff
does not pay out more than half as
much money as our Mr.. Chapel claims
he does for clerical work and legal
services" Ramsey county has the
cleverest county attorney in Mime
sofa, and he is paid to give advice to
Sheriff Chapel as we'll as to the other
county officers.
Altogether this bill is a decidedly in
teresting study, in the light of the
enormous rake-off that the sheriff gets
under shelter of the special fee law.
When Mr.. Warner could not force his
bill through the legislature against
the protests of Hon. p. H. Kelly and
others, he cut the amount in two
amended it to give the sheriff $3.50 for
each boy strangled on his cheap scat
fold. But that would not go either:
it's opponents asserted the bill was
cold steal, and as such it was net al
lowed to pass.
Chapel wasn't faxed by a little thing
like that. He wanted that money, hav-
ing figured out that it would not be
just to himself to surrender one penny
of the magnificent profits he reaps in
royalty fat fees. Make the county put
up enough to leave my rake-off COM
plete, soliloquizes this generous pub
lie servant, because 1 am not here for
my health. And hence the bill that
will never be paid, unless the tax
payers are dead to the world and
have taken all guard off their pub
lie purse.
Auditor Sullivan's friends assert that
he is no whit more friendly to at
tempted steals than was Auditor Kain,
who bluntly told the county commits
sioners he would never draw a war
rant, even if they allowed the bill.
Mr.. Sullivan is quiet man, but he
has high sense of public duty, and
can be trusted to closely scrutinize
this nine hundred and ninety dollar
bonus to a fee-fatten OffioehoIdar