The record-union., 1896-01-27

here, or wade.
"Barwiek puts it too high
ITO be sure, so I stick TO his figure
for safety. l should divide my gang
of eighteen men into six lots, three
each, with boss over each at So a day,
police wages, but of six hours only
But, to be sure the work can be done
better in seven; let US, my hesitating
friend, then say seven hours a day
four in the forenoon and three in the
| afternoon"
why not a full days''
| Presently, presently. sir, and I'll re-
veal. To pay these bosses would call
for 50 a day, total $405 ii forty-five days
are worked. For stout shoes and oil
skin coats and mats, shovels and
brooms, I would calculate to expend ST
man, or $126. That would constitute
my capital invested, and the shovels
and coats ought to be good for three
years. So you see I would for S53I
keep $50 crosswall1s clear all winter so
that the lads and lassies could go to
and from school dry shod, and ou
wives petticoats be kept out of the
mud-you have no wife? Well. know
that, but you understand, stupid; and
think of the comfort, cleanliness and
real saving those clean crossings will
mean, and the credit to our city and
You are too fast, my friend, too fast.
OF course S531 for such necessity is
nothing; the people would never com
plain of that. Why, it is less than
| eight cents a crossing, including the
cost of oil-skin coats and hats and
such that you would not have to buy
the second year
Now you are going to say, butt I
| knew it when you stopped for breath
You are about to say that l have for
| gotten the wages of the workers. No,
I have not. / am sincere in this, and
Confucius said sincerity is the begin
ming and end of all things, as it shall be
of this calculation, for that wet foot is
getting colder fast and we must
| hustle back-I to reflection, you to inn
| agining that you fellows create public
opinion You don't, but you have a
heap to do in molding it, No, did not
| forget the wages. I would pay good
wages, round, fat wages, not to men,
| but to the people of the city and the
county I would hire them by using the
rascals convicted of petty crime and
serving in the city and county prisons,
and doing nothing for their grub. By
using these fellows we would really be
hiring the people. Make these petty
| convicts earn their salt and there will
be fewer of them. But great or large
the number, the whole crew should
work. Now it costs, they say 1216
cents a meal a head to feed these con-
victs. I'd have the city pay the County
Sheriff that cost and save it to the
county. That would be just, square
dealing, wouldn't it?
For eighteen men, then, the city
would have to pay So 20 a day on the
days used. So the per diem cost of
cleaning the crosswalks needed to be
cleaned as we now are would be S15 rs.
with capital invested of $126, or a
little over ten cents crosswalk. Now,
isn't it worth a dime to the city to have
a crosswalk kept clean?"
But these prisoners work now"
"Only a portion of them, my Mencius,
That rock breaking job don't go much
in winter, and it is profitless when it is
run. The Supervisors will tell you that
| Do you know that in half or more of the
States in our glorious Republic, county
and city convicts are worked on the
highways? Yes, that is SO, and in most
of the other half of the States they are
worked in the Jail. This is no day for
id1eness, my youth You and I have to
work. Why not every man?"
But some people do not like to see
prisoners exposed in the street.
do you tell me so? Well, that is
funny, isn't it? Do you know, my
Seer, I think such people should go off
and bag their heads. If we are to check
crime we must make men ashamed of
crime, or to do crime. OF course, Of
course, I know, know. Yes, I would
make some exceptions. There are some
men in jail who should be employed in
Jail and not out of it while serving
sentence. But there are enough of the
! low-down lot who loaf on the taxpayers,
and / say let US use them cleaning the
crosswalks at a dime a crossing. We
can afford that, no matter how poor
our treasury purse, for we can afford to
be clean.
Whats that? the mud will be drag
ged right back on the walks again?
Say you so, my mentor? You wash
your paws after toll, you loafer, don't
you? Yes. And why? Will they not be
soiIed again by pencil CRIME, and your
associate, the pastepot. Go, too, for a
fool and count me no more your friend,
| if you hurl such thunderboits of wis
dom at one. But then, honest injun,
why not haul off the mud scraped up?
1t must be done sometime. And, do you
know, half of it is nastiness and ought
| to be carted off anyhow? But it will
sell for filing and pay for the hauling.
A wideawake Street Superintendent
| could manage that easy"
But suppose the officials do not view
this matter as hopefully as you do, my
sage philosopher"
'Wen, then, let them try the thing on
the bituminized streets-have 'em
swept two or three times a day by hand,
by gangs of these County Jail convicts.
That will work and will not need that
| S126 investment either. See?"
And the critic fell into brown study,
and would chat no more and the scribe
turned corner for '.the office" think
ing over these questions, the outgrowth
OF the talk of the critic:
Upon what basis of justice rests the
system by which offenders sentenced
to Imprisonment for violation of city
ordinances are transferred to the County
| Jail and there incarcerated at the ex-
pense of the people of the county?''
How large is the number of prison
ers of that order2"
If prisoners convicted in the city
courts We're required to be confined in
City Prisons, would we not as city
require of these convicts labor suffi-
oient to meet the cost of their mainten-
ance?"
AS more than two-thirds, if not
eight-tenths of all the county convicts
are sent up from the city, should not the
city work a fair share of these men on