The herald., 1897-10-19
HOLLINGSWORTH AGAIN
Appears to Complain of His Treatment
by the Health Office

The reXt item on the program was
protest by con ntractor w. T. Hollings-
worth against the cut in his demands
on his street sweeping con tract by rea
son of the rainy night" episode where
in the contractor ieasisted on sweeping
the flooded streets despite the fact that
he was ordered to Giscor,tin ue by Street
Inspector Drummond, who acted on the
written Instructions of Health officer
Powers. Attorney Dillon, representing
the injured contractor, made a locg
speech on the lack Of business qualifi-
cations of the members of the board of
public works who had cold heartedly,
with deliberate intent to defraud, de-
prived hard-working and much
abused contractor of his hard-earned
filthy lucre."
MY Client" said the energetic at
torney, in cor dsmca tory tones, has
been bullied about in this matter from
pillar to post. With the leave of the
council 1 would like to call Mr.. Hol-
lingsworth in order that he may ex-
plain to the gentlemen the way in which
this attempt has beer made to deprive
him of the money Que him, merely
through personal spite and dislike"
Mr.. Hollic.gsworth then. took the floor
and gave a touching recital of his
wrongs. According to his story. be is
the most Injuries man in fourteen states,
and he didn't care who knew 1t. Infer
ence pointed to the fact that Health
officer Powers and his clerk, NJ. S.
Reed, were savages in humasl clothes.
After some twenty minutes had been
expended in this heart-rending story.
Inspector Drummond was called, and
soon put things in different light. He
stated that on the day in question,
namely, Wednesday, October 18th, he
had seen Hollingsworth and had con-
versation with him, in the course of
which the latter had asked himself if he
should sweep the streets that night, as
the weather certainly looked threaten
ing. Drummond replied that he had re-
ceived no orders to the contrary, and
| that so far as he knew there had been
none issued up 10 that time. AT 8
| o'clock. however, he received a written
order from the health officer telling him
that in view of the heavy rain he had
! better notify the contractor not to go
out or If he had already started his teams
out, to call them in, as any work done
in such weather would be more than use
less. Acting under these instructions
he had telephoned Hollingsworth, who
had deliberately and fatty refused to do
any such thing. claiming that he had
got his men out, and that to stop work
at this time would mean his being at
least thirty-five dollars out Of pocket.
After a heated discussion among the
members of the council, Mr. Nickel
stated that he thought it would be CASE
of the whole council being indicted by
the grand jury to allow the public funds
to be expended in such useless man
ner. President Silver then asked Hol-
lingsworth what was the actual amount
of money he was out of pocket through
the occurrence. The contractor was un-
able to speak definitely on this score, but
claimed that he had put out twenty
teams and eighteen men, the latter re-
ceiving one dollar per day each and their
board Being asked by President Sii
yer if he boarded the men whether they
worked or not, he stated that he al
ways found it paid to treat his men Well
and that If any of them fell sick or was
debarred from working through an ac-
cident Of any kind, he always boarded