The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-29


who watched the large and unwieldy gang
at work yesterday must have. been con-
WINGED that half the number engaged IN
killing time could have performed more
work than all OF them together were doing.
The swell bosses think they are the
whole thing the men say, but Jim Nc
Bride does the most knocking. according
to one of the gang He is ubiquitous. He is
the only man that can get any work out of
the boo gang. They tax real mean to
Swell Bosses Hicklin, Murphy and squire
Smith.
Talk about the old men" said one of the
gang they do more work here than them
young feilers. They are afraid Of their jobs.
The young fellers is Independent and talk
sassy. Squire Smith can't do nothin with
thin. Go to work, he told one of them
yesterday Go to HI said the young duck.
Them is all bad young fellers. They are out
Of the shops and they don't care whether
they work or not.
Swell Boss" Hicklin doesn't have any
thing to say He is large man, has huge
paunch, weighs about 800 pounds. wears
pretty good clothes and chews at the end
of toothpick as he stands around with his
hands showed down in his pockets.
The water boys are not boys at all. All
OF them are young men old enough ana
strong enough to carry railroad ties, but
they want q snap" and they have it. Of
course they are all voters Of course they
will all vote for Taggart.
When leaning on their shovels yesterday
afternoon three or four of the gang were
watching the clock with all the ardor OF
Say, stranger" called one to the reporter,
''w'at time tis?" There was a look of dis
gust and yawns when they were informed it
was o'clock. The gang goes to work at 3
each morning, works until noon, has an
hour for dinner, goes to work at O'Clock
and works again until o'clock, when they
all knock off for the day, scramble into the
gravel wagon and drive home, shouting
rbald jokes and yelling for Tom Taggart.
DRAGGING THE WORK OUT.
BY actual timing yesterday afternoon it
took a wagon that found its place in the
long procession half an hour to run the
gauntlet of shovelers. Many times after the
wagons started up the shovelers playfully
threw shovels of earth after them. This was
work wasted, of course, as the dirt fell back
on the ground. Nearly a hundred men stood
along the bank shoveling dirt into the
wagon relay Half that number could have
performed the work more expeditiously.
There was a pretty broad hint from one Of
the swell bosses" as to why SO much time
is killed. If the work was pushed it ought
to be completed in two or three days. The
election is two weeks off. when we were
working on a long stretch he said, I'VE
could keep plenty of men at york. Now
they are in the way OF each other" over
two hundred men were at work in less than
a square.
An old man sat on a wagon keeping tab
hauled. He talked freely, not knowing he
was talking to a reporter.
They have hauled nearly thousand
loads to-day, he said. This is because the
the wagons have to wait, SAID he, pointing
across the bank, where several drivers were
waiting to get place in the procession.
OF the 20S shovelerS down in the bed of the
run yesterday but three were colored, and
but one of the thirty-seven drivers was col
ored. Colored men who have heard so much
l0~sra
have but to apply to Street Commissioner
Herpick for a job to learn how shallow are
such pretensions.
They have quite machine for employing
only the right men on this work. All APP
plicants have to get tickets from the fore
man of repairs office in the courthouse base
mont Only men known to be Democrats or
prospective Taggart voters are given the
necessary tickets. These are taken to the
puts these men to work The force is
changed every Thursday Last week the
men averaged four and half days. for
which they received $780, That is, unless
they transferred their claims to some of the
men that make practice of discounting
work claims The week of Sept. II one dis
against the city. The laborerS had been
accommodated with advance on their pay
at a discount of about 10 per cent, in some
cases more and in others less, according
to the necessities of the victims. BY shift
ing the gangs the middle of each week 1t Is
possible to give a very large force OF men
work at least 400 on the Pogue's run re-
pairs and an equal number on the street
repairs.
who cares to follow the course of Pogues
run from Washington street to the Arsenal
will be convinced OF the sheer waste OF
money that is going on. Below Washington
street the run is perhaps forty feet wide
as far south as the Union Station, where it
is INSTRUCTED and narrowed down to one
third that width by a series of stone arches.
North of Washington street the obstruc-
tons are equally as serious. At the WASH
ff,rr lie
point in the run, Spanned by an iron bridge.
Within less than a stones throw north of
this bridge the run IS not more tnan 6 haiI
the run has an eastwardly and northwardly
course through a channel that is almost s.
shaped Above Ohio street the run widens
out again until it is almost as wide as south
of Washington street In past seasons,
when there was high water. residents of
that part of the city say that the water be-
gan backing UP from the narrow ''S-Shap-
ed'' channel between Ohio and Washington
street, and they claim that no amount of
widening and deepening" that IS done from
Ohio street toward the source Of the creek
run can do any good until the creek is
strengthened. widened and deepened' be-
tween Ohio and Washington streets. When
there was talk about strengthening the
channel up near the Arsenal grounds. 1t
friction and that the water would flow away
more rapidly through straight channel.
The 81 bend between Ohio and Washing
ton streets is far worse than the other, be-
side which the channel is nearly third
narrower. Those Who take time to examine
just what is being done, who are not de-
ceived by appearances and who look below
the surface, declare that when the first
flood comes it will develop that the work
now being done has only increased the evil.
They say that the channel which has been
widened and deepened will simply serve as
an immense pocket for the floods. which
cannot get away toward the mouth any
more rapidly than formerly The cond ito S
of the run between Ohio and Washington
streets are equally as bad as those existing
where it passes through the arches under
the Union depot, the frog works and on
down toward the river.
out toward the Arsenal the banks have
been cut down in many places but no sort
of masonry has been put in and there is a
growing belief that when the first high wa
ter comes the banks will cave in and that
in a short time the channel Will be as badly
choked as ever. If it is The intention to
spend 5000 year to clean the channel
out after every great freshet people say
some good may be done but this is doubted
All through the Eighth ward people are in
sisting that Fogue's run will never be con-
troled until the banks are walled up with
solid masonry and until the narrow bend
at Ohio street is Strengthened and widened
and the outlet is increased in capacity.
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