The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-15
CABBAGE TROCHA GROWS
ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO REACH
COURTHOUSE ON MARKET DAYS.
Sale of Dispcnsnry Necessary to Bet
ter COnditiOns--NO Further Eff
forts Made, However.

The Board of Public Works has not adj
vertised another attempt to sell the old
City Dispensary property. This property
sold several weeks ago, but an error in
the measurement was found. and the sale
was declared void The board again made
attempt to sell the property but no bid
ders appeared. Since that time the board
has not arisen from its torpid condition to
try again to dispose of the property
The crying need of an addition to the
markethouse to which end the money from
the sale of the old City Dispensary proper
~ must be applied because of a provision
of the Tomlinson will. which gave the prop
erty to the city, remains. and grows strong
er every day. Visitors to the city during
the Knights of Pythias encampment and
the other national conventions that have
been held in Indianapolis lately have ex-
pressed wonder that the vendors of vege-
tables should be permitted to ply their trade
around the courthouse. Some have ridiculed
it, saying that this feature of Indianapolis
proves it is but an over-grown country
town. The several hundred people who
have business at the courthouse every day
must find their way to the doors through
masses of buyers and lines of stands piled
high with vegetables. The vendors leave no
from the street and they must squeeze be-
tween baskets and barrels to get to the
doors of the courthouse. Women who have
occasion to enter the county building and
the city offices must crowd between horses
and wagons and step over the filthy gutter.
AS the market day wears on, the vendors
throw spoiled vegetables into the gutter,
and the smell becomes vile. The asphalt
navement and the cement sidewalk are
stained with refuse.
The people who bring garden products to
the city say that if the ground east of the
meat market were arranged so they might
drive their wagons on to it there would be
no necessity of standing around the court
house. The plans made by the city engineer
provide for paving this ground, so that It
may be used by the market merchants.
They also provide for roofing over the space
between the two market buildings so that
it may be used for the same purpose. This
cannot be done until the old City Dispen-
sary property is sold.
At present the sidewalk around the court
house is marked into numbered sections,
and the vendors must pay fees for the use
Of the space. The city administration needs
every cent it can collect from any source.
The tax levy has been raised TO cents, but
still there will not be enough money to make
the nee essary extensions CT the fire and
police departments. Therefore Market Mas
ter Goebel is praised by other city ofilcials
for the amount of fees he collects for rent
OF the sidewalks. He complained when the
grandstand was built on the south sidewalk
of the courthouse, during the knights or
Pythias encampment. because, he said, IL
curtailed the space needed by the market
people" Because of the income derived
from this practice the city officials are not
in hurry to make change, though those
concerned in the regulation of the market
do not hesitate to say that the present ar
rangement of using the sidewalks around
the courthouse for a market IS deploraple
and a ridiculous thing. one official SAID,
iokingly, THE people needn't be surprised
if the market is extended into the city ON,
ces. This administration needs the money