Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-05-28
THAT HOSE CONTRACT.
The "lntelligencer's' Falsehood Of
Yesterday.

The "lntelligencer's" Falsehood OF
Yesterday.
Its Representative Was Only at
the Committee Meeting for a
Short Time and Did Not Even
Know the Result of the Meeting
Until Ee Appealed to the Regis.
ter"
Under the caption of absurd
Charges" the peculiar and &C.
centric Intelligencer used half a
column of space yesterday to
write around an article in the Reg
lister of a few days ago, about the recent
hose contract, to what end nobody
knows, except it may have been to put
into type distinct Justification. AS
the representative Of the Jntelligencer
was not at the session of the Fire Com
mittee of Council at which the hose
contract was awarded, except for a
brief period at the outset of said meet
ing, and as the Intelligencer obtained
its information as to the results of said
meeting from the Register, ever the
telephone, long after the meeting was
over, its knowledge Of what transplred
is pretty we'll limited to what people
have told its reporters, and does not
come at first hands.
In the course of the Register article
referring to the hose contract in ques-
ton, this paper distinctly stated that
1t did not believe there was any ground
for the implied charge of c1ookedness,
and the Register does not now believe,
and never did believe, there was any
thing OF the sort The Register does
believe, however, that had eiere been
more time given to the by no means
easy task of selecting proper brand CT
hose, result somewhat better for the
city might have been arrived at. The
Register is free to say this because
its representative was present when
the contract was let, and noted the man
ner of procedure, and the representa-
tive of the Intelligercer was not pres
ent, and absolutely has no knowledge
of what took place. One or two mem
bers of the Committee, among them
Captain William Otto, whose personal
integrity and experience as "a Council
man and as a member of the Fire Com
call into question, would have had
things result a little differently, but
what has been done is done,
and that is the end of it,
practically. How much better or
worse it might have been is matter
about which the Intelligencer knows
nothing except what somebody tells it,
and that it has been told at least some
things which are wholly untrue is evil
denced by the publication of yesterday
morning.
Among ether things the Intelligencer
of yesterday said:
The samples of the man who makes the
unwarranted statements to the Register
were inspected by the committee on Mon
day evening, and it was seen at glance
that they were not brands of hose with
which the committee desires to embarrass
the city by making purchases of. The
samples We're of such obvious inferiority
that the Register reporter who was pres
ent, said:
They'd make good steam pipes or wa
ter spouts, but they couldnt be wound on
reel.
The representative of the Register
said nothing of the sort about any sam
pie of hose of obvious inferiority." A
representative Of the Register did pick
up two samples of hose and remark
that they would make good sewer
pipe or water pipe, or steam pipe" but
were not hose on inferior construc-
ton, but on the contrary, were the
highest-priced nose before the Com
mittee, one being marked as having
been mill tested to 1900 pounds to the
square inch, and the ether 1000 pounds.
The remark in question was made to
Captain Otto, and Captain Otto will re-
member the incident The hose was
very good-also very heavy and stiff.
and that was the reason for the ex
preston Of opinion that they couldn't
be wound on a reel'' with any satisfac-
ton, and the conversation led to state
ment from Chief Klieves that when
such hose was flattened in one direction
it was practically impossible to flatten
it the other way, and as Ysult there
was always a strain upon two sides Of
the hose, where the creases came.
The Intelligencer repeated this false
hood in the course of its article, and
attention is here called to the facts
that the public may be informed that
occasionally the Intelligencer does not
know what it is talking about while
essaying to give its readers what are to
pass for facts.