The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-30

carefully and knew they were all correct.
At the end of these statements of pro-
posals appeared a summary of all of them.
There were los abstracts in all. showing
Az bids. The prices bid for brush mat
tresses varied from Sc to SO cents per
square yard. The prices bid for the diff
ferent classes of stone varied in the same
manner, the bids on small or rip-rap stone
for instance. being from S9.67 down to s.
per ton, depending on localities, and the
facilities for getting the materials. An
other table showed all of the lowest or
accepted bids on the los contracts at TWEEN
ty-one places along the Atlantic and Gulf
coasts. between 1880 and 1897 The aver
age of the lowest bids on mattresses for
the seventeen years at all places was
SlOl per square yard. The tables were
put up in all sorts of shapes for the
purposes of comparison A long table,
showing the list of advertisements a
twenty-one places which were published
less than thirty days conclude the list.
On the cross-examination Maj Blandford
said he did not find any specifications
calling for one price on the three classes
of mattresses except in Capt. Carter's re-
ports. In times of financial panic Mai.
Blandford said he might recommend the
rejection of all bids if they were unLsu-
ally high, unless there was some exigeucy
requiring the work to be done. He con-
sidered that lath yarn was tarred rope.
Col. Barr examined him to some extent
on the details of the pamphlet which Mr..
Blair had offered in evidence.
Maj. Blandford considered that lath yarn
was tarred rope, and fulfilled the require
ments of the specifications on that point.
He had tested 1t and found its tensile
strength to be 1851 pounds. A piece of
the lath yarn, such as is used to tie fas-
cines, was introduced in evidence by Mr..
al Mr. aFr~ nF@ s,,fvs tn, 4
dence pieces of good grocers' twine." and
other strings.
Mr. George W. Brown, civil engineer,
was next sworn. He merely testified to
several tables in the compilation which
were made by himself.
Mr.. II. C. Ripley. civil engineer, of
Galveston, Tex, graduate of the Univer-
sity of Michigan, first Identified and GER
tilted to the correctness of some of the
tables which he and Maj. Blandford had
worked up. The compilation from the re-
ports of the chief of engineers was intro
duced in evidence by Mr.. Blair Ii consists
of sixty closely printed pages.
MIR. Ripley said he had been practicing
his profession since 1870. He had done
principally river and harbor work, first
in Michigan and afterwards in Texas and
Mexico. He had served under several
officers of the engineer corps. among them
Col s. NJ. Mansfield. a member of the
court.
lie denounced Inspector Hale's estimate
of $4,000 square yards of brush on Hilton
Head Island beach, said to have been
washed from the Tybee breakwater, as
absurdly eXtravagant. He had examined
the beach and considered an estimate of
seventy square yards extremely liberal
Mr.. Ripley gave some testimony on mat
tress construction. He had examined the
specifications for work in the Savannah
district, and considered 1t entirely In the
discretion of the officer in charge 10 use
the multiple mat Well trimmed did not
mean the removal of all leaves and twlgs,
he said.
The remainder of Mr. Ripley's testimony
dealt with the construction of mattresses
and jetty work GENERALLY and was largely
upon technical engineering points. The
court adjourned at 2:S0 o'clock until 10 80
O'Clock this morning.