The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-01-23
HIS BOOKS ARE TANGLED
HE HAS HAD AN EXPERT AT
WORK ON THEM.
THINKS THEY CANNOT BE STRENGTHENED
Another Word Touching the Sweet Scented
Bursar of the A. and NJ. College and
His Mudded Accounts Ills
Court Record.
Court Record.
The expected has happened.

The expected has happened.
County Treasurer Knight has got his
books in a muddle.
He has had AN expert accountant help
ing him try to get them straight, but as
yet it has not been done, and what is
more. the accountant expresses the opin
ion that he will never be able to do so.
All of which causes no surprise on the
part of these who know the facts. Mr.
Knight is Il good farmer, no doubt, and
also a man of high character; bul
as an official he is one of the most colos-
sal failures Wake county has known in :
long time.
A man of no education or experience
he has been trying, unaided, to keep th,
finances of the county straight. How
little confidence he had in himself and
others had in him is shown by the fac
that when first elected he farmed ont
the office to Il Durham county man Oh
condition that he so on his knights
bond and furnish a book-keeper to run
the office.
Under this arrangement which, wa,
bad enough to be sure, the hooks wer,
kept with reasonable accuracy, and il
was possible to tell how the finances OF
the county stood. During the two year,
that this book keeper was here Knight
was learning how Ito run the office.
When reelected last year lie considere,
himself sufficiently yersed in book keep
ing to dispense with the services of
clerk and run the thing himself.
49,, L. l,xN1 aa. Ystrt.4 4,
such a tangle that it will not be easily
Strengthened out.
No doubt L. G.. Butler, the bursa
of the A. and NJ. College. will read tRir
with pleasure, for bad book. keepers, lik,
misery, love company
And just here Pm reminded that SOM
people have recently been awful afrai'
that the News and Observer would d.
Prof" Buffers reputation great in
jury by publishing the fact that hi
books are III a tangle.
Good Heaven, spare the mark! In
jure Buffers reputation! Why bles
your soul. honey. that would be- hard t
do Then the News and Observer simpl
published the facts given it by Rev. Dl
Il. +. Dixon, a member of the COMMITTEE
appointed to examine Buffers books.
the truth hurts it's not the News and Oh
servers fault. DIR. Dixon said Butler
books were tangled and there was a dis
crepancy of some $500 or 5000.
Neither Butler nor any of his friend
have ever denied it, either-tbat tn
books were in tangle. They hav
simply contentcd themselves bv sayin
that the discrepancy was not $500, BIZ
only &c. Any way it was enough for tn
committee to give up the task of tryin,
10 audit the books and give Butler thirt.
days to get them balanced, aided b,
Prof H. III. Hill, the former bursar o
the College. and Mr. Jack Harden. tn,
hook-keeper in the Raleigh Nationa
Bank.
Why all this, if there was nothing tn
matter? Why has that committee no
yet come back to examine and audit thost
books? They were to return as soon al
the hooks were alright. Are they straigb
now?
BY way of consolation to those VIII,
have been weeping crocodile tears owe
the irreparable damage" to prof" Bui
ler's reputation. let me say that th'
worst that can be said about Butler i
the truth. Let those who doubt it reat
the following: