The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-04
COMIC OPERA CORONER
HAS HELPED CONSUME ABOUT $4,000
IN SHELBY COUNTY FUNDS.
Closing Week of the Campaign Shows
Democrats on the Run i'm
Many Counties.
Occasional Correspondence of the Journal.

Occasional Correspondence Of the Journal.
| SHELBYVILLE, Ind, Nov. 3.-The cam
paign in this county is growing more in
teresting in the closing days. In casting
up the probable result the Democratic lead
| ers are not sanguine They feel to-day as
| if they were standing on drifting sand, that
they were being held in a balance by an
outraged populace who are demanding ex-
plantations for impositions of the past for
which no adequate explanation can be
made Ostensibly Thomas Campbell is the
chairman of the Democratic county CEN
trail committee His law partner is A. F.
| Wray, who has the circuit judgship buzz
| ing so loud in his bonnet that it can be
| heard all over the county Wray is assist
] ing Campbell to conduct the local cam
| paign. Judge Buckingham, who at best is
not the shrewdest politician in the State,
| desires to succeed himself, but realizes that
| Wray has the inside track as matters now
| stand. George Ray, who is the editor of
the Democrat through the conditions of
| Scott Rays WILL and who has no more love
| for either of these men than he has for
some other people, is trying to usurp Chair
man Campbells powers and to conduct the
campaign along lines of his own choosing.
| This fact has brought the contest to local
matters. resulting in exposure of condi-
|
payer knew existed. The fact has been
| brought out that the county is in debt $780,
| GOO, a condition that not a single citizen
dreamed of. The debt is covered with two
loans from national bank of $1,000 each,
| the warrants drawing s per cent. interest.
In looking about for a cause for the debt
/ Republicans have learned that a stationery
| contract that was made for 81, 800 has cost
| the county 81, 265.22. One of the county COM
| missioners, Mr.. Jesse Shaw, the board be-
ing solidly Democratic, has made the decla-
ration that the contract for the county sta
| tionery. made last December, made
| on the Sunday before the board met in regu-
| lar session. This statement has been pub
lished time and time again without a denial
/ being made. The fact has also come to
| light that the other two members of the
board purchased an iron safe and sent it
! to the county poor farm, Mr.. Shaw knowing
nothing of this transaction until the bill
| was presented and allowed 1t has also
been learned that the sum of 81 OPS has been
| paid for little steel shelving and steel
roll-top case that have been placed in the
recorders office and the Office of the aud
itor, the work being plain, the book rests
| being tho common kind placed on rollers.
Perhaps the greatest imposition of its
kind that has been forced on the taxpayers
| is the numerous inquests held by the coun~
/ ty coroner. His bills, as footed up, reach
the sum of $1,l7O.60, hardly one Of them hav-
ing been necessary. There has never been
an arrest made or prosecution instituted
on one of the verdicts returned. People
/ who reached the age of eighty-two years
| and died from natural causes have been
made victims of the coroners greed In
| every instance he has charged the county
| - for viewing the remains and then
| WI ed in all 10 Law nf
| his cases is attracting great deal OF at
| tention, 1t being an inquest held on the re-
mains of little I4avanchi Kinds. daughter
| of Mr.. Melvin Kinds, wel-known and in
| fiuental farmer of Hanover township. The
child was playing in the barnyard when
a wagon bed Tell on her, killing ner instant
! ly. Coroner Booher knew nothing of the
accident until the day of the funeral. the
| exercises being conducted in neignborhood
! church. Booher arrived at the church Just
| as the congregation was passing by the
| coffin to take last look at the face of the
| child. He stepped into the line, walked by
| the casket and charged the county So HE
| followed this act up with an inquest, and,
| together with the sheriff, filed bill for 1872
miles travelled. He then charged 81 for his
| wife as clerk, the three witnesses exam
| ined being ready to make affidavit that
| Mrs Booher was not in the room when the
| testimony was given, and the other will
make affidavit she was not in the room
while he was there. The bill made out in
and paid, neither of these witnesses claim
] ing any fee, one of them being the father
I
| the body of the child, but a number of
| neighbors signified their intention to guard
the grave of the child with their shotguns,
and 1t was left undiSturbed This is a sam
pie of the manner in which inqueStS are
conducted in this rock-ribbed Democratic
| county, and the taxpayers are growing tired
! of it.
During the last fiscal year it has cost the
| taxpayers of the county over $1,000 to send
taken taken u pP set on fixed out OUT, with lot of
! clothing at expense of $3.50 each, are
! taken away, many of them being returned
| in short while as cured. Men have been
adjudged insane who were not taken away.
! The sheriff charges $751; for taking a pa
! tient to the asylum, when the law allows
T0 illustrate how the money of the tax
| payers is squandered, a gentleman. he be-
| for clothing for male insane patient to a
clothing store and had him fill it same as
| If the goods were being purchased, the mer-
! a Democrat When the bill was added it
/ footed just 5000, while the county paid an
/ ether firm $3.50. The bill for a female pa
! tient usually amounts to $3.50. The requiSi-
! ton for a female patient was taken to a
| dry goods store. where it was filled for
| $2l.97. The bills paid for by the county al
ways include hat for $4 cloak for IS
| and stockings at so cents pair, other artl-
| cles being charged for In proportion Cot
| ton underskirts that can be purchased for
! % cents each/ are charged up TO the tax
payers of the county at $125 eacn. In one
! instance after the underwear was selected
! at fancy prices whole bolt Of muslin was
| added to the bill. This is the way Shelby
| county pays for clothing for pauper in
! sane. The kind of clothing the paupers re-
! ceive is another question.
| The court pailiff has drawn pay for 400
| days during the year, when court lasts but
| thirty weeks. The grand jury bailif was
| paid for 226 days during the year. when
| the four grand juries of the year were paid
| for only fifty days, the bailiff drawing al
most as much pay as the twenty-four men
| who composed the juries he looked after.
! This manner of conducting affairs is upheld
] Ixv w mn Ia
/ to prevent such extravaganza. The people
| are looking at the questions differently and
| itself next Tuesday the State need not be
! surprised
IN THE NINTH DISTRICT.