The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-17


| Spencer of Johnson that The voucher
couId have been folded inside ef anotne ae
replied Mr.. Johnson. Il am taking every
one out and unfolding. II to see If the one
We want is folded inside.
While the search was going on Mr.. John
son seemed to be deeply Interested in the
movements of the clerks, glancing about
him. Mr.. Johnson seemed to wish that he
were not there.
toward the west end of the building wish
you would stop in and tell Billy / will be
down that way pretty soon.
Il am not going home yet, answered Mr..
Zimmerman, significantly. Mr.. johnson
glanced al him narrowly but could not de-
tect from Mr.. Zimmermans deineanor that
he suspected anything, although ne was not
asleep. Meantime the other clerks were
passing back and forth from enc office TO
another. Mr.. Shepard was called 10 me me
outer door of the next room TO converse
with the Journal reporter on the outside
and informed him:
"Dore' Johnson is in there now"
THEN SPENCER FOUND" 1T.
The apparent indifference Of the clerks
and the fact that they were evidently un-
suspicious, made Mr. Spencer holder than
he otherwise might have been, and, per-
haps, little more careless. AL at once he
called out:
Here it is!'
Where did you find it?'' cried Mr.. john
son, dropping the case he had been holding
and hurrying to Spencer's side before the
nearest clerk to him could reach him.
Folded right inside this BILL said Mr.
Spencer, taking out a voucher with a bill
of Tanner & Sullivan, hardware dealers,
for an 'eight-gallon water cooler. $f2o at
tached
Now, here is this voucher" said Mr..
Johnson, handing it to Mr. Shepard Il
want you to take it. And l want you 10
With that he and Spencer left hurriedly.
In the corridor they seemed to be congratu-
lating one another. They had no reason 10
ten miles of them.
After they were gone Mr.. Shepard and the
other clerks examined the voucher very
carefully. They made some discoveries that
were not at all surprising to them. but that
simply furnished additional Proofs OF IN, me
scheme that had just been carried out; Inc
voucher in question was on the printed
form that was. then in USE made OF cap
paper about eight by seven inches rI Ii cd
form. 1t is the practice to fold these vouch-
ers in the middle, making one crease the
long way of the paper. On the printed
form on the outside there are blanks to be
filed in, showing to whom the amount tie
voucher calls for is payable. wren i was
allowed by the commissioners, etc. On ex-
animation of the voucher that had just been
returned the clerks found that there was
the usual long crease In the paper, when,
been folded long ago, Then there were
two creases across. They were lose and
elastic. and when laid out on the table the
ends of the paper were inclined to open up,
showing that the cross folds had been MADE
very recently. When folded across INTO
three parts the paper was ABOUT three
inches sauare--just about the right size 10
slip into a vest pocket or up coat sleeve.
In all probability the voucher was, in the
vest pocket Mr. Spencer stooS :, CLOSE n,sbe 10
than the ordinary dining table and comes
about to q mans waist. A'vest pocket
of the counter To slip the folded voucher
out suddenly, or remove 1t surreptitiously,
mix it in with other papers and then sud
denly produce II wonla nave 9e than ea ny
nimble Mr. Spencer. might have undertaken
to do the trick relying on chance and the
lack Of th 81
The fact that the paper had been newly
folded twice across the short. way indicated
more clearly than ANYTHING else thas y nav
been indeed found folded UP within the
Tanner & Sullivan bill. the cross folds would
have been fiattened out. Anyone knows
that a paper cannot remain filed away in
a tightly packed case for years and then
come out as though it had been folded a
half hour before. 1t is just as probab pie tnat
that voucher came out Of Foxy Quillers
hat as that 1t came out of that hle Inc
paper bears on it's face the evidence that
some safe place-probably with all the
others that are missing-folded out smooth
and even as when it was taken from the
files before the Taggart-Johnson regime re-
tired in 1885, IT could not be returned IN
that shape. IT would have to be folded into
a more compact shape, as 1t was. Mr.. Snep-
ard will take great care to preserve tnat
voucher
VOUCHERS HIDDEN IN '95
In all probability the voucher in question
and all the others that are absent from the
files were taken out of the Office in the
fall of 1896. AT that time Thomas Taggart,
then still auditor, was running for mayor.
A. determined effort to head off all inves-
tigaton as to how affairs had been con-
Quoted during the eight years he was aud
itor was made. Repeatedly reporters were
denied access to the books. An editorial
writer of this paper, when he asked to see
certain records, was informed:
They are in use. You cannot see them
now. They will be in use for some time.
Reporters of the paper were received with
insolence when they made inquiries for
documents of any sort touching on allow
anceS w. A. Hughes was always sarcastic
in replying to inquiries for information.
IF you want those bills you are looking
for he was accustomed to say, go
through those files. Everything you want is
there. You have more time than l have"
After Taggart was elected mayor he re-
signed as auditor about month before his
term expired in 1855. After his successors
came into the Office, Mr.. Hughes turned
over a lot of keys to cupboards under one
of the counters. 1t was the custom to keep
the books and records in the cupboards.
What do you keep those locked for?"
he was asked.
20 we don't generally keep them locked.
We had locks put on them a while back
to keep those Journal reporters from find
ing out anything. When i was here and
they wanted anything / used to say: 'Dore
has the keys When | was gone 'Dore
used to say, Hughes has the keys
Mr. Hughes laughed in telling this. He
seemed to think it a good joke.
The keys were new. They had been used
but little. They have never been in use
since. They are laid away i'm Mr.. Shepard's
desk. The cupboards are all unlocked. There
has been no occasion under the present adj
ministraton to conceal things from report
had occasion to make Investigations or look
up the records In Auditor Smiths office will
say that he has been. received with uniform
courtesy, the clerks doing everything pos
sfbe 10 assist them, laying aside their work
repeatedly to explain things that laymen
knew nothing about. But the situation was
different in 1885, 1t is probable that those
feared that reporters would go to the bill
files. when they found the books always lin
use. TO have shown the enormous allow
ances that had been made to Taggart down
to the time of the October election in 1895,
going back over the eight years of his adj
tant bearing on his chances for election as
mayor E. NJ johnson was interested in see
ing the mayor elected 1t meant that he
would go out from his job as deputy auditor
| into the job of city controller, as it had
been understood for months that In the
| event OF Taggart's election Johnson was to
| be his financial officer With no one being
n u fha nr.r,Na H.. 4