The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-12-06
PEOPLE GUESSING.
Rumors Of Grand Jury In
dictments Flying About
the Court House.
THREE VISITS TO JAIL
Soup, Bread and Coffee Ex-
amined Warden Ryan's
Suggestion.

Rumors of Grand Jury indictments still
fill the air and if all the indictments that
are said to have been found have been
found, the criminal branch Of the courts
will be kept busy for about year try
ing the cases. The latest rumors are
that Hoboken officials have been indicted,
but they cannot be traced to any reliable
source.
1t is true that quite number of in
dictments have been officially decided up
on and the Prosecutor office will be busy
until Monday preparing them for Fore
man Lawrence's signature. What they
are will not be known until Monday,
when the Grand Jury comes into court.
hands them up and asked to be dis
charged. 1t is possible that some Of the
indictments may be reconsidered and pre-
sentiments made instead, but this, like
everything else the Grand Jury is said
to have done, is purely problematical.
This Grand Jury has had a sensational
career and has certainly kept people
guessing. When 1t started in business a
number of people, who had axes to grind,
tried to get the Grand Jury to turn the
grindstone, and it cannot be denied that
they succeeded to some extent. As an
example of this, the investigation of the
spring election in Hoboken may be cited.
Charges of fraud filed the air and were
even published in irresponsible newspa-
pers. The Grand Jury sent for the ballot
boxes and started to make a recount,
but they soon tired of it and abandoned
the job.
The Grand Jury were also persuaded to
investigate various alleged acts of official
corruption in Hoboken, the yHackensack
water contract, the asphalt paving job,
the Rutherford trolley road franchise, the
electric light contract and the shore road
franchise. 1t is said that presentments
may be made in some Of these cases, but
no indictments have been found.
The Grand Jury, or section of it, has
visited the County Jail three times since
Sheriff Ruempler took charge of it. When
Sheriff Mclean was in charge half, a
dozen of them went over to the jail one
day just before the close of his term and
looked around little bit.
The last visit was made on Monday af-
ternoon, when fourteen of them marched
in unannounced. They examined the
soup and the bread and the coffee and
made thorough inspection of the in
stitution- One of the party dipped the
ladle down into the soup and said that
1t seemed to be of very good quality. The
bread and the coffee were pronounced ex-
cellent.
A juror expressed the opinion that the
prisoners ought to get more than two
meals day. Another remarked that he
wouldn't care to have the contract to
provide them with more than two meals
a day at the price paid to Sheriff Ruemp-
Ter, twenty-five cents day for each
prisoner, and furnish his own help.
The Jail was found perfectly clean and
well managed. The only fault found was
with Ward s. which some of the visitors
thought was overcrowded. This is the
place where the buns and thirty-day
prisoners are kept. Warden Sullivan sus-
gested that if the jail was larger there
would be more room.
The Grand Jury are in session this af-
ternoon, but are merely holding con-
sultation and finishing up their work.