The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-08-19
MANY WERE SHORT
Expert Patterson and the Tan
gle He Found in Oklahoma
BOOKS WERE ALL TANGLED
And as a Result a Lot of Off,
GERS Owed the County.

Herbert Patterson, expert accountant
who recently examined the records OF
thirteen ex-county officers OF the coun-
" Of Garfield. in Oklahoma, tells strik-
ting story Of what he found.
What he found was that q majority Of
thirteen county officers, whose tenure Of
once covered the entire period from the
date Of the opening OF the Strip, septem-
Der II, 1883. to last January, owed the
county money in amounts ranging in
amounts from $40 to 5000.
Mr. Patterson says that the county VIII
suffer small loss, as the amounts are be-
ing made good. But his tale Of what he
got onto innocently is an interesting one.
He says: 81 wouldn't take the job
again. They couldn't hand it to me on a
gold platter. / didn't know what 1 was
getting into, and once into it 1 never
knew whether 1 would see daylight or
not. Things were in such tangle and
st was so hard to get everything to dove
tail that figures foated before my eyes
at night and my dreams were haunted
with the Arabic notation. found import
ant vouchers on common letter-heads,
separated from similar vouchers, pigeon
holed away without system Of fore
thought, and the getting Of them to-
gether was an arduous task, the hardest
work in accounting / ever undertook or
ever expect to. In my searches for lost
records and missing links 1 became as
jealous as an Arctic explorer, and when
/ found document that 1 needed 1 ap-
preciated 1t as though 1t were a vein Of
Klondike gold"
It seems that incident to the rush and
tangle and confusion OF the opening OF
the Strip and organization of the coun-
ties the records were not started on with
system and care, and as county officers
have tendency to follow the methods Of
their predecessors the negligences and
errors which made one county officer
short put his successor in the same boat
There are no evidences of dishonesty,
except In one case. AS soon as one offlc-
er's record was completed Mr.. Patterson
would ask the ex-county officer to call
and would before the commissioners ex-
plain to him that he was so many dollars
short in his account. In all except some
cases where there is a controversy about
the construction Of the law in regard to
the disposition of revenues, all the ex-
county officers accosted expressed their
willingness to make good the shortage,
and some have done so by check.
While these settlements were going on,
Enid. the county seat, was alive with in
terest. Mr.. Patterson's custom Is never
to divulge anything to the general pub
lie until his investigation Is complete
However, after he had told the individual
ex-oficer the amount of his shortage the
man would tell his friends and the
friends would spread the report, so that
the shortages were no secret in Enid.
Last evening Mr.. Patterson was asked
by a reporter for the Eagle how much
the county would get back on account Of
the investigation, and he said he thought
about $4,000. He says that his report is
completed and that II is the most volum-
inous he ever prepared.
'Foley's Kidney Cure has been tested
and found to be all you claim for It. I
have been giving it to my father and 1t
IS the only thing that ever helped him.
writes Geo. c. Hickock Curtiss, Wis.
Hooking Drug Co., C. Gehring and Wells
Miller. druggists.