Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-04-12

sherif-Lnw Bearing Upon the Subject
Must New Casrle county pay Mayor q
Evan G. Boyd of New Castle toWn
aometbing like 80, 400 for commitments
and what.not in the - months ended .
March 3lst
That is the question which agitsted
the Levy Court at its secret session on
Tuesday week.
It's better to be mayor OF New Castle
than to he mayor OF Wilmington.
1'bnt IS the observation that has been
made in coft1ection with the knowledge
that the iitst.named official has received
laroer sums from the county treasury
than the salary of Wilmington's CHER
executive
Does the law permit the mayor OF
New Castle to receive such SUMS
That is problem to be treatsd IN
the p, esent inquiry.
4 The tiazt tie presents below some
Of the law which seems to apply, having
selected it from the Revised Code. Ii
is conceivable that Mayor Boyd has
found some law on the subject that has
been overlooked, in which event, Inc
Gazette is open to suggestion concern
ing it.
The points which have been touched
ulon in the foregoing remarks have to
do with what is apparently one of the
baldest evils which have caused the
payment of money from the county
treasury without the county having
received anything like an equivalent
for the money expended.
According to the report OF the county
auditors for the year ended January
Sd, 1899, Evan G. Boyd received the
following warrants, under the heading
OF nagistrates' and constables' fees:
No. 15, 2l5 ..................S 4o4io
No. l6.7O2 ......'........ ..'.'... i'5oSg ~
No. 1851 ..........-............ ioo'oo
The total of 50, 055. 20 is more than
one-fifth of the total allowance recorded
under that heading. For the year
= ended last January, the exact figures
allowed Mr.. Boyd are not at hand, but
the re placed at about 81, 200.
n the past year, the Levy Court
has ..oid up several OF his bills so tina
the amount that he now wants is il
the neighborhood, it is said, of 81, 400
y Al the secret conference of the Lev.
Court on Tuesday week, Mayor Boyd wa
heard. The attorney of the court, Johl
H. Rodney, was also present. 1t wa
recognized that there may be yariou
Interpretations of the law on the sub
iect, but the court still holds the bill
up and is not likely to grant all tn
amount desired by the mayor OF Me-
n Castle.
1t would seem that the principt
source of the mayors bill is on accour
of persons who apply at the county ia
for lodging. Such persons, on ente
ing the jail, give their names to tt
warden, who next day hands the list
Mayor Boyd. That official is said
make out commitments from the nam
thus furnished him, and he charges ii
county about 40 cents for each cas-
That does not end the matter for q
county, for the sheriff gets paid for Il
and for the board Of each prisoner
Il day, 20 cents, a grand total OF
cents per prisoner.
OF the dodgers, white men of respe'
able appearance are allowed to 60
+ the upper corridor OF the Jail If TIT
is room; hard looking characters |
locked in cell No. 10 or sent to
..bum'' cell. A ledger may enter
N Jail at midnight and be released sor
times before O'Clock.
Just where Mayor Boyd and
sheriff find their authority for
charges against the county on the s.
ject mentioned IS a question Of sc
moment and light may be thrown u
the matter by presentation of som'
4 the law found in the Revised Code.
A vAGkANoY ACT.
Chapter 90, Vol. XII, Laws of ID
ware, is an act for the Suppression
yagrancy and provides that all 6egl
and vagabonds who roam about +
place to place, without any lawful
ness or occupation, sleeping in
houses, &C., and not giving
account of themselves, and also all
sons roaming about the country, {
monty known as Pypsies, shall be dee
Migrants and liable to the penalti
~ the act.
st shall and may be lawful"
the second section, for any iusti
the peace of the county where
vagrants shall be found, on comp
made, to cause the arrest of any pr
charged on oath or affirmation
being vagrant, and upon such p'
/, being brought before him, to heal
determine the case, and it shall h
duty of the justice to commit
person proved by his own confessie
n by the testimony of one or more ere
witnesses, to be yagrant, to the
H house or Jail of the said county, tn,
be kept at labor by the keeper or
W seer OF such workhouse or Jail fo
time not exceeding sixty days"
a The third section provides
appeal to the General Sessions {
The fourth section provides thi
keeper or overseer of workhouse O
shall receive all Migrants sent thu
lawful authority and keep them, {
the time for which they are sent
III employed in such labor as they 81
able to perform: and for refractol
III stubborness or refusal to do tbeii
properly, may put them in close
finement until they are submissi1
Section. o gives the mayor and
man Of Wilmington the same aut
over Migrants as the justices
peace have, aud section 6 say
every person convicted under ii
shall be deemed guilty Of
meanur land shall upon con
thereof by Indictment
3E sentenced to labor in the jail OF
MI house u Il for period I
ceeding go days.
HI A question suggested here is v
Mayor Boyd can act as a justice
peace, and further whether hi
mitment of person for vagral
sufficient ground when the comm
is made out after and not i
s'lodpern is admitted to the jail
for instance, makes the rompla
oath or Affirmation, under wh
vagrant is arrested2 1t looks
case OF the cart before the horse
lol.- t.