The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-04
QUEER LONDON CITY CHARGES,

Extravagances and Parsimonies of the
Civic Fathers
Once a year the, city chamberlain is
sues a ponderous bluebook of figures
relating to city finance. 1t Is about as
uninteresting in appearance as it cam
well be, being merely succession of
accounts. Nevertheless, the writer's on
financial subjects invariably rise to the
bait as one man, and swallow the dry
production with avidity The bluebook
is supposed to afford food for nlirth and
witticism, but anybody who suggested
| it outside journalistic circles would be
voted a lunatic There is something
saddening about the three hundred and
thirty-four folio pages, for they repre-
sent an outlay of about five hundred
thousand pounds, enough to make your
pious radical, if he is still in existence,
green with envy and all uncharitable-
ness. It seems that the worthy alder
men who pose so prettily in purple silk
robes and train reception robes and
hoods do not pay for them. That is
well for domestic felicity, If the femi-
nine members Of the family happen to
be of frugal turn of mind, for papa
parading in a gown which cost one
hundred and twenty-seven pounds and
ten shillings, as one of them did, is
shocking waste when feminine beauty
and slimness could have carried it off
so much better We also object strenu-
ously to the corporate having to pay
fifteen pounds and three shillings for
pin money" to the swordbearer. Here
again is a deliberate invasion of the
rights of the fair sex, and If there is a
woman of mind in the whole of the do
mestic circles of the members of the
corporation she will see that a portion
of that mind is expressed when her
lord returns home. We believe it is a
fact that the ladies' of the various min
listers households seize upon the e1S2
u.s. Cd. worth of fine cloth which is de-
livered annually as a bride to the gov
eminent officials to keep them in good
temper, and has been so delivered for
time in which the memory of man
runneth not to the contrary. But that
is a poor thing compared with these
purple silk robes and "pin money"
But the civic fathers can be parsimo-
NOUS in some respects. There is less
than ten pounds charged for disinfec-
tants, for instance. This is totally in
adequate, as the Lord Mayor would
find If he would go into company pro-
noting circles and note the need for
publication. Then there is only e1 6s
Sd. charged for the livery of the record |
er's clerk. This is stingy No reSpec- |
table person can dress on G1 6s. Sd. per !
annum, and we shudder to think of the !
rags and tatters that must get upon |
spectacle church wardens of London |
parishes TO pull dead bodies out of the |
Thames for one pound and ten shillings |
per annum is little short Of disgusting. |
Again, there is only one drunkard in
the city of London-so that civic BAN
quets are conducted on different meth
DDS to those in vogue a hundred years
ago, a thing for wives and daughters to
note when the head of the family re-
turns in the small hours Of the morn
ing. But that drunIxard should be re-
garded as relic of the good old days
when people were not so particular, and
surely it is not handsome to pay only
four pounds and seventeen shillings for
HIS maintenance lbI a. Wuule y cat we
put it to the corporation, with all re-
spect, would they Ike 1t If, by an UNI
fortunate combination of oircumstan-
2es, any of them found themselves in
ais place? Again, it was surely a little
hard that Mr.. E. N. Buxton should
nave to put up with a beggarly illumi-
rated address costing only five pounds
and five shillingS when Mr. Henniker
Ieaton had one that cost fifty-two
pounds and ten shillings. II the latter
we're intended as recompense for the
,bsence of a baronetcy, which q cruel
governments continues to withhold, why
loes not the corporation say so, and
hus spare poor Mr.. Buxton's feelings? !
No, the civic accounts certainly give 8
ground for much dissatisfaction. Not
he least is the manner in which they 5
re set out. IF only William James
Richard Cotton, Knight, Chamberlain
( the City Of London" as she Is
tyled, would collect all his interesting
Joints on a separate sheet, and send
hem round to the newspapers, many a
ard working journalist would be '
aved the awful toll of wading through c
hose three hundred and thirty-four
o1io pages.-Pall Mall Gazette.