New-York tribune., 1900-12-02
QUEER LONDON CITY CHARGES.
ExTRAvAGANCEs AND PARsIMONIEs OF THE
CIVIC FATHERS.
From The Pail Mall Gazette.

From The Pail Mall Gazette.
Once a year the City Chamberlain issues a
pOnderOus bluebOok of figures relating to city
finance. 1t is about as uninteresting in appear
ance as it can 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
ividIty. The bluebOOk is supposed 10 ahord
food for mirth and witticiSm, but anybody who
suggested it outside journalistic circles would
be voted a lunatic. There is something sadden-
ing about the ;:4 folio pages for they represent
an outlay OF about t5OOOUO enough to make
your pious Radical if he is still in existence,
green with envy and all uncharitableness. 1t
seems that the worthy Aldermen 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 FEMININE menu
hers of the family happen to be of frugal turn
of mind for papa DaradinS in a gown which
cost f127 los as one of them did. is shocking
waste when feminine beauty and slimneSs could
have carried it off SO much better. We also OBJ
ject strenuously TO the Corporation having to
pay f15 IS. 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 domestic circles of the men,
bers of the Corporation she Will see that a pOr-
tiOn of that mind is expressed when her lord
returns home. We believe it is a fact that the
ladies' of the various Ministers households seize
upon the f132 5s. Sd. worth of fine cloth which
is delivered annually as a bribe to the Govern
ment officials to keep them in good temper, and
has been delivered for time the which the
memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
But that is poor thing compared with these
purple silk robes and pin money.
But the civic fathers be parSimOniOus in
some respects There is less than f1O charged
for disinfectants. for instance. This is totally
inadequate, the Lord Mayor would find if he
would go into company promoting circles and
note the need for publication. Then there is
only fl 6s. Sd. charged for the nvery of the
Recorders clerk This is stingy No respecta-
BILE person can dress on fl 6s. Sd per annUEn,
and shudder to think of the rags and tatters
that must get upon Mr. Recorders nerves. To
expect respectable church wardens of London
parishes to pull dead bodies out of the Thames
for FL los per annum is little short of disgust
ing Again, there is only drunkard in the
city of LOndOn-SO that civic banquets con-
Quoted on different methods to those in vogue
hundred years ago. 4 thing for wives and daugh-
ters to note when the head of the family returns
home in the small hours of the morning. But
that drunkard should be regarded as a relic of
the good old days when people were not so
particular. and surely it is not handsome to pay
only "a 11s. for his maintenance for whole
year We put il to the Corporation, with all
respect, would they like 1T if. by unfortunate
combination of circumstances, any Of them
found themselves in his place? Again, It was
surely a little hard that Mr.. F. N. Buxton
should have to put up with beggarIy illuminate
ed address costing only f5 5s.. when Mr.. Hem
mixer Heaton had one that cost f52 los II ths
latter were intended recompense for the