Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-01-26
We Are Safe

Saved by the grace of the county
commissioners, including THE Man
From Indiana"
A few weeks ago one of our enter
prising, up-to-date business firms dis
carded their old safe (9) and bought a
good, new one of the latest improved
pattern. The commissioners heard of
the relic and promptly took IL in for
only about half the list price of good
new one, paving $500 for it and $50 for
moving the same, which is a mere tri-
file for a rich and populous county like
Trego- What they bought it for no.
body seems to know. One conSerya-
tive democratic citizen thought when
our bonds were all paid off we might
need SAFE place to put our surplus
t?) cash. When reminded that clerk
hire and official salaries were going
up faster than the bonds were coming
down he admitted the dubiOusneSS of
the surplus contingency, still he
thought the safe might be used to
store away the file of the official coun-
ty paper. Notwithstanding the old
safe would afford inadeqdate protec-
ton to such precious contents, wholly
incommensurate with their value,
yet, SO far, no county officer has sug-
gested better use for it or offered
more valid excuse for buying it. How
ever you don't buy 1900 pounds of junk
for $3.50 every day in the week. No!
not by jugfui (of Hayner)
Well the unsafe was bought, paid
for and moved and the action is back
ed up or supported by Uncle Sam.
That is to say the u S. land Office is
now under it. 1t could not be put in
to the county treasurer's vault be-
cause there is one similar old safe al
ready in there so it was dragged in
upon the pine floor of his office. The
floor .'literallv groaned under the
weight of the good thing upon it' and
began to settle at the rate of one inch
per groan. Then the County Carpen-
ter was called in for consultation. He
land office and made an excavation
In this he buried the Rock of Reform.
Upon the rock he planted an orna-
mental column, pillar or post near the
detk of Receiver KING and thus the
whole thing is established in beauty
and strength.
This post will be convenient for
land Office officials to lean against
should they desire to take an after
dinner siesta during the hot days of
or to scratch their backs upon
in the season of buckwheat f1apjacks
1t might also be used to chain pet
bear. coon or monkey to, should the
commissioners hear of any second
hand animals af this kind for sale
We have not learned whether the
commissioners tried to raise the land
Office rent on account of this valuable
improvement or not
{ 1t is not likely
1t would not be generous
We will never miss it.
Out in the burnt district, in plain
sight from our Office window, an old
safe lay idle and unmolested for years
We do not know why the commission
ers do not buy it, Such an oversight
looks like criminal negligence. There
are several other such relics piled up
with old stoves ETC. down at Dieboldss |
lumber yard. They are all eligible. /
They have pedigrees reaching back to
boom DAYS and big prices They are
old, secondhand, condemnea, dis
carded and the county has no more use
TOR them than for the one already /
bought If there should be no room for
them in the vaults where they can be !