The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-13
INSURANCE PROBE
 WORKS AT LAST
xUw YORK,s INTEREsT IN GRAND
 JURY's INVESTIGATIONS.
Gel. Mfke Paaaen Unearths Unexpected vteIator of Law-Re1ief Over Rate Dlll Compromise--Unique Sky
 ncraper on Expensive Ground.

Gel, Mike Paaden Unearths Unexpected
 vfoIator of Law-Re1ief Over Rate
 U1lI COmprOmlse-Unique Sky
 scraper on Expensive Ground.
 New York, May 12.--The hundreds of thousands of policy holders in New York, as we'll as the public at large, will watch with the greatest interes, the investigation begun by special grand jury this week with a view to jnstftutinE criminal prosecutions against insurance grafters. It. is now over eleven weeks since the Armstrong Iexislative committee, whose activities revealed the insurance scandals, maoe public its report. and every successive grand jury in New York County since that time has been instructed by the iustices of the Courts of Special Ses- sions that its duty was to probe insur- ance evidence to the bottom. District Attorney Jerome, however. has caused delay. and as a result, his popularity has suffered to a remarkable extent. Al election time last November, his sp!eh- did battle against the bosses made nm the idol of the town; today 1t Is nm probable that he could make more than < derisory showing if he were running for an ofice in New York. The grand jury has jumped into the heart or the matter by beginning its investlgation with the Mutual Life Insurance Com pany. and if the probe is as thorougn- going as 1t should be, the probapiiities are for much additional light on tne diversions in the House or Mirtn .. Albany and the activities of the fehow Dog.
 Col. Machael C. Padden, City water Register, gave himself severe repri- mand this week for violating the law. The frouble arose over Colonel Mikes habit of wearing a pansy in his button hole---a decoration he has never neg Jecfed for a day since 1891. In that v~ar he was City Librarian, and after he had held the office for some time, aronped into the library one day to see what it looked like. Tho attendants, a,bo had never seen him before, put him out ard since that time Colonel Mike has worn a pansy for identiucaIon. Now to the story. The attention or Colonel Padden was directed this week to the fact that thousands or gallons If the city's water were being wanted daily by reckless householders who had . habit of using a hose on their stoopsl and sidedalks these dusty spring morn fn1s. Such hose sprinklings are for hidden by frugal city ordinances. Ac- cordingly, Colonel Padden sent out de- partmental s1euths to get evidence against wasteful citizens. which they most prodigalIy obtained. One of the ambitious sleuths, passing the Oriental Hotel on the Bowery, spied Japanese playing the hose over some hugh win dow boxes of pansies. He admonished the Jap and made a record of the incl dent little suspecting that the hotel belong to Big Tim Sullivan. the Jap was Colonel Padden's valet. the hose was attached to the Colonefs bathtub h (g hpfo r- ticuIar buttonhoIe badges. Later. when Colonel Padden received the report of his minion, he read 1t with ejaculations of pain that responsible citizens should so run amuck of the law. Down to- ward the end of the report he found the evidence of his own misdemeanor. Then, he stole quickly out and pur- chased a watering-pot. with which his pansy bed can be lawfully moistened Hereafter.
 New York's uneasiness over the pro- longation of the rate controversy and the uncertainty of the outcome, was succeeded by a marked feeling Of relief over the news that the President and the senators had found a compromise agreeable to both in the Allison amend ment. This sense of relief has been reflected in both pro and anti-adminis- tration newspapers during the past week. In the inner circle of those New workers who are close to the President, the issue was not unexpected, and per- sons who have followed closely the ut- terances of the Executive on rate reg ulations during the past year. point out that the compromise is in line with the rate policy advocated by the ad- ministration from the first. Though some pro-regulation radicals and ultra conservatives on the railroad side do not express. great satisfaction at the compromise, the general opinion among shipping interests of the metropolis is that 1t win insure a square deal to all. The following recent words of the President are much quoted these days and accepted on face value: The AL lison amendment is only declaratory of what the Hepburn bill must mean, sup posing it to be constitutional, and no genuine friend of the bill can object to it without stultifying himself"
 Excavations have begun for a unique skyscraper off7ce building at 1 Wall street. Though the building will be eighteen stories high. it will stand on a little patch of ground only twenty nine by thirty-nine feet, so small that each story of the structure will hold only a single office. The plot was pur- chased for $500 a square foot. the highest price ever paid in this city for a parcel of land of similar dimensions. On 1t formerly stood an old four-story building erected by Benjamin D. Silli- man. a lawyer, in 1886. During the past fifteen years all the older build ings in the neighborhood have been torn down and replaced by skyscrapers of modern construction, but the Silli-