Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-03-09
Sheriff-Mayor Talks Of
''Sma|| Things"
Replied TO By Ex-janitor Geo.
E. Fisher In Singing Letter.
Also Calls Sheriff-Mayor's Attention
To Several Other Things.

! iI'ii. ItiNlIIh w ItlSttti, MuyoI O
| the Capital city OF Augusta, Higi
Sheriff of the old and honorable county
of Eennebec, and Democratic leader OF
the State of Maine, wants to be re-
| eleced Mayor today of the Republican
| city of Augusta.
1t would give him the office a gain with
its honnrS, salary and pcrquisitcs
1T would help him in his campaigI
in September for Sheriff 1t WOliG
help him as a Democrat in his at
| tacks Oh the Republican ticket
State and national, in September
In his desperate anxiety nothing is
to big, nothing too small, for Mayor
| Plaisted.
One of the p"litest men in Augusta
| he does not hesitate to deal with inn
! polite subjects such aS-''vermin" let
US say.
| In his speech Accepting Rc-nomina-
ton Official reprint from New Age
nrcss) Mayor PlaisteI says:
| "A police station in such q condi-
| ton that my predecessor in the office
of sheriff remarked that prisoners
coming from the Augusta locll-u We're
often covered with vcrmin. And the
blankets in that police station which
the poor unfortunates who came in
| for nights lodging had to pull over
them to keep ont the cold, had not
been washed for 10 years"
This is small matter, perhaps our
| readers may think, but it tests the
Sheriff Mayors sincerity. He was Civ
ing his platform stating why he should
be made q Democratic Mayor Of a
Republican city.
That is why the question is impor-
tant-as a test of the Mayor sincerity.
Read the reply of the man he attack
ed:
Mr.. Fishers answer:
Editor of the Kenneec Journal:
Allow me to say word through
your paper in regard to a part Of
Mayor PlaSteds speech accepting a
denomination as follows: "A police
station in such a condition that prison.
erS coming from the Augusta lock-
up were often covered with vermin
and the blankets in the police station
which the poor unfortunates who came
IN for a nights lodging had to null
over them to keep out the cold had
not been washed for 10 years and
found other things too, gentlemen;
ana little further on III his great
big speech he says: Go 10 the police
station tonight and you will see q
good equipment. clean rooms, clean
cells and efficient service
Now | want to say right here that
when Mr.. Plaisted went into office he
found good clean lookup. when I
lett that building. | will say further
thta the lookup was washed three
times a week and sometimes every day,
according to the number of prisoners.
and as for the blankets not being
washed for 10 years he is talking
through his hat. for I personally wash
cd the blankets a number of times in
my fve-months' stay at City hall as
Janitor and those blankets were taken
each morning. brushed, aired, folded
ana put in one of the cages not ir
old blankets, If a man was put in that
lookup that was good and drunk nc
didn't get white bed spread on his
bunk, but he did get two good bIan-
kcts and as for those poor unfortu-
mates Mr.. Plaisted tells about having
TO come IN out of the cold and put those
awful dirty blankets over them
want to say, Mr. Sheriff Mayor. that
when l was janitor they didn't hire
fon"e oi1cerS to go away over on Wat
ed street and borrow ice chisels and
take those poor unfortunates out from
unuer tnose dirty blankets and make