Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-03-03
The Sheriff. Mayors State
ment.About City Hall
Denied by Ex-Janitor George
Fisher In Pointed Letter.
Also Calls Sheriff.Mayor's Attention
to Several Other Things.

very clearly tell it's own story:
Editor of Kenne bee Journal:
Allow me to say word
through your paper in regard
to part of Mayor Plaisted's
speech accepting denomination as
follows: "A police station in such q.
condition that prisoners coming from
the Augusta lookup were often COW
ercd with vcrlnin and the blankets in
the police station which the poor UNI
fortunatCS who calne in for a nights
lodging had to pull over them to keep
out the cold had not been washed for
~ years and | found other things too,
gentlemen and little further on in
his great big speech he says: Go to
the police station tonight and you will
see good c'iuipmcnH clean rooms,
clean cells and efficient service"
Now 1 want t. say right here that
W hen Mr.. Plaisted went into Office he
found a good clean lookup. when 1
left that building. l will say further
that the lookup floor was washed three
times IA! week and sometimes every day,
according TO the number of prisoners,
and as for the blankets not being
NtSitu loT ~ years lie is TALKING
through his hat. for personally wash
"a The blankets a number Of times in
my .iNe-mOnths' stay at City hall as
janitnr END those blankets were taken
each morning. brushed, aired, folded
and put in one of the cages not in
use. There were some new and some
old blankets. If man was put in that
lOck-up that was good and drunk he
didn't get Il white bed spread on his
bunk, but he did get two good blan-
kets and as for those poor unfortu-
mates MIR. Plaisted tells about having
to come in out of the cold and put those
awful dirty blankets over them, I
want 10 say, Mr.. Sheriff Mayor, that
when l was janitOr they didn't hire
police officers to go away over on Wat
er street and borrow ice chsels and
take those poor unfortunates out from
under those dirty blankets and make
them work till II o'clock at night, dig
ging snow off the sidewalk while the
ianitor had been away fishing all
that day.
And as for those fellows that carried
those vermin that Mr.. Mayor tells
about up to the Kennebec Jail, 1 will
take my oath that they didn't get
them in the Augusta lookup while |
was janitOr. If a man was arrested
ana had creepers in his head or bed
bugs in his clothes 1 don't think the
ianitor of City hail on n salary Of $500
a year should be obliged to take n fine
comb and go on the hunt for those
vermin when Mr.. Sheriff is getting
si00d--t seems as though he ought to
do that job himself
Now we will go from that dirty
lookup to the windows. When l was
put in Janitor of City hall it was in
the month of November and the first
thing l did outside of the general
Work in the building was to wash the
windows which l did on the first and
second stories inside and out and the
inside of the hall windows in the
| top story and would have done the
outside of them if it had not got so
Geld that a man couldn't stand out
| there three stories in the air on Il
| window stool with wet hands.
Now. when it comes spring, with
nice warm weather. Mr.. Janitor says:
Il can't wash those windows for it
makes me dizzy" Mr.. Mayor, 50 |
wash them for you and | will see that
the city pays for it," They hire Mr.
Carey and pay him $3.50 per day, but
still Mr.. Janitor can put on his uni
form. 60 out to Togus with the police
on search and seizure jobs and draw
his pay for janitor and pay as a po-
lice officer and still have a man to do
his work and pay him $3.50 a day. Who
wouldn't be ianitor? Wonder if those
windows have been washed since last
spring?
If Mr.. Sheriff Mayor had taken the
trouble after he had been in Office II
months 20 have gone and looked at
the wash bowl and water closet in the
lower corridor he would have found n
place fully as dirty as he represents he
found the lock-up when he went into
office. When Mr.. Bison took the keys
to City, hall I think he will say that
with the exception of the hall floor
being dirty by having an entertainment
there the night before, that the build
ing was good and clean from top to
bottom and L will leave it to those
VINO We're there every day to say
whether it was or not.
Respectfully yours,
GEORGE 3. FISHER.
Ex-Janitor