The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-04-09

To the Hon. w. c. Davis. Presiding
Judge, at the Spring Term, 1910.
We beg leave to submit this. our
first Presentment for the year 1910.
We have examined into and nassed
upon all Bills Of Indictment handed
us by the Solicitor. We are sorry to
note the great number of Bills at this
term OF court being considerably
more than is usually handed the
Grand Jury. We have, through COM
| mittees, examined the several county
offices, county Jail, aims house, and
chaingang, viz:
County Supervisor: We find the
records Of this office we'll kept and
the affairs of the county in a healthy
condition. We congratulate the Su-
pervisor and Mr.. J. r. Sumter. the
| Clerk of the Board, on the system Of
bookkeeping employed in this office,
same being in our opinion up to date
| port of the Commissioners before us,
| and find that the county has in the
| hands of the Treasurer thirty-six
! thousand, seven hundred and thirty
eight and 23-1O0 dollars, which we
are Informed is ample to pay the ex-
penses of the county for the present
year. Attached to the report of the
! Commissioners was the report of Mr..
| r. l.. Wight, expert bookkeeper, who
was employed by the Supervisor to
check up this Office. He reports the
affairs Of this office correct in every
particular.
| We recommend that Supervisor
Pitts push the work of stalking off the
] public roads in the county, thereby
prohibiting the plowing into the roads
by the farmers, and we recommend
that he vigorously prosecute any vio-
| lation Of this law. We desire at this
time to congratulate Supervisor Pitts
on the permanent character Of the
roads he is now building, and desire
in this report to register our absolute
approval Of the methods employed by
him in said construction. We recon-
mend that the Supervisor and Coun-
| ty Commissioners at once take up the
matter of beautifying the grounds
| around the court house and that
| they spend enough money on same
! to at least make them presentable.
This matter has been called TO the
attention of the board on several oc-
casions by the Grand Jury, and we
hope that the matter will be attended
| to at once, thereby avoiding any fur
| ther reference to the same. We un-
| derstand that the Civic League would
| like to take the grounds under their
| supervision and beautify the same;
we recommend that If the county
board can make such arrangements,
| that they do so, and that they furnish
| enough money to do the work prop
erly.
| A committee from our body visited
the chaingang, and found the prison
| ers we'll cared for and we'll fed; they
report to the Grand Jury that they
are we'll treated. We recommend
| that the superintendent of the chain
| gang look after the sanitary condi-
tions Of the cage more closely. We
also recommend that the supervisor
purchase a new cooking stove for the
use of the gang, the present one be-
ing too small for it's needs. We are
glad to note that the supervisor has
| provided tent, under which the
mules are kept out Of the weather.
! A committee visited the aims house
and found twenty-five inmates, eight
white, and fourteen colored; the
| buildings and grounds were clean and
in good order. On account of the in
creased cost of provision, etc, we rec
ommend that the County Commits
| sioners increase the pay Of the super
| lntenQent TO tnlrty-nVe cents per Qay
per capita.
| We find the Treasurers and Audi
tors offices we'll kept and in good
condition. We recommend that an
adding machine be purchased at once,
for the use of the various Offices in
the court house, same to be located
| in the TreaSurer's office.
| We visited the Clerks office, and
found the records we'll kept. We con-
gratulate Clerk Of Court Parrott on
the manner in which he keeps this
office. We are reliably informed by
parties in position to know that there
is no better kept Office in the State of
| South Carolina. We find in the