The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-31

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 contractors who built the Livingstone Place sewer, was questioned at length
 by Attorney Judson in an effort to establish a reason for an alleged change of plan in the sewer as at first laid out. This sewer, it may be re-
 called, was ordered built into Living stone Place, from Noble avenue, as far as the grade would permit. It
 is specified by Mulvihill that Mckenna constructed it 150 feet longer than he should
 The aim of Attorney Judson's ques- tions was to show that the sewer was built longer than was planned origin ally, in order to allow the contracting tirm an opportunity to recoup on d
 loss occasioned by reason of more ex-
 cavation work than was called for in the McKenna plans. This Mr. De-
 Forest repeatedly denied. He showed
 transcript of the record of the sewer
 work, which gave it's length as 66O
 feet. The deepest cut mentioned in the bid was s1-2 feet. The pipe was
 10 by Is. Mr. Judson was insistent
 upon the original record on his books being produced Mir. DeForest said he would have 1t on hand for the next session.
 Charles Cowen, foreman for the
 same company testified that he mo-
 tified his company the cut at the No
 ble avenue junction was deeper than
 called for in the plan given him.
 stake had been driven in at distance
 of 45O feet Later this stake was set
 back so as to have the sewer extend-
 directed by Mr. McKenna and MT.
 Murray, the latter being MT. Mo
 Kenna's first engineering assistant.
 He partially constructed two catch
 basins, which were torn down the
 same day Again MT. DeF'orest was rxI xH- 4c%f< 1n6 ! Judson.
 | All bids, he said, were sent in with the approximate length of the sewers mentioned and conditioned with the phrase "more or less'' and when occa- sion arises extensions are made, the contracts being let for a set prlce per 1ineal foot.
 Sylvester Pike of Hawthorne street proved the chief comedian of the ev- ening Mir. Pike is white bearded, loquacious, chipper gentleman of ad- vanced years but more than vigorous
 tongue and an equally keen desire
 to make use of it. Before he finished l with the witness. Attorney Klein re- ferred to him as that irrepressible Pike" Mfr. Pike protested that he wasn't trying to be funny. He was just naturally a humorist. and he couldn't help it if he made people laugh. The audience, tired with the
  his arrival, gave vent to it's mirth so
 unrestrainedly that the hearing for time was in disorder. Pike's princi- pal method of causing fun was his loqnacity. He insisted upon supplying information about every detail of
 Hawthorne streets history to the chagrin of both lawyers. who were anxious to hurry things along. MT. Pike had been summoned to tell about change in the plan to grade Hawthorne street. At the outset his house In the minds of his auditors roadway. But before he finished. that proved to be a condition that would have existed if certain work under contemplation had been executed. He said that an excavation of 100 feet in length. in some spots perhaps as deep
 as feet had been made then refilled
 at the protest of residents so that the cut was not over feet and
 few inches. He and all his neighbors on the street are just ttchled to death
 with the present condition.
 Mir. Pike wouldn't venture to say
 what cost if any was occasioned by
 the change in plans for Hawthorne
 street. When MT. Pike had been re- lieved of the responsibilities of the
 witness stand. which he left reluct-
 antly Mir. Klein read record of the
 council in which the Mir. Pike and
 others recently expressed their delight
 with the conditions existing at flaw thorne street and protesting against any change.
 MT. Klein scored a telling blow when the Seaview avenue sewer came in for discussion. Howard F. Clark. sewer contractor, was summoned by the prosecution to testify that McKenna had displayed incompetence in the construction of the sewer. Attorney Judson sought first to qualify him as an expert by asking if the permanent pavement and sewer commission has not asked him for advice on city work, particularly sew CTS in Fairfield avenue and State St., because they did not trust to McKen- mas judgment. Clark said this was ! not true. Then he asked about the outlet of Seaview avenue sewer be- ing beneath tidewater and sought to establish through Clark's testimony that such, condition was bad en- gineering.
 Here is where MT. Klein scored. He read from the Common Council rec ords extracts relative to the sewer work. This sewer was built across private property of Frank A. Wilmot, Through the efforts of Mayor Buck l ingham thus effecting a saving of several thousands of dollars for the city, MT. Wilmot exacting in return certain conditions, one of which was that the mouth of the sewer should be below mean low water mark. "And is the sewer so built?' asked Klein. Mir. Clark said it was. He was then excused.
 Judson then took a new tack. He called Arthur E. Chase. chauffeur from April to some time in July, last year, and asked him about his be- ing paid from the block map appro- priation. and also about his connec- tion with a certain automobile mis- hap in Milford.
 Chase has been connected off and on for many years with the city en- gineer's office. He was engaged last
 April as a block map man. He said
 he combined the duties of chauffeur
 with those of engineering. He drove
 and repaired the car, and helped out
 in the engineering work His salary
 was s2.5o per day. He drove the car
 to various jobs taking the engineer
 ing gangs to and from work-not all
 of them he said, when it was stat-
 ed that the city engineer had an ex- pense account showing car fares of the gangs-and he made himself use- full in the work. He was asked to re- call all the work he did in the mak- ing of block maps. He told of a num- Der of jobs, but could mention only one where he worked in hlock mapi