The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1917-05-05

CIcch.
A few farmers favored this
project. They got up a petition
signed by a few men and one
boy who was not Of legal age.
Either that petition, or another
of a similar nature for the same
work, really was made by chang
ing the date on an old petition
OF some two years previous, it
is alleged.
Well, there were lot of farm
ers who were against the project
and, in due form, the,- protested.
The Rip-saw's informant declares
| that special county attorney
Adams talked to them in a tone
Of voice that was not agreeable,
therefore John Swinland, Du-
lrth lawyer with command of
several languages, was hired to
represent. the protestants. After
a hot time or two in the marble
lired courthouse, the ditch pro-
jet was ditched.
! A former road foreman up in
| New Independence township,
now gone to land where all
| the roads are paved with gold,
if nothing hotter, must have
been a most original cuss. He
was very thrifty in his original
ity, if all tales are true.
It was the custom of that in
genious chap, the settlers say, to
turn in scraps and pieces of old
tools and keep all the good tools
for his own farm, when check
iIg up and turning in county
property.
It is charged that, on one oc-
casion, he not only stole a goodly
lot Of county dynamite but even
charged the county for use of his
team for hauling away the ex-
plosive.
When the fly season was at
it's worst, this humane foreman
had the habit Of putting the six
teams in a dark, comfortable
barn and then going to bed HIM
self until the cool of the eve
ming sent the flies to roost. He
never forgot to charge the
county full time for teams and
men, no matter how late his nap
lasted.
On another occasion, this ef-
ficient servant Of the taxpayers
Of kindly st. Louis county came
to Duluth and bought a $65
kitchen range, for which he paid
with a road order. That order
was passed and the treasurer
gave up the cash. The range
went into the foreman's farm
kitchen and neither boiling nor
baking ever was done on it for
the kindly county Of st. Louis.
A couple Of years ago, st.
Louis county bought a gasoline
traction engine at a cost Of about
$1,000. 1t was used in the Fifth
district, that great domain pre-
sided over by forme-:' commits
sioner Kauppi, the self-desig-
mated "Watch Dog of the County
Treasurer" Under Mr.. Kauppi, as
foreman and in charge Of the
traction engine, was E. B. En-
gren, who lives north of the tool
house on the Germantown road.
When that traction engine was
laid up last season, the foreman
forgot to drain the cylinders
with the result that water in them
froze and cracked them. It may
take very close to $400 to repair
damage caused by forgetfulness
or failure to do a few minutes
work.
| Any who doubt the correctness
Of this story can see for them
selves at Kreidler's garage, West
Duluth, where commissioner
Becks has the engine for repair.
This little story illustrates how
woeful waste falls on the tax
payers from careless servants.
Many are beginning to see that
more pains and less politics will
prove profitable.
This traction engine, by the
way, is the same one used to
haul manure to Louis Anderson s
farm near Pike Lake. Former
commissioner Kauppi filed a bill
in the sum of $40 for use of the
engine and dump cars but said
bill reposes in the auditors Of
flee and was unpaid as late as