Year: 1876

The present Common Council is not dis
posed to give up its powers and retire from


Office. The sum at which common rumor
estimates the divides Of the last year is $780,


600. Hence, perhaps, the unwillingness to
accept the dismissal voted by the people.
It is significant, too, that the jobbers have
no faith in the newly-elected Common Coun-
Gil; their only hope is to make the last days
of the old Council as long as possible, and to
crowd into those days as much corrupt 1egis-
lation as possible.


At the meeting On Friday night the
declaration of the canvass of the vote of the
election was again postponed, and the Coun-
ell decided that it Ind authority to go on


with Legislative business. Upon the heels Of
this decision there was promptly reported an
ordinance granting to the Garden City Rail
way the permission to lay down horse-railway
tracks upon Dearborn, LaSal1e, Jackson,
Twenty-second, Fourteenth, Twenty third,
Thirty-frst, East Adams, West Adams, East
Twelfth, and West Twelfth streets, and
on Third and Fourth avenues, Went
worth avenue, and Wabash avenue.
Who compose the Garden City Company
IS mystery but it is under
stood that HnDnETH, and perhaps other Al
dermen, and some of the other appendages
Of the City Government, are the ''company-" !"
The ordinance is of course Matchmaking
operation. If it were entitled an ordinance
requiring the horse-railway companies to pay
to majority Of the outgoing Common Coun-
Gil $4,000 or 100000, its object would not
be more apparent than it is now. It has not
been over two months since the gas compa-
MES were subjected to the same rack and
these scoundrels do not propose to get out of
the Offices they disgrace without obtaining
even greater br1be from tho horse-rai1way
companies.


That the jobbers did not believe that the
people would SO emphatically reform the
Common Council is evidenced by the late day
at which this ordinance is reported. Had
they believed that the people would have SO
largely vacated the seats Of Aldermen,
this ordinance would have been passed long
ago. As it Is, it is a notice to the horse-rail~
or somebody will have a franchise for Is
miles Of city railway to sell during the next
summer.


The ordinance, however, if passed, will be
so imperative legally that it is not likely
that any person will pay a dollar to prevent
its passage or to secure the franchise There
is contract made by the city with certain
Of the horse-railway companies con-
tract has been affirmed and made law by
the Legislature on certain Of the streets
named there shall be no horse-railway tracks
laid or cars run. There is a law of the State
which went into force July l, 1874, which
provides that no company organized for the
purpose of constructing q horse railway in
city shall do SO without the consent of the
corporate authorities of such city, and then
only on the petition Of such company
" PROVIDED, no such consent shall be granted
unless at least ten days public notice of the
time and place Of presenting such petition
shall have been first given by publication in
some newspaper published in the city or
county where such road is to be constructed
It is possible that this Company may have
given this notice Of a purpose to present
such petition but we venture to say that
the first knowledge that the public have had
of any such scheme is the fact that an ordi-
nance granting the franchise has been agreed
upon in the Council, and is to be passed on
Monday next, if the requisite number Of
votes can be obtained to crown the infamy Of
this historical Council.