Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1901 — ABOUT THE COURT HOUSE. [ARTICLE]

ABOUT THE COURT HOUSE.

Items of Interest Gathered In the Offices and Corridors of the County Capitol. The court house clock froze up Thursday night again. This week has been a “water haul” on marriage licenses, not a one having been issued. Those having claims against the county should file them not later than next Tuesday or they will have to wait for their pay until a special session of the county council is called to make appropriations to cover 1901 claims. New suits filed: No. 6248. Dotie R. Pochel vs. Richard Fritz et al; action to quiet title. Foltz, Spitler & Kurrie, attys. No. 6249. John F. Warren et al vs. George W. Davis et al; action to quiet title. 8. C. Irwin, atty. No. 6250. William Corah vs. Sarah J. Corah: petition to sell real estate. Jasper Guy, atty. No. 6251. Allie Crawford vs. Eliza Crawford; action for divorce. “Honest Abe,’’ atty. The complaint recites that the parties were married June 10,1899, and lived together as husband and wife until July Ist of the same year, or 20 days altogether, when defendant, wholly without cause, abandoned him and has since lived apart from him against his wishes or consent. They have no children. Plaintiff alleges that for two years last past he has resided in Keener tp., and is a farm laborer by occupation. The residence of defendant is unknown to him. —o — It is indeed a sad commentary upon the intelligence of the people of Jasper county that the majority of the members of the board of commisioners, the men who have the handling of the funds of the county, and buy and pay for the supplies, are financially irresponsible for a dollar, and that the judgement docket of the circuit court of this county is burdened with unsatisfied judgements against them. It does seem strange that partisan prejudice is so strong that the people will give over into the keeping and handling of such men the finances of the county. We do not believe a man or set of men who are business failures and are harassed by debt and have judgement after judgement hanging over them are fit men to act as commisioners of a great county like Jasper. Yet, sad to relate, such is the case-. —o — We note thdt “Honest Abe’s” telephone lines have as yet not been placed on thte omitted tax duplicate for Rensselaer for the years 1900, and 1901, Remington for 1901, and Wheatfield for 1901. Inquiry of the tax-ferrets, whose notice was called to the omission by The Democrat man personally taking Mr. Workman to the . tax duplicates and showing him that the lines were not listed as above, resulted in the statement that a notice of the omission had been sent to “Honest Abe” and he has promised to call and figure up the number of poles, amount of fc’ires, fixtures, etc., and the value thereof in each of the towns aforesaid, and that the property will be duly listed for taxation for these years. In the event that this should not be done, there are other ways of forcing its assessment, ana the tax-payers of Jasper county may rest assured that these lines WILL be assessed. —o — • Regarding the work of the taxferrets we find the following has been placed upon the “omitted tax duplicate” since our last report, three weeks ago: AMOVNTa PAID. August Uicterhand, Carpenter tp 132.71 The above is all that has been placed thereon during this time. Inxsonversation with Mr. Workman he informs us that practically all of the smaller cases have been adjusted; that his record is all up and haS' been for the past month on the larger cases and he is simply checking up the credits claimed by those shown to be remiss in listing their property, but has been delayed a great deal on account of the parties asking fur

additional time in going over the lists with him. If the parties would come in and go over the lists with him at once, he says, the whole work could be completed and every case virtually adjusted within three weeks time. The above is Mr. Workman’s explanation of there seemingly having been nothing done for several .weeks. There are numerous “grafts” about the court house which the tax-payers of the county have no general knowledge. As an example we cite the renting out of rooms in the sheriff’s residence to outsiders and chucking the lent money down in the sheriff’s pocket. One thrifty ex-sheriff’s wife had about all the rooms in the house rented at one time, and is said to have proposed to remodel (at county * expense, of course) some of the jail cells into desirable sleeping rooms. The income received amounted to a nice sum. Of course the taxpayers keep the rooms in repair and heat and light them, so they are quite desirable to roomers, and are always in good demand. When we first learned of this custom, of leasing the county’s property for private gain we were too astonished to believe it could be true, but on investigating found it to be a fact. Some years ago the then sheriff took in boarders and it is said that the bids for “boarding prisoners” during that time were extremely heavy, although the jail proper had very few occupants. Strange to say, the republican politicians of Rensselaer appear to see nothing wrong in this very peculiar practice!