Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1884 — THE STAR ROUTE GASES. [ARTICLE]

THE STAR ROUTE GASES.

Items from the Accounts of tbe Special Counsel. ' [Washington Telegram to Chicago Tribune.] The statement of the expenditures of the Department of Justice in the star-route cases has been furnished to the Senate in response to the resolution of Mr. Van Wyok. The document is about the size, shape and weight of an unabridged dictionary, without index, summary, or condensation, and with little clew to the vast mass of vouchers. Rut the bookkeeping methods are not bo crude that the astounding extravagance of tbe Department of Justice can be kept secret. The information shows how the Treasury can be plundered in the name of reform. Brewster, Attorney-General, received $5,000 as attorney in the star-route cases, the lust voucher for $8,500 having been approved a short time before he became Attorney-Gen-eral. William A. Cook receives SI,OOO for services in the Howgate case. This did not result in disclosing the whereabouts of Howgate. He*, also receives $6,000 in the starroute cases. The leading counsel in the star-route cases, who was paid the least, was Ker, of Philadelphia; yet the vouchers show that in 1883 he charged $29,000, of which he received $31,000, an unsettled balance being in dispute. In addition he receives $5,250 for his services in the Kellogg case, although the case has not yet been brought to trial. The total charge made by Ker for the year’s work was $32,500, most of which has been paid. In addition to this, the junior counsel, while drawing enormous fees, presents his board bills regularly, aud the Attorney General approves one, for instance, of slxty-one days at $7 per day, amounting to $437. Dick Merriok, who happens to live here, did not charge for board, but Ker and Bliss, besides drawing from SSO to SIOO each per day, eharged for everything apparently from a bootblack to a shave. Mr. Merrick charges his uniform rates at about SIOO a day and gets them. George Bliss presents the champion fees and gets them allowed, but he has not secured all the money, owing to the fact that the appropriation was exhausted. The details of one of his bills would served as a model for a chancery lawyer in the Jarndyce suit. He charges for waking up in the morning, for eating his breakfast, for walking to court and back, for the place where he sleeps, for the man who brushes his coat, for the boy that brings his books. Bliss’ fees average SIOO a day, aud he crowds a great many days into a year. Bill Wood, the detective, gets email sums. Allan Pinkerton gets larger ones, having receivedin. About, a-jrear some SB,OOO far. sefviees of his bj&tfhtivea. No names are furnished of the persons shadowed.