The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume], December 28, 1892, Page 3, Image 3

About The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1892-1894

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' Q Twelva hundred differs tdtaPfttiomf A. Altef&tions, tcratchea, and can
eelad warrants, anything like a chaDga from the orig'nal amount
Q. Just explain generally what you found upon the books in Mgard to raaurea
or alterations of figures? A. Amounts scratched and new figures substituted.
Q Do you know of an leaves being entirely out of the books that appeared to
have been cut out? A. Yes, sir. In the beginning of the war some of the
treasurer's accounts are that way, about 1861 and 1862.
Q. In how many instances? A. TwoTfour leaves in one case, and five in the
other. I can produce the books, if you wish.
The memorandum here given is of erasures and apparent changes found in one
book, "Register of Publio Debt Warrants," between January, 1885, and Deoember,
18C9. There are about 100 of these changes running from a few dollars up to
$20,000,000 or $30,000,000.
This book was selected as a sample from among the many books of the depart
ment It will be noticed that there are on the treasurer's books from 1860 to 1867,
inclusive, alterations, scratches, and canceled warrants amounting in round num
bers to 1,200. This testimony also shows that a number of leaves have been cut out
of the treasury books and are gone.
John W. Gentry, acting as a clerk to the committee, was examined and testified
(see testimony, page 165) :
By the Chaxkmak:
Question. Have you made a careful examination of certain ledgers of the regis
ter and secretary of the treasury? Answer. I have.
Q. You selected one of the number that you have examined as an example or
all that you have examined? A. I did, of thcee mentioned this statement.
Q. Is the statememt before you the statement you wish now to offer as being a
correct statement of the erasures and apparent alterations on the books you ex
amined? A. It is.
Again (see testimony, page 174):
The eight (8) ledgers enumerated below have also been examined, with the re
sults as stated.
Three (3) ledgers from office of register.
... ttA Number of ensures and appar-
THla of ledger. renoa. ent alterations.
l. Intertor appropriation ledger From Juljl,l88i,to Jm 80, 1868 One hundred and fifty-Untie.
2 Naval appropriation ledger FroJclyl,188l,to June 30, 1806 One hundred and thlrty-saveo.
3. Military appropriation ledger From July 1, 13G7,to Jane 30, 1871 One hundred and thirty-eight.
No. 13.
Six (6) ledgers from office of ucretary of treasury.
Number of ersjuwi snd appar-
Tltle of ledger. Period. eat alterations.
4. Interior appropriation ledger From July 1, I300,to Jane so, 1868 Two hundred and ninety-six.
5. Naval 'appropriation ledger From July l.lSGO.to Jane 30, 1863 One hundred and ninety-three.
No. 5.
6. Naval appropriation ledger From July l,13C3,to Jane 80, 1867 3ix hundred and slzty-elght.
No. . '
7. Naval appropriation ledger From July l, i867,to June 30, 1875 Four hundred and fifty-seven.
8. limtary appropriation ledger From July 1, 1369,to Jane 30, 1863 One hundred and slzty-elght.
No. 10.
Three ldgrs from register's office, containing,
Six ledgers from secretary's office, containing...
TotallnSledgtrs ,
, 428 erasures and apparent alterations .
2,099 erasures and apparent alterations.
,W27
motions vs Yosrs vm
MENT HOUSES.
B WILLIAM P. m'lOL'OHLIN.
Published by special arrangement with the
Arena company
With every winter comes the sadden
ing appeal for assistance from the evicted
Irish tenants that has now come to be
regarded as inevitable owing to the con
ditions existing in that sorely tried coun
try. Regularly the cable flashes to us
the intelligence that the landlords are
determined to have their pound of flesh,
and that it money is not immediately
contributed from the United States, the
poor, homeless tenants must starve. In
a recent editorial in the New York Sun
on this subject these facts are stated:
The gravity of the financial problem
presented by the case of the evicted ten
ants is scarcely appreciated on this side
of the Atlantic. The number of tenants
who have been actually ejected from their
holdings and who are now dependent
upon charity for their support, is 4,500,
and it must be remembered that each of
these is the head of a considerable house
hold. We understate the truth when we
say that as a result of evictions already
carried out, 25,000 human beings are in
want of bread and of a roof over their
heads. Yet the suffering represented by
theee figures is insignificant compared
with that which will be witnessed if the
tory landlords carry out their threat of
making trouble for the liberal govern
ment by the rigorous exaction of their
legal rents, It is said that the number
of eviction notices which have been
served does not fall far short of 30,000.
Meanwhile, it is evident that
the relief applicable to the present and
prospective victims of eviotion must de
pend mainly, if not wholly, upon private
contributions, and it is on this account
that the Irish Federation, in their lately
published manifesto, appealed to Ameri
cans for sympathy and aid.
While all this sympathy is being
stirred up for the unfortunate victims of
landlord rapacity in Ireland, the cease
less grind of the mill of the eviotor goes
right along in free, prosperous America.
It is a saddening fact that in the great
city of New York alone more than twice
the number of evictions took place in
1891 in three of the judicial districts into
which the city is divided, than occurred
in all Ireland during the same year. In
1890 the figures for New York were 23,895
evictions, while the grand total for Ire
land was only a little in excess of 5,000!
The total of 80,000 eviction notices which
have been served upon the Irish tenants
this year will probably never be executed,
as this 44 pernicious activity " on the part
of the landlords is but the fulfillment of
a scheme to harass the victorious liberal
party in the course of legislation. But
with us the evictoi has no scheme of po
litical import on foot; there is no plot to
confuse or entangle any party or leader
of men; evictions in New York city sim
ply mean that there is in the heart of
America's money center a poverty as
appalling, as hopeless, as degrading, as
exists in any civilized community on
earth. It means that the landlord in
Ireland and his twin brother in the
poorer districts of New York city are
equally imoued with the rapacity in the
pursuit of wealth that knows no gratifi
cation but the soothing sound created by
the jingle of the gold.
In the page adjoining the one from
which I have quoted in the New York
8unt a rather peculiar coincidence was
noted. An illustrated article was printed
treating of the eviction, in East Thirty
sixth street, of a poor old woman who,
aooording to her own story, was M three
years old the night of the big wind."
That interesting event, which occupies a
high position in the chronological knowl
edge of every Irish man and woman old
enough to remember it, took place on
January 6, 1839, which would leave the
subject of this quotation nearly fifty
seven years of gt. Perhaps it would be
;. o
as wall to 1st the facta to told by th
newspaper in question speak for then
selves. Here they are:
A broken cast-iron stove lies in the
gutter in front of the tenement bouse at
332 East Thirty-sixth street. Around it
are piled the remnants of a shattered
bedstead, two tubs, three chairs, a roll of
rag carpet, a rusty tin wash-boiler, an
old clock, a pine bench, a big old-fashioned
bureau, and a cat An old woman!
sat on the top of this pile of rubbish
from 6 o'clock last Friday night until 4
o'clock on Saturday evening. Then sh
disappeared; but passers-by found her
on top of the bureau early yesterday
morning. She stayed thore until 12
o'clock, when one of the tenants of a
near-by house took her in. She is a weo
mite of a woman, scarce four feet tall.
Her form is bent, and her body is shriv
elled. Her quaint, wizened face is
wrinkled and worn. She sat all Satur
day night on the roll of carpet with her
head resting against the wash-boiler.
She wore a faded, blue-check calico skirt
and a gorgeous blue worsted jacket. As
the oold wind from the river rushed up
the street, she huddled close to the wssh
boiler and shivered. Saturday morning
found her there cold and trembling. She
rocked to and fro mumbling to herself.
The only food she had on Saturday was
a cup of coffee sent out to her by Mrs.
Lynan, who lives in the tenement facing
the mass of rubbish. She refused to
leave the pile of rubbish, saying it was
all she had, and would be stolen, until
the chill on Saturday night left her too
weak to roeist, She was taken into Mrs.
Ly nan's rooms and placed on a mattress,
close to the stove. All night she tossed
restlessly about, and at daybreak she
went out again to the old bureau. At
noon yesterday Mrs. Crane got her shel
ter. The old woman is known as Annie
Goddy. She is very old, and has lived in
the neighborhood of First avenue and
Thirty-sixth street for seventeen years.
On May 1 she moved into 332 Enst
Thirty-sixth street, and took two rooms
on the first floor.
The old woman, however, was still sit
ting there on Monday afternoon from 6:
o'clock on the Friday before. She shiv
ered in company with a lean and hungry
black cat that nestled up to her; and in
the eyes of the awe-stricken small boys
and girls from the big, barracks-looking
tenement houses that towered all around
them, the pair of outcasts had a strange
resemblance to the creatures described
in the stories of witchcraft by which the
children had often been terrified into
slumber. One afternoon paper, in tell
ing the story of unfortunate Mrs. Goddy,
concluded its reference to her in these
words: "People thereabout think it
strange that some one does not look after
her." Not so strange, dear writer; not at
all surprising if you only remember the
fact that in the very district from which
Annie Goddy was thrown out upon the
cobblestones to die, over 4,000 evictions
took place during the twelve months just
passed. Of course there were not many
cases attended with the same disheart
ening accompaniments as made Mrs.
Goddy's evictions such a talked of affair;
but there was enough of human sorrow,
of suffering, of crushed hopes, and of
despair, for a bright or hopeful outlet
into the future, to make the student of
nature heave a sigh, and to cause earnest
men engaged in the work of social and
economio reform to brace themselves up
to renewed energy to carry on the war.
In no city on earth is there such a woe
ful, more poverty-stricken or more cheer
less population than is gathered into the
two judicial districts of New York city
that are presided over by Civil Justices
Alfred Steckler and Henry M. Goldfogle.
In Justice Steckler's district the business
of more than 400,000 people is transacted
and such people as they are! It is the
most cosmopolitan and the most crowded
region on earth. There are blocks of im
mense M double decker " tenement houses
on every street of the great East Side.
There are some cases in which there art
(tantfmei on pq )
I certify that I have carefully examined the nine (0) ledgers enumerated above, and that the
roregoing is a true statement oi sne exMurei man mpptuwi. miiMimuuum
J HO. W. GSKTai, CUfK.
Q. (By Mr. Dawes.) In the cases where your tables show what are called
erasures and alterations, are you able to tell what the figures, as they now exist,
have been substituted fori A. I am not.
Thus it appears that in three ledgers from the register's office there are 428
erasures and apparent alterations; in six ledgers of the secretary's office 2,099
erasures and apparent alterations; making a total of 227 in nine ledgers. It will
be seen that the secretary's ledgers have many more of what appear to be changes
and alterations than the register's books have, and that the number is not a few
hundred involving small sums, but reaches to thousands involving many millions
of dollars; and they do not appear only in the day-books or journals, but extend to
the great ledgers of final entry.
As to ratohes in and alterations of the book, Major Power testifies (see teeti
mony,page91):
By the Chaibmah :
Q. Do you know whether or not there are scratches, changes, or alterations,
whatever you choose to call them, upon the books of the department; take the seo
reiary's office? A. Scratches and mis-entries occur. I believe, in all systems of
accounts, and the secretary's office of the treasury department is no exception to
that. A clerk may make a mistake at any time.
Q. Is that likely to follow from the day-book or journal into the ledger? A. It
would be in the journal or register.
Q. B ut it ought not to be in the ledger ? A. No scratches or mis entries should
occur in the ledgtr.
Q. You keep what is known as a register or journal, and post from that into
the ledger, do you notr A. leg, sir.
This experienced accountant testifies that, while scratches might occur In the
day-book or journal, they ought not to occur in the ledger. But yet the committee
find thousands of scratches and apparent alterations of figures in ledgers between
18C0 and 1870.
(To be omtimted.1
A good New Year's resolution : 11 1 mill get up
a club for the Advocate, that my friends may have
the best People's newspaper in the country"