Republicans and Democrats of the Right Kind

New York, 1895

Those who have watched the proceedings of the board of Supervisors must have seen reflected in them the corrupt practices of the Jamaica Standard. That pauperized newspaper, which has at last resorted to the game of bunco to live, has time and again suppressed the proceedings of the Supervisors to bide its own infamy. Bribed by promises of patronage, the Standard has abused the Supervisors for showing a disposition to reduce the taxes by emptying the County Jail of the hundreds of tramps that are kept there. In one of these attempts to earn its bribe, the Standard declared that the desire to rid the county of the tramps was a Democratic conspiracy to injure Sheriff Doht, the first Republican to hold the office since Alonzo B. Wright's time. This charge was as false and foul as it was foolish. In fact, it was a criminal libel on the board of Supervisors, and treacherous to the people in general.

Without adverse action by the board of Supervisors the tramp outrage would grow into elephantine proportions. It was never so bad as since Mr. Doht became Sheriff. The men made deputy sheriffs by him are actively engaged gathering in tramps and they keep the county jail crowded. Whether they have adopted this plan to enrich themselves, and incidentally the Sheriff, or whether they have received orders to do as they are doing, we cannot say. The tramp bonanza has always been "worked," but the abuse is fifty per cent. worse now than at any time. It is costing over $1,100 a week for the support of the prisoners now in the jail, four-fifths of them tramps, and the bills that the justices and deputies will have against the several towns will be enormous. If these things continue, and the same price is paid for prisoners' board, the tramps will cost the county $50,000 this year. The expense increased from $11,000 in Sheriff Goldner's time to $29,000 in Sheriff Norton's time. In other words, the cordial reception given the tramps, who flock here from all over the country, has made the office of sheriff worth $60,000, and will make it worth $80,000, unless the county rids itself of these vagabonds.

The Jamaica Standard, as we have said, is doing its puny part in support of this wrong upon the tax-payers. But the Republican and Democratic Supervisors, and the Republican and Democratic people, are going to reform the abuse, if they can. If the Supervisors cannot rid the jail of the tramps, they can cut the price of their board down so low that the Sheriff's deputies will not have a large motive for continuing to throw out their drag nets. The Supervisors who have so far stood up manfully in behalf of the people are:

MARTIN V. WOOD, Hempstead, Republican.

GEORGE POPLE, Flushing, Republican.

AUGUSTUS DENTON, North Hempstead, Republican.

J. N. F. SIEBS, Newtown, Republican.

SAMUEL J. UNDERHILL, Oyster Bay, Republican.

WILLIAM E. EVERITT, Jamaica, Democrat.

These are the gentlemen denominated "Democratic conspirators" by the bribe-taking Standard. They see the awful burden that the tramps have become, and they mean to relieve the tax-payers of as much of the burden as they can. In this they show themselves to be moved by a conscientious purpose, putting political considerations entirely away. It is infinitely to their credit as Republicans. They are the right kind of Republicans, and Mr. Everitt shows himself to be the right kind of a Democrat. If they are "conspirators," so have been two successive grand juries, who denounced this outrage on the county, and so have been Judge Bartlett and Judge Garretson.

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The Deputy Sheriffs all over the county are busy arresting tramps and conveying them to the County Jail. They are proving to Sheriff Doht that he made no mistake in appointing them. Legally a deputy sheriff lacks the power to arrest these wanderers, and their bills should not be paid.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 4.