Safety of Important Records

New York, 1895

The Supervisors are doing all they can to reduce expenses in the county, and they are to be commended for it. With this end in view, the board dismissed the outside watchman at the county jail, and also an inside servant, and this action seemed prudent at the time. More detailed information as to the outside watchman inclines us to the belief that one should be maintained. The inside watchman can do no more than look after the interior safety of the jail, and with so many prisoners in the building the position is a busy one. The outside watchman seems to be necessary for a variety of reasons. There is constant danger of fire, the wooden buildings used for hospital purposes being so close to the Long Island railroad as to be in danger from the locomotives, and have, we believe, been on fire once. And fire within the building is always a possibility. In the event of a conflagration irreparable damage might be done. The County Treasurer's office occupies a particularly dangerous position, being over the furnaces. It would be impossible to estimate the loss by the destruction of the books and papers in the treasurer's office. The county's financial affairs might become a hopeless muddle, and the back tax accounts might become an inextricable mess. The records of the board of Supervisors, too, are valuable. It does seem that every precaution should be taken to preserve these records, and until the county gets ready to provide a fire proof building we know of no way to insure their preservation except through careful oversight by a trustworthy person.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 29, 1895, p. 4.