Our Lounger

Our Lounger is a chronic grumbler. - loungers usually become that, do they not? Whenever a man rinds nothing to do, whenever time hangs heavy on his hands, he grumbles. The man who'se hands are f uil of work, who was evidently not born lazy, the wideawake, active, healthy man, rarely grumbles. But Our Lounger, who this week has sp far stirred from the inertia which goes to make the true lounger, as to commit his thoughts to writing, finds a peculiar pleasure in grumbling. He thinks it an inalienable right of man, 'to grumble. He grumbles at the powers that be. Why not? Do not all other men do the same when they have nothing else to do. He grumbles at things as they are, and if things were as Our Lounger wants them, he would still grumble, for he was born that way. As Oúr Lounger makes his rounds he often hears of things to grumble at, and during the past week many others have joined him in grumbling about the walking. He brought in a long string of grumbles to the ed itor of the Argus on the way the snow is treated on the walks of Ann Arbor and concerning the brokei bones caused by slipping on stone walks covered with ice, and the edi tor told him to recommend to the other grumblers that they use sal or ashes liberally on the walks in front of their own places and set an example which would save many broken limbs. And although Our Lounger go little consolation from the editor, he still must chronicle the fact that he has seen several people slip on the stréet-car steps, and he has seen more than one lady fall down on coming out of the postoffice, th snow being packed so as to make a steep incline from the step to th walk. A little pains taken to kee] the snow off the steps might preven an accident. And he feels suretha the locáis of the Argus will show tha that several people have been in jured on several slippery sidewalk in the city. And there are a num ber of narrow escapes that will no be mentioned, as for instance the fact that Capt. J. F. Schuh slipped on the sidewalk on Schleicher's cor ner and feil so that his head came within three inches of the sharp projecting corner stone. He wasn' hurt, but if his head had struck tha stone, Ann Arbor might have lost a good citizen. Our Lounger has heSxd consider able during the past week concern ingthedifficultyof beingsurewhether or not you are violating a city ordinance. He is informed that the last compilation of city ordinances was made in 1882 and that since then a new charter had passed, making some of the provisions of the old ordinances obsolete. An ordinance book, he is told, is now kept at tiie city clerk's office, but there is a break of some years during which years no man in town can teil what ordinances are passed without spending several days hunting through the lengthy council records. Ouj Lounger feels sure that there is no one thing more needed in this city to-day than a revisión of the ordinances, a careful trimming out of the obsolete ones, a remodeling of those not fitted for Ann Arborof today and the passage of such ordinances as would inure to the benefit of the people, and then the publication in pamphlet form of all the ordinances. If thiswere done, then he thinks there would be no excuse for the violation of the ordinances or remissness in punishing the violators. Speaking of the loóse way in which the city ordinances wcre formerly kept, which so greatly necessitates their publication töday, reminds Our Lounger of the fact that all the city records ought to be kept permanently at one place. As it is now nearly every new officer totes the records to a new place, leaving many behind. The city has been required to have a thing done over several times because the records made the first time it was done have been lost. Oíd records, some of valué, have been found in cellars years after old recorders who have had themhave gone out of office. The city needs a building where all the records of the city shall be kept, carefully indexed. It would save a great deal of money and much time and work on the part of poorly paid city officers. What would be thought of a business man transacting a business of $40,000 a year, of great diversity, who continually changing managers, kept movingheadquarters from place to place each time leaving business papers behind. Not only should the city clerk keep his office in a city building but the city assessor shonld have his records there, maps by which the rolls could be checked, etc., and the city engineer should be rnquired to keep all his grades and notes there, so that the next city engineer would not be paid for doing the work over again. Taxes should be paid in at that building and citizens not be required to hunt out a hardware store, a drug store, a jewelry store or a printing office to pay his taxes. Our Lounger finds it a relief to grumble a little in print and next week he promises to have something to say concerning the "Better Than Thou" sort of people.