The Courier's Mare's Nest

The Courier of last week returned to its attack upon Supervisor Johnson, of Scio, for his vote on the Clerk's salary and the dispoaitiou of the printing of the parnphlet report of the Supervisors' proceedings. Leaving Mr. Johnson to take care of the personal part of the article, whioh he is abundantly able to do, wejquote, as a basis for brief oomment, the following paragraph : "The Courier had no int nnatioii that the salary of the clerk was to be raised, until aftei it had been done. As to our having the prmting at any stated pnce is also faïse. Mr. Olcott askus to make our bid for prmting one thousand copies. At the time he was superjeded by the clerk, we had not put in our bid. Of course, after that, there was no occasion üor us to bid. If we had bid, our pnce could not have beeu any higher than the price at which we did the same work the year before, which was Y174 80 tor one thusamt copies. So Mr. Tuite & Co. have paid Carr & Goulett $150 this year for printing five hundred copies. They ptiid somewhere from thirty to fiity dollars more than it could have been done lor, had it been open to competition, as Mr. Olcott intended. It is our opmion, in these hard timen, any printing office in the eounty which can do the work, would have been glad to have done it for $100. If we are nght in our calculatious the couuty lost 60. Now bo it known to our neighbor of the Courier, and tlie pnblic generally, that the bill of Mussrs. Carr & Goulet, for printing the 500 pamphlet copies of the proceedings, was just $105.50, in8tead of $150, and that 1,000 copies would have coat less than f 150, or exactly $144, so that " busting the Ring " really saved the county the diffference between $174.80 - which the Courier says it got last year and would have okarged this - and $105.50, the amount actually paid, or just $69.30 - for 500 copias wero worth just as much to the county as 1,000 would have been. In fact the publication of the prooeedings in pamphlet form is not only entirely unnecessary, but without the warrant of law. And now about that Republican " Ring " whioh put up the Clerk's salary, " unbeknownst " either to the Olerk or the Democratie Supervisors, and laid the nice little plan to give the Courier the printing of that pamphlet. A Republican Supervisor - and not Mr. Brown, but one the Courier has cotnplimented for his fidfllity and "absence," - is responsible for the statement made " frankly " to a Democratio Supervisor : " To teil the truth it was a plan to give Beal the printing and a good price. fie was sore and cross over his bill being out last year, and we thought this the easiest way to settle it. The Clerk's salary was raised to compénsate for treadiug on his toes. We watched our chance and put it through whon you were away, and now confound you, you have kicked it all over and the Clerk gets both the increase of salary and the control of the printing." This is n't the exact language, for as detailed to us it was a good deal more " pinted " and forcible. If Olcott at any time proposed to take four bids it was afterthought and a violation of the arrangement. If the Courier desires to pursue the subject further we have n't the slightest objection. M I i i m -- i i -i ' Bourgeois," of the Detroit Evening News, has been interviewing the Hon. George Willard, drawing out of him - not an easy job - his views on both legislation and politics. Ile m'akes Mr. Willard say that Blaine's chances for a Presidential nomination are not so good as they were, and assign as the reason : " Well, frankly, I think he has played the partizan a good deal too much and too often. Has been too anxious to get snap judgment on the other sido of the House. Has sown firebrands and irritation where statesmanship would have enjoined conciliation." More than fourquarters right we guess. Mr. Willard thinks Bristow the coming man, but has a good opinión of Wm. A. Whaeler, New York, and would favor either Bristow and Wheeler or Wheeler and Bristow, He looks kindly upon the House " legislativo, executive, and judicial appropriation bill," and says : " We must out off excrescences and bring things down to a peace basis. The Government has been too extravagantly administered, and Republicans cannot escape the responsibility. Nor can they afford to stand in the way of retrenohinent. I concede that the bill is a pretty heroic nieasure for a first earnest atteuipt in that direction, but I think the service can stand it." And much more of the same sort. If Mr. Willard will vote as he talks, all right. Ma. Curtís did not succeed in his effort to induce the Republican State Convention of New York to withhold an indorseruent of Senator Conkling as a Presidential candidato, but the large vote he obtained for his ainendment effectually loads down the candidato before he is fairly entered for the race. It was an indorseinent " to kill," -being a warning to all other State delegations that Mr. Conkling has not that popularity at home that guarantees success. It is an indorsement that gives Senator Conkling 70 votes (that is if the entire delegation shall consider it binding to turn over to aome other candidato, but which cannot bring him a vote from another State. It is an indorsement which scarcely comes under the rule, " small favors thankfully recoived," - victory and defeat in the same moment. Butler testified before the House Coramittee on Exponditures in the War Department : "I never did teil a newspaper man anything but what he pubHshed. I would trust a newspaper man wlth untold suins of gold, but not with news." Which is just the reverse of what the newspaper men can say for politicians and ofnce-holders of the Butler stripe. News-telling being the business of newspaper men Butler could not have paid the craft a higher compliment. ■ ■■ - -■- - Republican State Conventions were held in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont on Wednesday, The first expresa ed a preference for Hayes for President, the second declared for Hartranft, and the third was non.committal. THE Second Presbyterian Church, Detroit, was burned at an early hour on Saturday last. Cause a defeotive flue. Loss $100,000, insuranceJÍ60,500.