Once
was when I went before the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to
oppose an increase in the appropriation for the Tombs which the
Commissioner of Correction had asked for. His plea was that there
had been a large increase in the census of the prison, and he marched
up a column of figures to prove it. To the amazement of the Board,
and really, if the truth be told, of myself, I demonstrated clearly
from his own figures that not only had there been no increase, but
that there could not be without criminally overcrowding
the wretched old prison, in which already every cell had two inmates,
and some three. The exhibit was so striking that the Commissioner
and his bookkeeper retired in confusion. It was just the power of
the facts again. I wanted to have the horrid old pile torn down,
and had been sitting up nights acquainting myself with all that
concerned it. Now it is gone, and a good riddance to it.
[Illustration: Gotham Court.]
The other computation was vastly more involved. It concerned the
schools, about which no one knew anything for certain.
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