The Plumbing Inspector Digs In
Demanded out by the board of health, Inspector Brown refuses to go — and hints the whole quarrel began at a celebration over a reinstated police commissioner.
Plumbing Inspector Brown, whose resignation was formally demanded at the last meeting of the board of health, proposes to fight the question. He has not only failed to do as requested, but replies in such a manner that there can be no doubt as to his intentions.
"Have you resigned?" asked a Post-Intelligencer reporter of Brown yesterday, as that individual went sailing up Cherry street as if he belonged to a meeting of the Flambeau Club.
"No," replied Brown, "and I don't intend to. I want the board of health to go on record as to the cause."
It is said on good authority that the trouble arose over a jollification meeting the evening of the day that J. G. Niggle was reinstated as police commissioner by the superior court. Brown is asserted to have sent a message to the mayor "for friendship's sake," which was not friendly.
“"No, and I don't intend to. I want the board of health to go on record as to the cause."”
A city inspector defying a board's demand to resign — and daring it to put its reasons on the record — is a timeless City Hall standoff. The subtext here is patronage: a celebration over a reinstated police commissioner, a message sent "for friendship's sake," and a feud that spilled into public health.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.