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Show "GRAFT BOX" WAITS IN THE CITY HALL NEW YORK, April 18. A new Institution Insti-tution known as the "graft box" has been established In the "Mayor's" Bureau Bu-reau of Licenses In the city hall for the purpose of collecting the superfluous funds of peddlers. According to affidavits affida-vits of applicants for licenses. It la a case of drop money In the box or get no license. Evidence of the existence of the little box was, gathered by Attorney L. D. Iayes of No. 220 Broadway, and submitted sub-mitted to "Mayor" McClellan, with the suggestion that the Inventor of the contrivance be punished. The "Mayor" replied rather sharply by letter that he did not care to take up the matter, and further letters from the lawyer he refused re-fused to answer at all. Pletro Lobresco, a Junk dealer, of No. 423 East One Hundred and Fourteenth street, declares in an affidavit that he had to drop five dollars In the "graft box" In order to. have a $2.50 Junk license li-cense renewed. The box. he says, was half concealed In the roll top desk of one of the officials of the bureau, and the official watched him drop In the bill before he "O K'd" the application. There are affidavits that peddlers are forced to buy new badges of the New York Stamp company, No. 26 Ann street, every time their licenses are renewed. re-newed. Each badge costs 50 cents. Commissioner- Corrlgan, the head of the bureau, declared last night that the allegations were untrue. "There is no little box In this office," said he. "All the money that is received Is paid to the clerk and appears on the face of the license Issued." |