This day in 1918 in The Record

Tuesday, March 19, 1918. Legal proceedings have begun in an effort to compel the Republican aldermen on the Troy common council to approve the city’s 1918 budget before the end of the month. Democrats hold a 10-7 majority on the council, short of the two-thirds majority needed to approve the budget. By law, the city can’t levy or collect taxes until the budget is approved. Tax collection is scheduled to begin on April 1. The Republicans have been forced to appear in an Albany courtroom next Saturday, March 23, by a private citizen, Timothy Dwyer. As a Troy taxpayer and pensioner, Dwyer has petitioned the state supreme court for a peremptory writ of mandamus. The common council – in effect, the GOP members -- will have to show cause why they should not be compelled to approve the budget. The Record reports that Dwyer “is directly interested in the adoption of the estimate by reason of the fact that he is a veteran of the Civil War and formerly held the position of superintendent of public burial grounds in the city, and was retired in January last from that position under the provisions of the veterans’ retirement act.” Dwyer is entitled to a halfpay pension but won’t get it until the council approves the budget. He tells reporters that he asked city corporation counsel Thomas Guy to start a mandamus action but was rebuffed. While Guy is an appointee of Democratic mayor Cornelius F. Burns, “the law required him to act as an attorney for the common council and he was precluded from instituting a proceeding against that body.”

Runaway steamer

“An odd sort of occurrence came dangerously near spelling serious trouble for the Read steamer and crew, Driver John Troy and Engineer Smythe, this forenoon,” The Record reports. The horse-drawn steamer passes City Hall on State Street on its way back from a mattress fire in the rear of B. Benjamin’s delicatessen. When “the big city hall bell clanged the ‘out’ blow,” the Read horses apparently interpret it as their cue to speed to another fire. The animals “took the bits between their teeth and sprang forward,” our reporter writes, “Over State street, past Third, past Fourth and by Fifth avenue they swept, the heavy steamer gaining momentum with every jump of the animals.” A wreck seems inevitable at Seventh Street, but as the steamer approaches Sixth Avenue a gate descends so a freight train can pass. “The horses sensed the barrier and as they were not permitted to turn and dodge it but kept straight ahead they slowed up enough to permit Troy to gain his control.”