Some Political Bosses matchless orator had actually kissed
the Blarney Stone of his native land with due, solemn and appropriate rites ere he expatriated himself from the “ould sod,” so that as an orator before the said courts and at such gatherings
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and performing that mysterious rite of “fingering the glass,” that is, cover ing the glass with the four fingers of his hand, for the reason, as he invariably explained, that the whole hand was indicative of the whole heart, which
be attracted much attention, and his
convinced everybody but the barkeeper
oratorical flights made him a ram a'm's indeed.
that his explanation was disingenuous,
But at the other bar, the bar of the
refectory, his nicely rounded periods, his matchless eloquence, and his ver bosity seemed to have deserted him,
would call for his favorite beverage of "rock and rye,” and filling his glass
would turn his face heavenward as if to emphasize his assertions of fellow ship and goodwill toward his generous
and his language was monosyllabic and
companion, drain its contents to the
repetitious but to the point, and the
very last drop; then, remembering that it would be his turn next to stand treat should they tarry long, he would hastily depart after striking his enter tainer for a moderate loan which he would generously promise to return the very next day, and at,the same time confidently assuring his admiring
attendant had come to know it by heart, so that when the well~known, concise
and suggestive phrase of “the same," fell from his fevered lips, the receptacle containing the favorite refreshment was already before him. The high priest is yet living and is making history on more high-toned and probably remunerative lines, but the
Justice and the Constable have now passed over to the great majority. “Country Bill," the Constable, was a strange mix-up of character and a lack of character combined; he always wore a black frock coat of ample dimen
friend, if a resident of the town, that
he would nominate him for town committeeman at the very next meeting of the board, and that he would jam
the nomination through himself, “by Gawd, sir."
On these occasions Bill would almost invariably secure an invitation to the
sions, a white shirt with a high standing
high priest and the justice to participate,
collar, but his trousers and his shoes,
as they were generally to be found in
like his habits, always needed mending. The upper part of his make-up re
the “back room," so that it early be
minded one of an unfrocked clergyman, and the lower half suggested the "dusty roads” of the humorous paragrapher.
came known that invitation to Bill could be counted on to be an invita tion and extension of hospitality to the three, for Bill was loyal to the men
When "Country Bill" was invited to
who furnished him with the means and
drink he was never known to refuse, for
he said that refusals tended to dis
opportunity to get the most out of life for the smallest return, and it is said
courage cordiality, for Bill was nothing if not cordial, especially if the invitation
that the only real difierences that sprung up between him and the other
and the expense came alike from the
two arose from their neglecting to reciprocate when the entertainer was
other fellow; so with an alacrity that
was not likely to be construed into merely an observance of duty and policy, Bill would step up to the bar,
their friend and not his. Bill too, was noted as a “fisherman,”
but the waters tributary to the town
