638
The Green Bag
were never depleted of their stock of fish through any piscatorial efiort of his, as his quarry in the art made famous
correct the abuse of power by justices of the peace and constables in dealing
by Walton, was that species of the
with vagrants, and to curtail their fees
genus homo known as the “tramp," and many a poor fellow who was simply down on his luck fell into the net of William, who, quickly haled the poor unfortunate before his fellow-pirate,
in relation to the same. In the course of their visit to the
the Justice, who invariably and un hesitatingly pronounced the stereotype sentence, “ten dollars, or ten days”; and
of a bill then in the legislature to
capital, Bob obtained an introduction
to the Governor by his local member of assembly. To say that Bob was pleased and elated at the sudden honor thus gained
that the culprit was, as the Wall street
hardly expresses his state of exhilaration, he talked of it by the hour to his friends and equals, and boasted of his friendship and pull with the Governor to his con
men say, “long on time and short on cash,” for be it said to the credit of the
stituents, in fact, he thereafter dated all of the events of his life from the time
Justice that the sovereign and divine right of the town to impose a fine on those whom Bill charged with “loiter
of his introduction to the Governor. But his day dreams of power and preferment met with an untimely end
ing” on its highways and byways was
at the next spring town election, when
never overlooked, yet the exercise of that right never brought profit or benefit to the town if the culprit had the means
the good people of the town of East chester, tiring of the misrule and extortions of the Democratic party in general and of this triumvirate in par
it is said that the Justice always looked sad and regretful-like when he found
to ante-up in lieu of the dreaded "ten days." “Bob" Edmonds, the Justice, was in looks, stature and demeanor not
unlike a recently deposed deputy com missioner of insurance, and had all the
bombastic manner and confident assur ance of the typical "town boss"; and he ruled with an iron hand over those who came under his authority and jurisdiction, but to those above him
in the political or social scale he was servility itself, and he bowed in abject
humility to those in higher station and power. The crowning glory of his life came when he was named as one of a commit tee of the loyal Democratic citizens of
Eastchester (I use the term loyal advisedly), to wait on the then Demo cratic governor of the state, John T. Hoffman, to urge the Governor's veto
ticular, routed them “horse, feet and dragoons," and elected an entire Re publican town ticket from supervisor to constable, and the rule and supremacy of the triumvirate came to an end. Bob, as soon as he could collect his shattered nerves, bethought himself of his friend the Governor, and of the deep regret and concern he knew the Governor must feel over the trailing in the dust of the banner of Democracy so long floating in victory over the town and its finances, and concluded that
he would inform the Governor of the common humiliation and defeat, and so hying himself to the telegraph oflice he wired this burning Governor Hoffman:
message to i E";
“H—-—ll to pay in Eastchester, the town has gone Republican, and the country is lost."
