The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-09-02
Jales, gkettbts, AnetOotts, &t.
THE sHERIFF's DEPUTY.


The tyranny which one in power may
exercise, if he chooses, and the strength
of prejudice which often attains in a con-
dition of society which does not equal ours
in all the refinements of very advanced
state of civilization, give rise to the fol,
lowing incidents in the town of Y -,
Minnesota.
One day the Mayor of that place re-
eeiyed among his batch of correspondence
a very singularly worded note, which
caused him to reflect profoundly for some
quarter of an hour before filing it away in
its place. The note ran as follows:
Dear Sir With the profoundest res
pect for the administrative talents which
God has seen fit to give you, and for fan.-
ly name which was honorable until it became
yours, regret to say that circumstances
render it necessary that should put an end
to your existence before the present month
has elapsed l, therefore, give you timely
warning. Fly from this place. If possible
place between it and you the mountains and
the seas, for so only shall uescape
ONE Who IS IN EARNEST"
Mayor Alvin paused long and thought
earnestly after reading this note. There
was reason why he should do SO. He was
not popular Mayor. He had promised
well when he entered upon his term of Of
kept. All the good people of the borough
had come to 6etest him. All their hopes
of redress of old grievances, inflicted un-
der former administration, had been frus-
trated. The new mayorality was worse
than the old. The threshold cfhis Office
was surrounded by ruffians of the lowest
grade. These, and these only, had free
access to him. During his short tenure of
office there was scarcely crime that could
be named that had not been committed
and left unpunished. In short, Mayor
Alvin's administration was saturnaIia of
vice, reign of terror.
He felt all this, probably, for fhe first
time, in all poignacy, as he sat alone,
brooding over the contents of the letter.
He felt that the cold shadows of retribu-
ton had fallen upon him, and that the
grim-visaged pursuer from whom that
shadow was cast was not far behind. But
what particularly impressed him about the
note was not so much the threat, as the
sardonic courtesy of the language in which
it was conveyed.
AS he put the letter by, he took it for
granted that the handwriting was disguis-
ed, and could furnish no clue to detection.
1t was plain, round, perfectly business
hand, but possessed of scarcely sufficient
character to individualize it. Any good
penman might initiate it without difficul-
ty; but there was no apparent effort at
disguise. 1t might have been the writer's
natural hand, or it might have been an
extremely elaborate and artistic mask.
Having filed the letter away, and pre-
pared to leave the Office, he almost sue
ceeded in banishing it from his thoughts
He was a constitutionally brave man.
and he would have shrunk from the notion
of cowa-dice, not SO much from a sense of
honor as from the possession of that bull
dog courage which is indifferent to danger
Still, as he walked home in the murky
November eyening-and between his of
flee and the house In which he lived, his
path lay by a. certain bleak waste of land,
that timid man would net have liked to
traverse alone after dafk--his thoughts re-
turned, against his viii, to the note, and
to any special act that could have given
occasion for ii. The cloud was still upon
his brow when he reached home, and his
wife met him upon the threshold.
She was magnificent woman one of
those beauties whose white complexions
are 10 such Keen contrast to their midnigh,
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