St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-03-28

| them with both lnefnciency anu hdiioa-
sance, i'm terms which must have made
their ears Jingle, and ending with re-
quest for them to come before him and
show cause why they should not be re-
moved The same officials having been
similarly summoned during the incum-
bency of Mr.. Cooper's predecessor, en-
gagged sharp lawyers to conduct thelT
case, which the latter did with so much
cunning, that not only was Mayor Ely
unable to remove the sly worthless, but
the city was forced to pay their law
yer's bills.
Naturally enough the Commissioners
were so well pleased with that expert
ence that they wanted to repeat it in
the present instance and so when they
came before the Mayor in response to
his citation, each one was attended by
a retinue of "eminent counsel" But
Mr.. Cooper was not to be caught in the
same way and positively declining to
recognize the limbs of the law directed
all his questions to the accused parties.
The latter refused to answer except
through counsel and high old time
ensued. The lawyers got up to talk
and the Mayor ordered them to stop, to
which order no attention was paid.
Then the Mayor got excited and sent
for an officer whom he directed to stop
the attorneys harangue, but when the
blue-coat approached with the appar
ent purpose of taking away the paper
from which the latter was reading, 1T
was handed over to another lawyer who
took up the thread of the discourse.
Then the Mayor got furious and order
ed them put out of his office, but the
poor policeman, who didn't know
whether the Commissioners or the May
or would come ont ahead and was par
ticularly DESTROYS of keeping his own
bread butter side up in any case, hest
tated between the two fires and did
nothing. Shortly after the session end
ed without anything very definite hav-
ing been accomplished, and now the
city breathlessly awaits further devei-
Opments.
Meanwhile the Commissioners, per-
haps by way of compensation for being
so prosecuted by the Mayor, have TAX
en- up and are now trying the case of
police captain Williams, one of the
most corrupt and brutal of their many
corrupt and brutal subordinates, Il man
whose proper place would be in the
States Prison, and whose dismissal
from the force would be wholesome
warning to the rest of his sort who in
suit and club everybody who gets in
their way-eXcept criminals.
The most grateful occurrence of the
whole week was the publication of the
Surrogate's decision ending the unsa-
worry Vanderbilt will case. The evil
dence upon which it was sought to
break the will was of the fiimsiest char
acter; it convinced nobody but the
and their lawyers, even if it
them. 1t consisted of the
idlest rubbish and the most disgusting
ly scandalous accusations ever tolerated
10y a judicial tribunal. The reason why
the case of the contestants so suddenly
and utterly broke down was the intro
duction of several former wills of the
Commodore, executed when he was in
the fulness of his strength and the best
state of his faculties, making precisely
the same determinations and against
precisely the same heirs as his last will
and testament, which has been the sub
ject of this protracted contest. Those
previous wills, made when his mind
was ut its best, prove most conclusive
ly that the final distribution of his
property by his last will was in pursu-
ance of deliberate and long settled
purpose formed many years in advance
of that state of his health and of his
mind, which was alleged as the ground
for setting aside the will presented to
the Surrogate. There was never Il
more disgraceful collapse of an utterly
case.
Something which the cynical reader
might interpret as an attempt by the
Long Branch hotel men to get little
gratuitous advance advcI tisinS for that
once favOrite resort appears in the press |
pretty regularly at this time of year.
It comes in the shape of sensational re-
ports of ineendiarism, and an alleged |
to destroy the whole town.
We have just been favored with the
third or fourth annual edition of these
yarns, with additions and variations.
enough the ruthless frebugs
have done very little damage 1.-THE hotel
men are careful to have that under
stood), and ''everything is being placed
IN readiness for the brilliant season
which, NC, NC" RADIX.