San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-02-27
CONTRIBUTED SCRAPS.

from choice.
There is a goodly company Of
thorough paced professional sy-
cOphants and flatterers, whose
headquarters are around the court
house. They are proud OF being
the caudal appendices and Wallets
Of the county ring, for the sake
Of an occasional bone contempt
uously flung to them by their
masters.
By some unaccountable accident,
(of course it must be an accident)
these sycophants and livery men
of the county ring, are called out
Of crowd as often as jurors are
needed. The officers can see them
at long range, but they cannot see
other men right at them. Are the
deputies instructed by their SUI
periOrs to summon these men.
Professional jurors are bad
enough in all conscience, but the
sycophants and livery men Of the
county ring are an hundred times
worse, from the fact that they
sneeZe whenever the county ring
takes pinch Of snuff, and would
as soon put their heads in the fire
as to go against the county ring in
the smallest matter.
If a jury be needed in the JUS
tees court, the county court, or
the district court, the same we'll
known faces bob up, serenely and
smilingly. They are bench men Of
the county ring.
1t is high ii ne, this nuisance
was abated. The officers must
know these perpetual jurors by
sight, as they have seen them at
times, without number, and they
should for the sake of decency,
refuse to accept these sycophants
and tlunkies Of the county ring,
as jurors. Really, it is an imposi-
ton on suitors, to foist these fell
lows on them for jurors.
The court house needs to be
thoroughly swept out and disin-
fected. 1t has been in the hands
Of close corporation too long for
the public good. Everything goes
to the close corporation and its
sycOphants and flunkies. 1t will
be a blessed day for the people,
when the county ring shall be
ousted, and the courthouse shall be
swept from top to bottom, and dis
infected OF the foul air generated
by ringism.
Rotation in office is a remedy
for bighead in public officers as
we'll as for pools and rings amongst
them, and if the people are wise,
they will resort to this drastic
remedy frequently. A county or
city that is ruled by a pool or ring
is under an oligarcby, and close
corporation, which has but one
aim and object to perpetuate itself
in office, by any and all means,
fair or foul. Inordinate lust for
office is sure to render its victims
interruptions in the means used to
crafty this sordid passion
When a ring possesses the power
OF levying, collecting and disburs-
ing the taxes either OF county or
city, it is certain to abuse this
power in order to carry out its self
ish and sinister ends. The people
are the sufferers from ringism.
What caused the new courthouse
to be built? The old one would
have answered the purpose for
years. The burthens, or taxes, OF
the people were already heavy on
them. The county ring needed the
expenditure Of money in order to
perpetuate itself in power.
The good of the people was never
given the least consideration. The
county, in 1892, before the election,
laid the foundation of the new
courthouse itself in order to make
votes by employing labOrers.
The county paid an exhorbitant
price for the site of the new court
house, and the why and the where
fore Of that transaction has never
been satisfactorily explained to the
public and is not likely to be. The
land in question had been offered
for sale in 1890, when there was
a boom in full blast in our city, for
about half the sum paid for it, by
the county, when the boom had
collapsed.
And now the county must pur-
chase a strip of land lying west Of
the court house, which will soon
be completed. Is it not plain that
the county will have to pay two
prices for such strip Of land? It's
owner knows the county has about
completed the court house, and is
bound to have the land, and is