The Portland daily press., 1895-04-13
CHASING THE TAX COLLECTOR.
One of the Duties Of a Voter in the
Blue Hen State.

Political Methods in the Commonwealth
Where Addicks, the Gas Man, is
Blockading the notwithstanding
Scenes.
The contest which Addicks. the gas mo-
nopolist has precipitated in the DelawaI
Legislature in his efforts to get elected TO
the United States, has drawn attention to
the curious and outrageous election laws of
that State. Before man may vote there
he must have paid bis tax, and before he
| can pay it he must have been assessed for
| it. so the assessors are made political
agents, and when an election is to bu car
fled they simply emit to assess enough of
| the opposite party to control the election.
An article il the New York sun relates
some interesting events which this method
has brought about.
| In 1858, in the city of Wilmington, the as
SCISSORS left fl ON the roll the names of some
| l,20O citizens OF the opposite political par ty.
| A few of these succeeded in forcing him to
| assess hem, but the rest had to wait for
| the meeting of the Levy Court. When that
meeting took place the citizens gathered in
gre at numbers at the City Hall, Clamoring
to be assessed. There were threats made
| aPainst members Of the court. The court
proceeded with its work at snails pace,
sometimes occupying as much As half an
| hour in examining one applicant for The
privilege of paying tax. Members of the
opposite political party crowded their men
| into the room. ana the Levy Court hearl
their cases FIRST. The would-be -assessed
! held the line against them, and then tie
off cials of the court began letting men in
1 at a rear door. Many of these men were
already assessed. but time was occupied in
examining them just the same, and the men
| entitled to assessment we're kept waiting.
This went on day after day, and the ilme
of tie sitting Of the court was coming TO an
end. Only 200 OF the 1l.9U0 Ci,izfn MS had sue
ceeded in getting ON the roll. Matters were
becoming more strained every hour. The
police force was called out and the police
men ood with drawn revolyers. The
affair ended in rio, in which, fortunate
~, nobody was killed. The trouble accel-
Grated the work of the court somewhat, but
/ only about 400 of the citizens entitled TO be
| assessed succeeded in getting on tho roll.
| Eight hundred were disfranehised. Had
they succeeded in securing their rights
the result of the election the following no
yember would have been diaerent
The outs allege that the records of tie
State are full of incidents similar to this.
They have been almost of annual occur
| renee sin e the present system was adopted
twenty-five years ago. Only year or SO
ago Levy Court in another county did not
| want to assess about 100 men from lower
hundreds in the county. II ese men went
day after day to the county seat to ind
! that the court was not sitting or was just
i about to adjourn for the day. They threat
ened and BULLDOGS to no purpose. but tnal-
| " they succeeded in getting the members
| of the court to name day when they
woull surely sit. In order to be sure to get
/ TO town in time they took train that ar
4 rived in the town at O'CLOCK in the morn
/ Ing. There was wko.e car load of them.
The Levy Court was prepared Tor them.
/ The members got up before day!reak, heId
a session, adjourned. and went to the rail-
road station. They loiTded the train that
the would-he assessed men rived on, ana
| sot out of town. The citizens searched
| high and low for them, and discovered
I'm ally that they had been tricked. Ihey
/ promptly formed vigila nce committee Tor
the purpose of lynchins the memoers OF the
/ court hut the mem beers of the court stayea
away until the vigiante had tired OF Walt-
ing and gone back home. This was not TN
til after the expirat on of the time In winch
i it was possible to get assessed. These TWO
instances are fair samples of the dificulties
emf ountered in getting assessed by TIE
Levy Court.
But difficult as it is to get on the roll, it is
still more difficult to pay our taxes aftel
YOU get on. AS was shown by the la"
quoted above, in order to pay a tax 1t 1t
necessary personally to find the collector.
Having once found him, it is necessary 10
convince him that he is pers onally ac-
uuain ed with The applicant. he Difficult
, ties in connection with this part OF The tax
system have led o a sport known as collector
!, hunting The collector exiles himself from
home and friends. and the people who want
to pay their taxes go hun ing for him. some
times with shotguns. The guns are to Sc
cure an acknowledge ment fiom him. after
he is caught, that he is pers onally acquaint
ed with the gunner. and hence can receive
his tax and give a receipt for 1t. The hunt
ing party sometimes trees the collector or
! runs him to earth, as he case may be.
This, of course, sounds vely ridiculous,
but it is a fact nevertheless. Here is an in
stance: Last year the collector of one of
the hundreds left his house he Gay he heard
that forty men from neigh Soling towns
, were coming to pay their taxes. He re-
Ii aimed in hiding all day. The forty came
and scar ched fer him. but didn'l find him.
They returned home and organized a vigil
, lance committee. Pickets were sent 10 the
, collectors town. They remained on duty
night and day. Other members of the
committee hunted the rest of the hundred.
: The search had gone on some time when
Z the pckets on duty near the collector s
house discovered the Official sneaking
, along, lodging behind trees and fences,
, toward a rear door of the.house. The pick
cts watched MIN so in and then sent hur-