Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1896-12-17
HE WAS GREEN,
And He Kept Getting Worsted Until
He Was $4,000 Ahead.
From the Washington Star.

Anu I1t hcpt UcGtluR WOISt6u UuLll
He Was $4,000 Ahead.
From the Washington Star.
The Texas Judge was giving the Star
reporter few wild steers, so to speak,
on the manners and customs of the
people of his greatest and second to
none State in the glorious galaxy of
the Union, or words to that effect.
And the reporter was observing at the
same time how unlike the Judge was
in this respect to any and all Texans
he had met:
"Speaking of tenderfeet," said the
Judge, with proper judicial dignity,
"Hiram Hooten, who came to my
county when was q young man, was
the rarest specimen I ever met with.
Hiram had twang to his speech, a
good deal like an Indiana Yankee,
when he first came to the county, but
the Texas climate softened that of its
angularities, SO that at the last we did
not care where he came from, and
Hiram for some reason never told us.
The things that Hiram did in the way
of honesty were too numerous to
mention, and his simplicity of charac-
ter was really painful, especially when
one of our citizens sold him farm for
$500 that nobody in the county would
have at any price. Hiram, however,
never complained, and he managed
somehow to make living on his farm,
which some our people could not do on
better ones. He had also managed
somehow to have little money in
bank, and, Notwithstanding his guile
lessness, it was not considered safe to-
ward the last to monkey with Hiram
in horse trade. Still every now and
then he would do fool thing, and the
next round some of our best men
would be after Hiram for a chance to
catch him mapping in some kind of q
trade, and Hiram would be found wide
awake.
"One day Hiram was in the Sheriff's
Office paying his taxes, and he insisted
that it wasn't justice to the taxpayers
of the county that he should pay taxes
on his farm, which was assessed at on
ly $3.50. He said it ought to be $500
at least, and the Sheriff began to think
Hiram had another one of his fits, and
the next thing he knew he would have
to have trustee appointed to look
out for him. However, Hiram pre-
vailed upon him to use his good offices
in having the proper figures put on
the farm, and Hiram was greatly COM
| forted when he was informed that next
year his taxes would be on the in
creased valuation. Then hiram went
off about his business, smiling, and
the Sheriff met him next day, and in a
small horse and cattle trade Hiram
came out pair of mules ahead, and
the Sheriff didn't know what hurt him.
But he thought he would get in on
Hiram before he had recovered from
his fit in the cause of justice. For five
as usual, and the neighbors didn't no.
tice anything peculiar until he began
to whitewash his barns and fences,
and he must have wasted as much as
s4 improving the looks of things.
Then one day a tidy sort of a man
came to the Sheriff's Office with Hi
ram, and they looked over the books,
and the stranger seemed to be salts
fed with what he saw and hadn't a
word to say to anybody. A week later
he came around again, and this time
Hiram came to me to draw up the
deeds and transfer the property to the
stranger, tho price being 1000 for the
farm as it stood, in cash. 1t was only
$500 above the assessed valuation, and
the stranger thought he was getting a
snap. never said a word, for Hiram
had given me a $50 fee, and 1t wasn't
my place to 1alk. A day after the new
man took possession Hiram left the
county, and the stranger told the
Sheriff In confidence that he had
known Hiram back in Indiana, and he
was always considered just a little
slack twisted, and the Sheriff grinned
and called the attention of the stranger
to the fact that Hiram Hooten had in
creased the taxable value of that farm
from $3.50 to $4,000 for nothing on
earth but simple justice.'