The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-11
Squared Up with Justice.

The Texas Judge was giving the Wash
ington 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 tenderfeeet," said the
Judge, with proper judicial dignity,
Hiram Hooten, who came to my county
when ! was a young man, was the rarest
specimen ever met up with. Hiram had
a twang to his speech, a good deal like
an Indiana Yankee, when he first came
TO the county, but the Texas climate soft
ened that of its Irregularities, 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 nuIher
ons to mention, and his simplicity of
character was really painful, especially
when one of our citizens sold him a farm
for $500 that nobody in the county would
have at any price. Hiram, however never
complained, and he managed some
how to make living on his farm, which
some of our people could not do on bet
ter ones. He had also managed somehow
to have a little money in bank, and, not
WINS tdiAeMuS MS BulleleSSHeSSs II was
not considered safe toward the last to
monkey with Hiram in a horse trade.
StiH, every now and then he would do a
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 a trade, and Hiram would be found
wide awake.
''One day Hiram was in the sheriff's Of
fee paying his taxes, and he insisted that
1t wasn't Justice to the taxpayers of the
county that he should pay taxes on his
farm, which was assessed at only $3.50. He
said it ought to be 81. 500 at least, and
the sheriff began to think Hiram had an
other one of his fits, and the next thing
he knew he would have to have a trustee
appointed to look out for him. However,
Hiram prevailed upon him to use his good
influence in having the proper figures pue
on his farm, and Hiram was greatly COM
forted when he was informed that next
year his taxes would be on the increased
variation. Then Hiram went off about his
business, smiling and the sheriff met him
next day, and in small horse and cattle
trade Hiram came out a 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 or six months Hiram went
along about as usual, and the neighbors
didn't notice anything peculiar until he
and he must have wasted as much as 81
improving the looks of things. Then one
day tidy sort of a man came to the
sheriffs office with Hiram, and they
looked over the books, and the stranger
seemed to be satisfied with what he saw
and hadn't a word to say to anybody 4
week later he came around again, and
this time Hiram came to me TO draw up
the deeds and to transfer the property to
the stranger, the price being $1,000 for the
farm as it stood, in cash. 1t was only
$500 above the assessed valuation, ana
| the stranger thought he was getting a
snap. l never said word, for Hiram had
given me $50 fee, and is wasn't my place
to talk. A day after the new man took
possession Hiram left the county and the
stranger told the sheriff in confidence thar
he had known Hiram back in Indiana
and he was always considered just a Mt
tie slack-twisted and the sheriff grinned
and called the attention of the stranger
to the fact that Hiram Hooten had in
| creased the taxable valuation of that
farm from $3.50 to $500 for nothing On
| earth but simple justice"