The Portland daily press., 1897-05-12

Mr.. Blackman, recalled, testified that
he had taken offal from Mr.. Sterling
when that gentleman was collector the
practice being sanctioned by the commit
tee.
Mr.. Sterling promptly addressed the
court again claiming that while Mr..
Blackman had taken offal for his, hens,
his manner of handling it had caused
complaint. II wouldn't let the minister
have an ounce of offal if my committee
did not say so,' said Mr.. Sterling.
Then the fun began. "These men that
come here and pay no taxes want to run
the Sterling boys off, exclaimed Mr..
Sterling, gesticulating as he spoke. Point
ing to Mr.. Joseph Dow who was
instrumental in circulating the petition,
Mr.. Sterling shouted: ''There's man
there who wants to drive the Sterling
boys off the island, but it will take a
mouse full of Joe Bows to do it.
Captain Fisher, who is man of mild
ana deliberate speech, interposed from
pack seat. Yes, bury the Bluenoses. ~
those in the front of the hall did not
catch the connection between this remark
and Mr.. Sterling's words, but that
gentleman whirled around in the direction
OF the Captain, sayingi
I My father was an American and my
grandfather was an American We fought
the English and the Bluenoses once and
are capable of doing it today and dom It
you forget it.
81 know that retorted the Captain.
''But Bluenoses went to the front in '61,
and stood it like men while some of the
other fellows hid in a bag
"Who skeddaddled to Nova Scotia ?''
shouted Sterling. 81 know one vessel
that went out in the night with eleven
Stockholders on board Who was they?
They wasn't Americans y
The Court-Is there anybody else who
wants to be heard? We started in on
swill, and we didn't think we were going
to get back to the war.
Mr.. Sterling kept right on, to the great
delight of his fellow citizens. "No,
there's class of people that comes down
to this island and they think when they
have been here one or two years the in
habitants have got to get off. You've got
things fixed up here in pretty good shape
Yes, but whose money did it? I know
pretty near. I've been here fifty five years
and"-
Captain Fisher-Who brought the meet
ing house here first? Who brought the
frame here and helped put it up. Four of
us went and got it and worked ON it be-
fore went to the Banks.
Mr.. Sterling-That's all you know
about it. The first meeting house on this
island was attached to the old homestead
up there. This country was discovered a
good many years before you came here.
Mr.. Blackman wanted to know at this
stage of the proceedings where the swill
came in, and the court cut short the dis
cussion of the meeting house question
with the remark: III thought we came
here to discuss swill; not meeting houses
| or the war;
Mr.. Looney spoke briefly for Mr.. Stod-
dard, referring to the cloud of witnesses
and the monster petition in his favor and
the necessity for economy in, expenditure
in these days when taxes were going up.
Mr. Looney also addressed the court on
the legal aspect of the case, claiming that
as no contract had been signed and an
offal collector was an employee rather than
| an officer, it was competent for the COM
mittee to rescind it's vote in favor of Mr.
Sterling and make contract with Mr.
Stoddard.
Mr.. Sterling then in his turn addressed
the court. He declared that the petition
ers had been deceived by a snap game
and that there were those among them
who would saw their right arms off rather
than go against Bob Sterling. He init
game" things would have been different.
can put it in the corner of your eye, ''he ex-
my taxes and that's more than some
honorable for a man to come into this
island and take these little jobs from me
that pays my taxes?"
The court declared that this was not a
matter of taxes, and closed the case de-
claring that the proceedings would be
laid before the committee and he hoped
the decision would be on the right side.
But committees didn't like to back and
fill You could see where the city would
be in year if they went back on their
trades In conclusion Mr. Rounds adj
vised the Peaks islanders in future to
make their complaints to the committee
and not on the street corners.
PORTLAND AGREES.