The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-04
Burros Browse
About the Court
House Corridors.


building was the sheriff. He was a
very polite. miId-mannered gentle
man. but looked very unlike what one
would expect the sheriff of frontier
county in Texas to be. When l asked
him to give me some of the adven-
turous incidents that I felt sure must
have attended his official career he
smiled quietly and shook his head.
NO" he replied, Il have about as
little opportunity for wild adventures
here as anywhere you could think OF.
Fact is, about the most disagreeabie
feature about my work here is it's mo-
righteousness. I'd mighty near well
come little shooting scrape once in a
while lust for the sake of variety. l
haven't made an arrest in almost a
year. You see our little jail out there,
don't you? l guess you notice that
the doors open. That's because
there's nobody in it. The last folks In
there was the grand jury at the last
term Ct court. tt ey wen' in tt in
>es;itate its condition, ticn the law
makes it their duty to do. THY said
they found it all rirh., and l guess
they did. 1 haven't oten in thare late-
ly myself. The last time a prisoner
was in there was about six months
ago. A tramp was put Oft freight
train at this place, and as he had a
bottle of whisky with him he proceed
ed to paint the town red. You see.
we don't allow no whisky to be sold
here in town, but of course, we amt
responsible for what fellow buys
somewhere else and brings here.
guess this fellow thought he was in
the wild West and it wouldn't make
no difference, but we fooled him trip.
We put him in Jail for a breach of the
peace and kept him there till he got
sober. Then we asked him If he'd
agree to leave the town if we'd let
him out. He said he would, and he
kept his word That's about the most
desperate adventure I've had since
I've been sheriff.
How does it happen that you have
made so few arrests?" I asked, with
some interest.
Nobody to arrest" was the laconic
reply. There wasn't but 273 votes
polied at the last election, and they are
nearly all cowboys or MeXicans, and
peaceable like. If there was more peo-
pie / suppose there'd be more crime.
Over in Reeves county, for instance,
Just west of here. they polled COL votes
last November, ana the SneTlH over
there has to arrest some fellow every
once in a while. On Winkler county,
though, they polled twentysix votes,
and in Loving only seven. In those
counties they do not even keep up the
form Of a county, government. They
are unorganized, and are attached TO
Reeves county for purposes of govern
ment."
1T seems TO me that this county
might as well be iunorganized, for all
the good it does Il suggested. What S
the use of having "a sheriff at all if he
never arrests anybody?"
"Well, he can at least collect taxes,
was the good-natured reply. "Out here
you know, we combine the office of
sheriff with that of collector. The
criminal feature of my Office is almost
a sinecure, but the collecting is pretty
heavy work. Moreover, 1 have to per-
form a few duties that the constitu-
ton of the state of Texas does not
really make incumbent upon the sher-
ifs office For instance, / acted as
an adjudicator in a matrimonial diff
Guilty only yesterday. 1t seems that a
Mexican man and woman had been
cal methods employed are caution.