The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-04

living together in this county without
ever taking the trouble to go through
the marriage ceremony. Everything
went on smoothly enough until one
day another senior came along who
pleased the Senorita-or sonora. which,
ever you please to call her-better than
did No. 1. The lady accordingly ran
off with him. MOL ought to have TAX
en- this good-naturedly, as matter of
course, but he failed to do So He fol-
lowed the escaping couple, and on
overtaking them, was impolite enough
to threaten to do dire things with his
knife in case matters were not speedily
settled in way that suited him. At
ter some discussion of the matter it
was agreed to call me in to settle
things. The first question I asked
when l arrived was which one of the
men the woman was really married
to. They told me neither I told them
that the only straight thing to do in
the matter was to let her choose which
one of the two she really preferred.
She very promptly chose No. g. Then
I told them that in order to avoid the
possibility of any misunderstanding in
the future the thing to do was for them
to come to the court house and be
married. They seemed to think my
decision was something from which
there was no appeal, and so they
obeyed it. They were married by the
county judge, and the former husband
made his mark as witness to the
ceremony. He looked a tri1e solemn
at first, but you should have seen his
face light up when he found that his
successful rival had to pay S. for his
triumph-$3 for the license and 81 for
the performing of the ceremony. l
think all three parties considered this
expenditure more in the light of fine
than any other way. 1 don't suppose
sheriffs in your part of the country
have to settle matrimonial differences,
do they?"
No. I replied. eff they did, we
couldn't find anybody foolhardy enough
to undertake the Office
After few minutes L was introduced
to Judge Anderson, who is not only
county judge, but county superinten-
dent of schools as well. He is suppos-
ed to hold at least two sessions of
court each year, as the law directs, but
as there frequently isn't anything to
try. it sometimes happens that the only
business on hand for the court is to
adjourn. He has five schools and six
teachers in his county, with a school
population of 237 children With only
five districts in a good sized county, it
is not to be wondered at that some of
them seem to an fastener to be
rather on a scale OF magnificent dis
tances. The Barstow district, for in
stance, extends clear up to the New
Mexico line. In one instance, it is
seventy miles from the school house to
the furthest corner of the district. In
some countries parents might COM
plain at having to send children to
school that far, but there is no COM
plant at it GEOGRAPHICALLY for the
reason that nobody lives in the extreme
edge of the district, or anywhere near
it. The remuneration for handling the
county school funds and supervising
the county schools amounts in this in
stance, to about $40 per annum. The
eno1uments of the county judges office
are several times that much, but still
not enough to make the position a boz
nanZa.
II suppose when fellow has only
273 voters to electioneer with he can
generally tell pretty well in advance
whether or not he's going to be elected,
can't he judge?" I inquired
The judge shook his head
"By no means" he replied. Politics
are just as uncertain as they are any,
where Over half our votes here are
Mexicans, and you never know how
Mexican's going to vote until his
votes cast and counted. If a fellow
buys their votes. even, he never can
tell but maybe some other fellow will
Gene along an hour later and buy them
the other way We manage to get
along with them very nicely in this
county, for the most part but in some
of these Western counties the politi-