The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1900-02-02
PLAIN DUTY AS SHERIFF.
FAT MAN WENT DOWN TO DEFEAT
BECAUSE HE SHIRKED IT.
GIT ISN'T always an easy matter for

SIT ISN'T always an easy matter for
public official to perform his
! duty" said the man of experience. "By
duty mean what is required of him
/; under the law, which is sometimes
/ widely at variance with the promptings
of heart and conscience. have in mind
now the difficult task imposed upon
/ Charley Tatman when he was sheriff of
Clermont county Tatman had been a
! good friend OF mine for many years.
| When he was elected to the Office of
sheriff he asked me to act as deputy.
During the first year of Tatman's term
nothing of importance happened. But
along in the second year of our service,
just at the time when Tatman began to
lay his plans for reelection, we struck
| n snag.
"The farmers in the southern part of
the county gave the alarm. For some
| time, SO they complained, they had been
suffering from the depredations of
some petty robber or band of robbers.
| Most of the thefts were small, but they
were continuous and systematic. The
| luckless farmers had banded them
selves together for the detection of the
| culprit and the protection of their meat
and potatoes, but they made no prog
ress in running down the thief. Once
| or twice, indeed, after light fall of
snow they had succeeded in tracing
| footsteps from three or four houses
xubooa oalIorc boJ boax, Ioofa1 ~ n NJ oo
about a quarter of mile distant from
the scene of the plunder, but at that dis
tance the footsteps suddenly disap-
peared.
The formers suspicious were strong
| ly aroused against a family named
Leach. The Leaches had always been
considered the most worthless white
trash in the neighborhood. They were
lazy, they were uncleanly, and they
were ignorant. 1t was a well-known
| fact that Hiram Leach had not done a
days work in two years. Yet in spite
of this protracted leisure the Leaches
continued to shift along in their usual
| haphazard manner instead of being
| packed off to the poorhouse, bag and
| baggage, as would have been the fate
of any other family in similar circum-
stances. Finally the farmers appealed
to Tatman to help fix the guilt, and in
response to this entreaty Tatman sent
me down into the southern townships
| to see if could find the thieving ras-
Gals. Already the hirelings who stir up
| political gossip had caused it to be
bruited about over the county that Tat
man was totally incompetent and that
he did not earn the salary of good dog
catcher. much less the fat sum paid the
sheriff Of Clermont county. Judging
by these reports 1t was quite plain that
if Tatman did not soon redeem himself
in the eyes of the voters he might as
well wrap up his political hopes for the
| future and save the money he would
necessarily have to spend in the coming
campaign.
81, too, was baf1ed when trying to
discover the purloiner of hams and SIM
liar food. Three robberies were COM
mitted in as many weeks after I took
the case in hand. At last determined
| to get out warrant and search Leach's
house. Before taking action I went up
to Batavia and consulted Tatman.
"I suppose he said, doubtfully.
| that this is the only thing we can do.
I've got to do something to make rec.
| ord for myself or I'll be as bad off as
they say this Leach is. ! guess I'll go
with you. My presence will, perhaps,
make the maneuver more effective and
serve as political timber next fall
at was cold, snowy day in March
when Tatman and left Batavia to make
our raid on Leach's house. It was 20
miles from our town to the river coun-
try. The roads were rough and in some
places well-nigh impossible, and al
| though we set out early in the morn
ing it was late in the afternoon when
we turned into the narrow lane that led
from the highway back TO Leach's. This
/! lane was long and winding and its in
tricacies were hard to master, but after
having passed through a barnyard
which was entered at no less than a
dozen different places by as many sets
of bars we found ourselves on the crest
| of a steep hill, at the foot of which, &C.
cording to the testimony of the boy
who was feeding the shivering animals
| in the sheep shed we should find Leach'p
house. Tatman and / got out of the
buggy and walked down the hill. We
kept peering round us sharply as we
went, but not until we came almost to
| the base of the hill did we see any signs
of q habitation. Then suddenly little
| puff of blue wood smoke was seen curl
ing up through the denuded branches
of the trees to our right. We went on
few steps farther and the house itself
J was in sight. 1t was such little house
of frame and logs, and its color was so
very drab and discouraging that had
we not had the boys word for it that
Leach lived there we should have been
in doubt as to whether Leach's house
was really a house or a stable, not
withstanding the evidence of the chin
ney and the smoke.
! 1--WE hitched our horse to cherry
tree and went into the yard, The sound
of hoofs and wheels had aroused the In
mates of the house, and before we
reached the door small colony of chill
dren and dogs came trooping round to
the northern corner of the building and
stood looking at us wonderingly. The
children were clad scantily. They We're
about the ugliest children ever saw in
my life. They had straight light hair
and dirty faces and pale blue eyes. They
were of various ages and sizes, in which
respect they were like unto the dogs,