The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11

CT seq thev must we had a Legisla- <ure sure 'nough," remarked old Andrew Ashton. the cobbler as he sat coopiins away on a shoe lately entrusted to ms eyill. The shoe was that Of Col. Miies Moran the justice of the raeace, the pest committeeman and kntwn as the po- liticai oracle of the village of Waller. Therefore, the shoe must be done well if Ashton was to continue in high Ia yor. And for the shoe to be done well shton had to wield his tongue. He was little more than a machine in ms trade and just as the coarse dittles reeled off by the axeman lends precls- ion and force to his blows, Ashton was best when he was breeziest
 "'Course I was Twin when the Leg islature assembled but blame my soul if I knew it." continued the shoe arr tisan. never lifting his eyes from the needle which he piled.
 And what lays right on my skin now is. who was our rep'sen'tive? Ding 1t all. I ought to know, but I'm sworn disremember."
 Ashton with these words, contorted bis face and showed his nervous right hand through a tuft of hair which sparsely mantled that section of the head, under which psychologists say the troubling memory lobe of the brain resides The pain of the shoe-flxer was born of a great pride in political lore. Just at present this pride seemed to be assailed by a fit of sheer forget fitness.
 But as A matter of fact. Ashton had no vital reason to. know who the rep resentative was. He had been elected before this character of the village of Waller had come within the jurisdic- tiap of the Waller marshal,
 What stirred Ashton's political flow of conversation today. was big head line spun across three columns of the Aegis, the leading daily of the State, telling of the possible complete sub version of the judiciary of the State, the astonishing lack of court unachin- cry to impeach high officers and sev- eral other dangers to the common wealth caused by the hasty sessions of the last Legislature. It was a rare thing for the cobbler to read a paper, or anything else. He depended on his ear for all his knowledge and was Listener beyond a doubt.
 Mack Bonner, Ashton's cheery shop companion-better styled perhaps, as ssboose" companion-was looking over the paper himself. reading more at length the same article of which Ash ton had only read the headlines. Noth- ing attracted the latter's attention un- til a trailing paragraph was reached. No reference to this was made in the headlines and Ashton had missed 1t. It set Ashtons mind buzzing, and told of how prominent counsel had that day filed an appeal with the clerk of the State Supreme Court, attacking the constitutionality of an act of the Leg islature establishing a dispensary at Beerbug, a lumber town hard by the village of Waller.
 Small wonder. then, that this mend CT of bad soles," well known to the amber kingdom. should become alarmed at an attack on the States boozorium If one doubted Ashton's patriotism to Ehe Beerburg dispensary six miles away. that one had not been close enough to gaze upon that infallible badge, the rubicund countenance which Ashton wore in full share.
 But the Javelins of the Constitutional garrison in the State were aimed at more than the dispensaries. Simultan- eously with the filing of the appeal re- ferred to. equally sagacious legal lights were trying to tear down the judiciary of the State, also handled by the last Legislature.
 But rummage in his mind as he chose, the village leathersmith could not re- call who represented Covent county, the county In which Beerburg was. No light could be thrown on the identity of the representative who had been so care less as to leave in the law a loophole which threatened the existence of con- serVatory CT liquor in Covent county.