Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1912-01-18
Town Council Game
 Far Too Strenuous

Are you gong to pc cdnuludte Iol the city council?" was the question fired at Jack Dunne last night.
 q am not" said Jack, "at least, not if I am in my right mind when that time comes around, although l don't mind telling you that councilmanic duties, trials and tribulations may by next election have me on the suicide list. Did you ever stop to think that the city council is a collection of self sacrificing citizens, whose chief ann bition is to pave the street in front of somebody else's house, that is, accord ing to the popular notion. It is harder to serve on the council than 1t IS to eat cranberry pie with a knife or Chi nest noodles with chop stick. The man who can survive two terms on a city council without losing his hair, his religion, his false teeth and all sublime faith in human nature could tunnel under the Colorado river with his hands. The only salary attached to the councilmanic office is con- sciousness that all your neighbors are talking about you and swift and unanimous kick from that body at probably the next election after you have been unlucky enough to be elected, and that is to say nothing of about dozen petitions, forty-seven re- quests and a million kicks you have to listen to every day or"
 "Catch your breath, old man. Take your time." interjected the reporter.
 "Well, as I was going to say" con- tinued Jack, after he had got his sec ond wind. "A man that can emerge from two terms on the city council with firm teeth and reputation that would stand even a church trial ought to be thankful and not try to do any more emerging; he might get immers- ed under an avalanche of votes as many more of our esteemed and re- spected or unesteemed and unrespect- ed citizens have found to their sor- row in the past. Any man who has ever been a member of a council is forever viewed with suspicion. He might possibly have been the cause of saddling a sewer assessment on his neighbor or remitting the taxes of his wife's uncle's cousin by marriage. There is also always dark, deep sus- picion that he might have been hunt ing for votes when he lent his aid to the appointment of the first assist ant shoveler to the street wagon, or that he might have bought drink and thereby secured the vote of the man } on the water wagon. There is also faint suspicion in the minds of some that he is too chummy with the ward bosses, said ward bosses usually be- longing to the class whose visible as- sets are a phoney stick pin and plen- ty of nerve and who deliver about one vote, usually their own, and you are lucky if yoS get that. Every other citizen is sore at you because the last street that had hole filled up was ] not in front of his house, and half the others are mad because the street : lights they want are not promptly placed, and still another wants the railroad crossing fixed up; one man wants more police officers, and still another man can't understand why we need more than one officer, and still another man wants his sewer assess ment reduced because John Jones or Jim Smith pay less than he does, and well, take it from me, I'm not a can- didate, and I don't know who will be, but come on, I've got to go find out where George Michelsen is and take him to lunch"
 "Then you don't think much of the honor of being councilman?" queried the reporter.
 'In the language of the Irish "Oi do not and further than that think that the man who invented town council , was a cross-eyed bachelor who had grudge against society because a school girl sweetheart married the other fellow" said Jack, as he turned the corner.
 And he didn't appear to have a grouch at that.
 Mrs. Anna S. Desmond, the owner