The Missouri herald., 1922-04-28
BRASS TACKS" AND
BRAZEN IDEAS

The writer had the pleasure of a
short visit with the county court
in special conclave at Charlottesville
last Saturday morning, the same be-
ing for the purpose of letting the
contract for the county printing
for the period of the next two years,
The Missouri Herald's contract be.
ing due to expire shortly.
Charlottesville is to soon have .
seven-acre wild animal show and
circus with three rings and thirteen
clowns, but having attended this
meeting of the county court, our ap
petite for amusements will be suffi.
ciently appeased to permit us to re-
main at home on that day.
Three of the county newspapers
were representative Republican
TIE Democrat-Argus and The Mis-
souri, Herald, each being body-guard-
ed by an able attorney, which was
some guarantee that neither would
hook the other below the ribs,
Those who had thought these pa
pers widely apart should be unde-
luded-they were, for the time be-
ing, encompassed by the walls OF
one small room. But perhaps they
will never be so closely allied again
for which the world will have no
cause to weep.
The county court was up in the
air" as to law governing the letting
of the county printing" and the
newspaper people appeared to en-
Tighten the court in his or her inter.
est, with the paramount idea OF
landing as much of the job as pos
sible, if all of it could not be had
The attorneys representing the pa.
pers piled cart loads of law books be-
fore the court and from few of
them read and expounded the law
strangely differing but little in their
Interpretation of it. But the funny
part came when the attorneys had
exhausted their vocabularies OF
parlance, their clients, one after an
other, arose and appealed to the
court in their own behalf, recasting
and rebutting the statements OF
their own attorneys, who seemed not
to know one EN- from $50 ems, or 6
square" from justice of the peace
They were long on law, but short
on the printers technique, and pos
sibly the same was also boom
foosling to at least two members of
the county court.
In circuit court if client should
take his case out of the hands of
his attorney, if the charge was suf
ticiently heinous, he would find easy
shedding TO the penitentiary, and
the Judge and the bar.would whoop
him up on the way. So the attOr-
neys for the newspapers showed
plainly their amaZement at the bold
ness of their clients, and some OF
them backed out Of the embar
RAISING situation with as much grace
as they could Mr.. Reeves, who re
presented the presiding Judge and
his partner, also present with his
vocalizer, sank down in a chair, his
face in his hands, from which he
peeped out with one eye, and while
he forebore saying it, he looked as
if he just about agreed with Ralph
Hutchison on the question of mon
keyism." Reeves had possibly
learned from the circuit court that
no matter what man thinks on thi
subject it is better to remain quitl
than to run the risk of getting in .
game of pinochle with the sheriff's
cage of cooties So he said no
thing, but his looks were elequen.
Guffy slid out early in the game
saying an airplane awaited to take
him to Owl City to defend the edito'
of the News" against ar attack Of
ferocious mosquitoes, and that he in.
tended to stand b. all the newspaper
men in the county as long as there
was anything to stand upon, which
in the present case had been swept