The editor in great rage, notwithstanding his mission as moral censor,
indulged in a great deal of profanity, by way of making it the better
understood that he would follow us to the ends of the earth,--as soon as
he could get the proper warrant made out.
Our next stopping-place was a brisk little town which chanced to be in
the same county. We exhibited there and slipped away to our next point
on a midnight train, leaving Mr. Booker behind to encounter the
attachment, which, from private advices, we were led to expect the
following morning. The officer accosted Mr. Booker as he was getting on
the train, and asked him if an old weather-beaten valise which he
carried in his hand was his. It was; and that was all the baggage he had
with him, the rest having gone on, of course, with us by the night
train.
With imposing formality the old weather-beaten valise was attached. The
key was also given up, I do not know whether to the officer or to a
lawyer who had come up from the county-seat to advise us in the matter.
The lawyer then and there, in the presence of the officer and of the
interested spectators, was intrusted formally with the case, and, Mr.
Booker joining us in a few hours thereafter, we proceeded unmolested on
our travels.
The justice and the counsel on both sides seem to have entered into the
affair with the design of getting all the sport they could out of it. On
the day of the trial the court-room was thronged. In the absence of
witnesses for the defence, and I suppose also by collusion, the case
went against the “Booker Troupe.” The editor, who was of course present,
was in great glee.
At this stage of the proceedings it has been related--I know not how
truly--the Justice arose, and in the most solemn manner spoke of the
case as peculiarly aggressive on the part of a company of itinerant
showmen; and inasmuch as their fellow-citizen had taken it upon himself,
single-handed, to drive this growing evil out of the land, therefore the
magistrate ordered, although it was a little informal, that the
constable without further delay, which had in the tardy course of
justice been too long already, should in the presence of that court open
the valise and proceed to the sale of its contents.
The face of the moral editor is reported to have beamed more brightly
than ever at this stage of his triumph.
With much pomp and circumstance the key was produced, and the ragged
valise brought forward and opened. As nearly as I can remember, from
having been present at the packing, and from an account of the affair
sent to us afterward, the constable then began with grave deliberation
to draw forth from that discouraged old portmanteau the following
articles, to wit:--
1 large brick,
1 quart of beans,
1 silk hat, without rim or lining,
3 lbs. potatoes,--which latter had sprouted in the delays of justice,
1 old boot,
1 letter of congratulation to the moral editor,--which was read in open
court,--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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