A BIG-HEADED MAN.
JOBE and me are livin under a flag of truce. I went down into the
adjoinin county to find out which one of our county commissioners is the
bridge agent, and by what I could hear it was Commissioner Westholt what
was down there, but it seems they are all agents or kind a pardners in
the “commission” bizness.
When I got home I up and told Jobe that it was one of the Republican
commissioners—givin his name. Jobe he flew up and claimed he knew
better; that Commissioner Westholt is a Dimicrat, for he had been
inquirin too.
Jobe said that it was purty hard to find anything out about it, as all
the court-house fellers thought it would be better not to let it git
out.
Jobe says they told him that it wasent anything onusual for a county
officer to make all he could while he had a chance, and as a difference
of $400 or $500 on a bridge was only a little thing to each tax-payer,
they hadent ort to know much about it, as they might git to talkin about
it and hurt the party.
And Jobe says they told him on the quiet that the Dimicrat commissioner
was the bridge agent _now_, but jist as soon as his time was out a
Republican would come in, and a commissioner of his own party would git
the job of lookin arter the bridge company’s interests in this county.
This seemed to satisfy Jobe, so he proposed to me that if I would say
nothin more about it he wouldent until they can git a full board of
Republicans in.
[Illustration: “Jobe he flew up.”]
And as there seems to be some doubt as to which one is agent _now_, that
Dimicrat or one of the Republicans, I agreed to postpone further
argament on the subject until that pint was settled.
I would like to know which one is _it_ now.
If it is the Republican, and not the Dimicrat, Jobe will ketch it. If it
is the Dimicrat, and not a Republican, I expect Ile have to lay low.
But let it be Republican or Dimicrat, either or both, it seems to me
that a man must have a big head for bizness that is able to be the buyer
and seller of a thing at the same time. It seems to me he would git
“mixed in the deal.”
As county commissioner he takes an oath to buy the things for the county
as cheap as he can git them. As agent of the bridge company he would
want to sell a bridge for as high price as possible, so that his
commission would be big.
Wouldent you like to see him a argyin with himself, fust as buyer, then
as salesman?
But then, Jobe says, “they work the office for all there is in it.”
Now, if Mistur Republican or Dimicrat, as the case may be, as county
commissioner, gits his salary from the taxpayers, whether he buys a
bridge at a high figger or a low figger, dont you suppose he lets
himself, as bridge agent, work himself, as county commissioner, for a
little bigger price for a bridge than he would let himself, as county
commissioner, be worked for if somebody else was bridge agent,
especially when the pay for sellin bridges depends on the price you sell
them for?
I cant see what Jobe and his likes expect to git out of that way of
runnin bizness.
But then there are the spittoons.
[Illustration: “It wasent anything onusual for a county officer to make
all he could.”]