CHAPTER XIX.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 adifferencedifferenceof $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 agentnow, 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.
“Jobe he flew up.”
“Jobe he flew up.”
“Jobe he flew up.”
And as there seems to be some doubt as to which one is agentnow, 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 isitnow.
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 biggerprice 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.
“It wasent anything onusual for a county officer to make all he could.”
“It wasent anything onusual for a county officer to make all he could.”
“It wasent anything onusual for a county officer to make all he could.”