Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/669

 Some Political Bosses matchless orator had actually kissed

the Blarney Stone of his native land with due, solemn and appropriate rites ere he expatriated himself from the “ould sod,” so that as an orator before the said courts and at such gatherings

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and performing that mysterious rite of “ﬁngering the glass,” that is, cover ing the glass with the four ﬁngers of his hand, for the reason, as he invariably explained, that the whole hand was indicative of the whole heart, which

be attracted much attention, and his

convinced everybody but the barkeeper

oratorical ﬂights made him a ram a'm's indeed.

that his explanation was disingenuous,

But at the other bar, the bar of the

refectory, his nicely rounded periods, his matchless eloquence, and his ver bosity seemed to have deserted him,

would call for his favorite beverage of "rock and rye,” and ﬁlling his glass

would turn his face heavenward as if to emphasize his assertions of fellow ship and goodwill toward his generous

and his language was monosyllabic and

companion, drain its contents to the

repetitious but to the point, and the

very last drop; then, remembering that it would be his turn next to stand treat should they tarry long, he would hastily depart after striking his enter tainer for a moderate loan which he would generously promise to return the very next day, and at,the same time conﬁdently assuring his admiring

attendant had come to know it by heart, so that when the well~known, concise

and suggestive phrase of “the same," fell from his fevered lips, the receptacle containing the favorite refreshment was already before him. The high priest is yet living and is making history on more high-toned and probably remunerative lines, but the

Justice and the Constable have now passed over to the great majority. “Country Bill," the Constable, was a strange mix-up of character and a lack of character combined; he always wore a black frock coat of ample dimen

friend, if a resident of the town, that

he would nominate him for town committeeman at the very next meeting of the board, and that he would jam

the nomination through himself, “by Gawd, sir."

On these occasions Bill would almost invariably secure an invitation to the

sions, a white shirt with a high standing

high priest and the justice to participate,

collar, but his trousers and his shoes,

as they were generally to be found in

like his habits, always needed mending. The upper part of his make-up re

the “back room," so that it early be

minded one of an unfrocked clergyman, and the lower half suggested the "dusty roads” of the humorous paragrapher.

came known that invitation to Bill could be counted on to be an invita tion and extension of hospitality to the three, for Bill was loyal to the men

When "Country Bill" was invited to

who furnished him with the means and

drink he was never known to refuse, for

he said that refusals tended to dis

opportunity to get the most out of life for the smallest return, and it is said

courage cordiality, for Bill was nothing if not cordial, especially if the invitation

that the only real diﬁerences that sprung up between him and the other

and the expense came alike from the

two arose from their neglecting to reciprocate when the entertainer was

other fellow; so with an alacrity that

was not likely to be construed into merely an observance of duty and policy, Bill would step up to the bar,

their friend and not his. Bill too, was noted as a “ﬁsherman,”

but the waters tributary to the town