Under-sheriff

“ If he be the possessor of a decent coat and hat, and can scrape any acquaintance with any one concerned, he may get introduced to that overworked and greatly perplexed official, the under-sheriff, who will stave him off if possible,—knowing that even an under-sheriff cannot make space elastic,—but, if the introduction has been acknowledged as good, will probably find a seat for him if he persevere to the end. ”

“ They drowned the sheriff's voice with clamor.
"Cheated the gallows—stabbed himself."
The sheriff again attempted to speak, but the tumult grew louder.
"Bring him out—dead or alive, bring him out!"
The officer waved his hand and pointed into the cell. Half a dozen men sprang up from the masses, and ran from one gallery to another, shouting to the crowd below.
"We'll see for ourselves—it's all sham—they mean to let him escape!" ”

“ Each felon draws a whistling breath, "Time's up with Colt! he's done The sheriff looks his watch again, Then puts it in his fob, And turns him to the hangman,— "Get ready for the job." The jailer knocketh loudly, The turnkey draws the bolt, And pleasantly the sheriff says, "We're waiting, Mister Colt!" No answer! no! no answer! All's still as death within; The sheriff eyes the jailer, The jailer strokes his chin. ”

“ Sheriff? Things have got to a nice pass when that can be."
"Listen!" thundered the sheriff, turning squarely on the astonished lawyer, and shaking his finger under his long nose; "you lied to me about all that valuable paper business. It was you that wanted to steal something you believed this lad carried about his person, a paper that would tell you where to find that hidden silver mine! And I was fool enough to believe you, and to be hoodwinked that way. A sheriff is sworn to do his duty only so long as he believes he is doing right; he has no claim to persecute an innocent party. ”

“ Alden Lytton," answered the deputy-sheriff, gravely. "I repeat that you are my prisoner."
"Prisoner!" echoed a score of voices, giving expression at length to their amazement.
"Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he is my prisoner. I think I spoke plainly enough; and I hope I shall have no trouble in making the arrest," answered the deputy-sheriff, who, if he were not behaving very rudely, was certainly not doing his duty very courteously. ”

“ Sometimes in the country, sheriffs have had much difficulty to procure an executioner. In short, although, in the eyes of the people generally, a stigma attaches to the hangman, yet, in fact, the hangman is the sheriff’s immediate deputy in criminal matters, as his under-sheriff is for civil purposes. The nature and dignity of the office in some particulars, and the rank of the officer, called Squire Ketch, will be found to be supportable, as well as the fee of office. ”

“ His evil passions were like fire covered with ashes, concealed, not extinguished. He now found that I was determined to try to regain my liberty at all events, and the sheriff was no sooner gone than the overseer was sent for, to come from the field, and I was tied up and whipped, with the long lashed negro whip, until I fainted, and was carried in a state of insensibility to my lodgings in the quarter. ”

“ Heard the Under-sheriff read the proclamation, and demand entrance; when Rogers refused.
Carpenter went up and struck at the door; and as he turned about was shot in the back; he was shot in the leg; had orders from the Under-sheriff to fire.
The Prisoner. Had good counsel, and thought he had a good right to the estate; was unwilling to deliver it up the first day; told him he intended to appeal; said if he did not deliver possession he might bring a writ of rebellion against him. Sheriff swore he would have possession. Sheriff went off, and he did not expect to see him again. ”

“ But as it was by common accord decided, that a sub-sheriff could not possibly be considered a gentleman, none such would do him the honour of fighting him. Yet, being necessitated to adopt some mode of keeping the high out of the fangs of fire-eaters, and himself from a fracture by the butt-end of a loaded whip, or the welts of a cutting one, or of having his “seat of honour” treated as if it were a foot-ball, the sub struck out a plan of preventing any catastrophe of the kind—which plan, by aid of a little smart affidavit, generally succeeded extremely well in the superior courts. ”

“ Order must be preserved and the dignity of the Court maintained.”
There was a stir—half of horror—throughout the court-room. Put a man in that jail just for being tight!
Then the Sheriff on one side and his deputy on the other, led the culprit out, now sufficiently quiet and half whimpering. A considerable portion of the crowd followed him.
Outside, the prisoner was sober enough, and he begged hard to be let off and allowed to go home. His friends, too, joined in his petition and promised to guarantee that he would not come back again during the term of court. But the Sheriff was firm. ”

“ And if a sheriff send word to another sheriff that men have fled from his county to the other county because of robbery, murder, theft, or the reception of those committing them, or for outlawry or an offense against the king’s forest, let the latter sheriff arrest them; and indeed if he find out of himself or through others that such men have fled into his county, he is to arrest and hold them until he have sure pledges for them. ”

“ It is perhaps not too much to say that a Western sheriff is an irresponsible official, possessed of gigantic powers, but seldom known to abuse them. He is a Cæsar, chosen for his honesty, fearlessness, clean shooting, and quick loading, by men who know him well: if he breaks down, he is soon deposed, and a better man chosen for dictator. ”

“ We don’t care. The sheriff sometimes transfers them. If I call him; when I think a man is a little bit unruly, the sheriff often handles the transfer.
I started to tell you, after they are filed on, they become the sheriff’s prisoner. I couldn’t tell you about the rules of transfer, why the constable transfers the other prisoners instead of the sheriff, but that is the usual thing.
Mr. Hubert. Would it have been possible for you to have made the investigation and the interrogation of Oswald that was made on Saturday and Sunday morning at the county jail rather than in the homicide office? ”

“ However, as the evils arise not so much from the Defect of our laws as from a Breach of them, there is a firm bottom to proceed on, and from your insatiable hatred to oppression, we may hope to see some wholesome regulations in the sheriffs department. The judicious choice of Mr. Reynolds, as under-sheriff, will greatly facilitate a remedy to these growing complaints; from whom, as a man and friend to the community, we have every thing to hope—as an able lawyer, nothing to doubt. ”

“ None of the three spoke again until the door of the jail was burst open, and the deputy came on them, running.
"Kern," he gasped, as he reached the sheriff, "they're coming."
"Who?"
"Every man in Sour Creek. They tried to get me with 'em. I told 'em I'd stay and then slipped off. They want both of these. They want 'em bad. They're going to fight to get 'em!"
"Do they want to grab Arizona and Sinclair?" asked the sheriff, with surprising lack of emotion. "Don't think they're guilty?" ”

“ Sheriff——"
"You forget Royson. He is merciless and alert. If he discovers Mr. Morgan's presence in this community he will force an arrest. The sheriff will do all in his power for us, but he is an officer under oath, and with an eye, of course, to re-election. I would forestall this; I would let the man who comes to guard Dick guard Mr. Morgan also. In other words, let him go under arrest and accept a guard in his own house. The sheriff can act in this upon his own discretion, but the arrest should be made." Edward and the general were for a moment silent. ”

“ The sheriff will settle him when he gits here——"
"I don't care anything about the sheriff. The coward shall suffer for this, if he is the one who attacked me. I'll drive him out myself, if you won't help me. ”

“ Then spake good Adam Bell To Clym of the Clough so free, "Brother, see ye mark the Justice well; Lo, yonder ye may him see; And at the Sheriff shoot I will Strongly with arrow keen." A better shot in merry Carlisle This seven year was not seen. They loosed their arrows both at once, Of no man had they drede; The one hit the Justice, the other the Sheriff, That both their sides gan bleed. All men voided, that them stood nigh, When the Justice fell to the ground, And the Sheriff fell nigh him by, Either had his death's wound. All the citizens fast gan flee, They durst no longer abide ”

“ Ay, ay, and they were happy days, wench, when the captain was a lean poor humble thing, and the soldier tame, and durst not come within the city for fear of a constable and a whipping-post. They know the penal statutes give no quarter. Then Buff was out of countenance, and skulked from alehouse to alehouse, and the city had no militia but the sheriff's men. In those merry days, a bailiff trod the streets with terror, when all the chains in the city were rusty but Master Sheriff's; when the people knew no evil but the constable and his watch. ”

“ God's curse is on the man; and he will never, I tell you, never be suffered to escape us."
"Well, then," resumed the sheriff, thoughtfully, "what course do you think he will take, and where secrete himself, so that he can be found? I, on my part, stand ready to do every thing in my power to bring the miscreant, of whose guilt I think there can now be but little doubt, to immediate justice. ”

“ This is the sheriff’s posse!”
“I hear you say it.”
“I am the sheriff of Socorro County,” said another voice, “and I summon you to surrender.”
“I am a Bar Cross man in a Bar Cross [Pg 52] house,” repeated Johnny. “If you’re the sheriff, walk in that door on your hind legs, with your hands up, and let us have a look at you.”
“That’s Johnny Dines talking!” said a third voice. “Hello, Dines! This is me, Bill Fewell! Say, this is the sheriff and his posse all right! Don’t you get in wrong.”
“One man may unbuckle his belt and back in at that door, hands up. ”

“ The sheriff is a character, Sleepy. You’ll like him. He ain’t got a brain in his head, and he’s got a deputy that don’t know there ever was a Civil War—and don’t care. This sheriff was a deputy just long enough to learn how to pin his badge on right side up. There’s nobody to show ’em what to do. I met the prosecuting attorney. Queer looking jigger, named Ryker. Wears celluloid cuffs and a collar two sizes too big. Ex-assayer. Still owns the assay office here.
“They tell me that the judge is an old-timer here. Lives alone, with a crippled Chinese cook. ”

“ It’s different with a sheriff. He’s the man who comes riding with his guns at his side; they can see him perform. All the law that they know centers in him; all branches of government, as they understand his powers. Yes, a sheriff is something of a figure in this county, Frances, and to be nominated for that office by one party and indorsed by another is just about the biggest compliment a man can receive. ”

“ Still the sheriff was all right. When he looked out of his dreamy blue eyes through his rimless nose glasses at a negro miner who had used his razor as an adjunct to an argument, and mildly requested the negro to accompany him to the confines of the county jail, it was as certain as the advent of death that the negro would obey, and obey without comment. ”

“ It is the plan to have you in the weak jail confined—one single night will serve their purpose—and when your friends come the next morning it will be too late. The sheriff is a weakling, as you know—worse, he is as wax in the hands of Bartholomew, who did win from him at cards much treasure that is to the county belonging, though why that should be cause to make him lick my husband's hand I can not understand. ”

“ He has thus retained intact his judicial functions, to which 368such nominal administrative duties as still remain to him are entirely subordinate. In the United States of America, on the contrary, the sheriff is a purely executive official, possessing perhaps more real power, but notably less honour and social distinction than fall to the lot of the English high sheriff. The duties of his office are sometimes performed by him in person; he may even set out at the head of the posse comitatus in pursuit of criminals. ”

“ It hopes that the incarceration of one night in the common gaol may prove in case of a young man like yourself sufficiently efficacious to deter you from the repetition of so grave a misdemeanor, and at the same time not crush too much that generous spirit of youth which in its proper exercise may prove so advantageous to its possessor, and redound so much to the benefit of the Commonwealth. The order of the Court, therefore, is that the Sheriff discharge you from further imprisonment. ”

“ But though the sheriff is thus the principal conservator of the peace in his county, yet, by the express directions of the great charter [20] , he, together with the constable, coroner, and certain other officers of the king, are forbidden to hold any pleas of the crown, or, in other words, to try any criminal offence. For it would be highly unbecoming, that the executioners of justice should be also the judges; should impose, as well as levy, fines and amercements; should one day condemn a man to death, and personally execute him the next. ”