The Editor, The Gambler, and The Incorruptible Judge

Editor Higgins found his affinity, and his name is Smith; Smith of the Walla Walla Union, formerly the keeper of a hurdy-gurdy and the ostensible husband of one of his dancing girls. When Smith abandoned the hurdy-gurdy business and became the publisher of the Union, he married another woman, and when arraigned for bigamy, escaped the penitentiary on the testimony of his former wedded wife that they had never been legally married. Smith was subsequently indicted in the Court at Walla Walla as a gambler, convicted, and it became the duty of Judge Lewis to pronounce the sentence of the law upon him. This judicial act of the Judge made Smith his implacable enemy.

Smith assumed that it was the duty of the Judge, as a party man, to hush the matter up. But the Judge is a very impracticable man and shows no party bias in the matter of compromises with criminals. From thenceforth the Union has assailed the Judge continuously with all sorts of denunciation. The bond of sympathy between Smith and Higgins is illustrated in their antecedents, as well as in their mutual and natural hatred of an incorruptible judge. Two or three years ago, when we undertook to arouse the moral sentiment of the community to the public scandal and social curse of hurdy-gurdy dance houses and open gambling hells, Higgins, the editor, came forward as the champion and apologist of the brothel keepers and gamblers.