The Lawyer Who Bombed City Hall With a Piece of Paper

At the mid-year meeting before the two houses of the city council last evening, John Wiley exploded a little bomb that for the time shattered the proceedings all to pieces. As soon as the meeting was called to order and Mayor Phelps had taken his seat beside Corporation Counsel Scott, the accused at a position beside his attorney, and the city had signified that it was ready to proceed, Mr. Wiley leaned over to Attorney Aims and whispered in a loud tone:

"Now serve your paper."

The delegates and crowd of spectators eyed him curiously as he handed a document to the mayor, corporation counsel and aldermen. They waited while the bailiff placed a chair for the witness. All at once Mr. Scott, turning to Mr. Wiley, asked:

"Why didn't you do this before putting us all to the trouble of coming up here?"

"I tried to get you to postpone the matter last evening, but you wouldn't do it," answered Mr. Wiley.

By this time curiosity had risen to a high pitch and everybody was asking his neighbor what all the trouble was about. They were relieved when Mr. Scott announced that the documents were in the nature of an alternative writ of prohibition issued out of the superior court, with a rule to show cause why the writ should not be made absolute and peremptory, returnable before the judge at 2 o'clock this afternoon. In the meantime the mayor and council were restrained from any proceedings whatever.

The assembled city fathers evidently did not like the turn affairs had taken. There was an appearance of dark muttering, and the cloud was not cleared away when Mr. Scott announced:

"I suppose we would be in contempt of court if we should disobey the order. This complaint has been filed in the superior court, but whether there is anything in it has not yet been determined. It purports to announce the council has no jurisdiction of this case."

A number of the members spoke up informally, some of them suggesting that Wiley take a week, others that he delay matters until Christmas, while one or two seemed disposed to hurry the affair to a conclusion. At this Wiley smiled a broad and radiant smile, and thrusting his hands deep into his cavernous pockets, said:

"It's perfectly immaterial to me what course you take."

A motion was then made that the council adjourn until next Monday at 8 p. m. Crichton moved to amend to make the time this evening, and in support of his proposed amendment made a stirring speech. The city, he said, had been at boys' play long enough over the Masel case, and there had been nothing to prevent the entire fire department from going absolutely to pieces and becoming worthless save the individual ability and character of the firemen themselves. He wanted the council to make an end of the foolishness and settle the matter at once.

The original motion was carried, 10 to 7.