The Judge Who Scratched Out His Own Eyes

We find the following item published by authority of Judge Lewis in the evening paper of Saturday last: 'So far from the decision of Judge Lewis on the street grades and city charter of Seattle legally exempting property owners from taxation, as many have supposed, the reverse is the case. The Judge holds and advises that the property will have to pay for the improvement; there is no escape from it.' In other words, Lewis says that his own decision—declaring our City Charter a nullity because the Legislature had no authority to confer power upon the city to levy taxes—means the opposite of what it plainly said. This is just what he ought to have said in the case of the City vs. Yesler, but he didn't. There is nothing in law to have warranted Lewis in arriving at his earlier conclusions, and we are at a loss to account for them, unless upon the theory that when doing so, one of his eyes was directed towards the case, while the other—the unmanageable one—turned itself in the direction of the east half of the Maynard claim, and possibly toward a chance for speculation in city scrip. He has become odious among the people to such an extent that vigorous measures are now being taken for his removal. Hence, these unsolicited suggestions to tax-payers—this rushing into print—this going back on himself. The aptness of the following doggerel suggests itself: 'There is a 'jedgo' in Seattle, / And he is wondrous wise; / He jumped into a bramble bush, / And scratched out both his eyes. / And when he found his eyes were out, / He, cunningest of men, / Jumped into another bush, / To scratch them in again.'