The Constable Who Charged for Mileage on Every Duck
A local anecdote about a frontier constable’s creative approach to fee collection.
Talk about mean men, said old Fox; why, there is that Bill Johnson, he is the meanest man I ever heard tell of. Bill was constable here. Why, don't you think, he had an execution against a man out at Steilacoom, and levied on the old man's ducks, and had me to drive them up and sell them for him. I told him to catch them himself; and so he chased them around the house, and every time he would catch a duck, he would sit down and wring its head off, and charge for mileage!
“Every time he would catch a duck, he would sit down and wring its head off, and charge for mileage!”
This 1859 anecdote highlights the early, often corrupt, and informal nature of frontier law enforcement in Washington Territory. It captures the era's cynical humor regarding public officials who found ways to pad their pockets through creative interpretations of 'mileage' and service fees.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.