The Round-Faced Commissioner and the Judge on Trial

County Commissioner Joseph Sweeney, Sheriff John Kelly, R. H. Wansborough, clerk of the Superior Court, and the Hon. J. E. Tucker, were subpoenaed by Deputy McGinnis, of Port Townsend, to appear before the Legislature at Olympia and testify as to what they know about Morris B. Sachs' judicial character. According to the Seattle Telegraph, our representatives must have cut considerable of a figure down there. Mr. Sweeney figured, according to the Telegraph reporter, as a commissioner from Island county, which shows a lamentable lack of knowledge of San Juan county in the outside world.

The Press-Times reporter, of Seattle, also seemed to be impressed with Mr. Sweeney, as is evidenced by the following excerpt from his report: "Joseph Sweeney, the round-faced, good natured Irishman who is chairman of the board of county commissioners of San Juan, had just testified that Judge Sachs' standing was good, and Judge Parsons for the state had endeavored to elicit the opinion that if Sachs was a gambler he violated his obligations to law and society. Thompson thought Sweeney could give an expert opinion on ministers and asked him if it was not a fact that some clergymen have been known to violate every obligation. Some smiled, some laughed, some applauded, President Wilson looked cross, and Sweeney said he did not know much about ministers."

Our popular sheriff is described by the Telegraph as "a large, pleasant looking man." The Graphic reporter got in his work on Judge Tucker also, and described him as "a huge man with a strong voice and iron gray beard." Their general testimony was that Sachs had always been a satisfactory judge.