| Show PICKARD WEAKENED And the Council Adjourned Without With-out Action PARKERS TEMPORARY RESPITE Hal Decides the Acting Mayor May Vote but His Presence Docs Not Count ill the Quorum When the hour of 730 arrived last evening there were prtsent In the council chamber only i Hardy Young Folland Hyde Tuddenhanj Heath Smith and Pickard The minutes drugged slowly along but there vas no sign of the Apollolike form of Spafford the military goatee of Anderson the b onde I whiskers ofLynn the S jakespe irean features of Pendlctgn or auy of the other admirers of the great man who is at precut captain of tho police force rhis action did not at all surprise tho e who were on the inside because be-cause i had been quietly whispeied durin the day that Parsons spalTorJ Fend eton Lynn Anderson and others would make it convenIent to be out of town last evening in order I possible 10 avoid a chanco of there being a quorum present and thus at least delay the passage of the ordinance abolishing the ofllce of captain of police us the frienas and supporters or Parser had somehow goi hold of the knowledge knowl-edge that Councilman Smith was summoned away and was compelled to leave on the mid night train Then there was the vexed qucs lon with Acting Mayor fickard as to whether enact > there was a quorum present there being but eight members o the council inclUm jii iinseif And bes ds COI was sai f th t a couple of influential attorneys torneys had been consulted during the day and hey had cast some doubts upon the question as I to whether the acting mayor really had the vote that he and the city att rm y bslieved he hal ludueDham Hardy and ijj d i sat oil in a corner cor-ner deliberated lolland and Attorney Hal ndulsied in a whispered conversation Heath and Smith were observed to be in conlliiential ionveree Iickardand Yoang diacusseu the aw in the case in low tones while exPolice Judge Laney par yzed the reporters of the Yet and lifjitne by exhibiting a great bit American doilar Recorder Jack and Deputy Height gazed vacantly at tho ceiling and heaved ighs of regret at being deprived of u chance to see The Dazzler Patrolman Birkner and 3etec ira Glenn sat at the aoor and looked dignilied and later JIuxLipman and his toothpick tooth-pick saunieiedm Thus an hour passed and yet no gavel fell ho members apparently waiting for Acting Mayor Plckard to tall the initiative in the mattel mat-tel but Pickard summed the mayors chair as hough one of Fanny Davenports pet asps vere conceaed i the cushion Mr Pickard was laboied with or some time but apparently to no avail alt suon it was vbistcreii around that the city attorney had given it as his opinion that while there wero eight votes in the room there were but seven councilors present one lacking of a quorum Ti at Acting Mayor Pickard had a l tnt to cast his vote as a councilor Attorney At-torney Hail had no doubt but yet hs insisted that when roll was called Pickard must answer as mayor instead of Pickard Pickard remained irresolute for some time and as several members arose and donned their overcoats preparing to depart ho called a halt and made a dive lor the seat ot Mayor Scott bringing dow his List with emphasis he said The coune 1 will come to order The council obeyed and there was a general belief that PicAards backbone had received a starching Call the roll said the actingmayor The recorder complied and th se who answered ans-wered were Young Folland Hyde Hardy Heath Tuddenham and Folland There are but Seven present said the temporary tem-porary successor of Slaver Scott Therefore there is no quorum and the council will be adjourned ad-journed until Tuesday evening next at 73u There was stampede for the door and in a Jew seconds the council chamber was deserted nnd Acting Mayor PicUard slowly ended his way down the fairway while from Captain Parkers room in the lower hah there came the s rains of Theyre After Me So Captain Parker will draw his salary and take in the perquisites for several weeks yet Councilman Smith belt for Mexico on the midnight mid-night train and this leaves but seven in favor of passing the ordin nee abolishing the office oJ captain f police admi ting that Pickards backbone remains rigid Why Pickard should have acted as he did is not easy to understand He loudly proclaimed that ho was msyinpathy with the ordinance and he had vo e 1 in favor of the adoption of the minority renort of the police committee which was to the cued that Parker be suspended for lifteen days and then reduced to the ranks When the minority report was defeated through tho Reedlike tactics of Major Scott Pickard announced himself us being heartily in favor of the abolishment the ofllce Yet when be had 1 chance to cast the decisive vote he crawled behind a strained construction of the law by the city attorney and hoisted one of the largest and whitest feathers ever exhib lied in tbe chamber of horrors known as the city council The reason is said to be that yesterday Pick ard received from Mayor Scott who is i ow on the coast a requesting him to delay action v The proceedings show how well he obeyed tho commands of his master |
