A CITY COUNCILLOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 2910, 27 May 1873, Page 3

A CITY COUNCILLOR.

HIS OOKTE33IOV —m 3 LITTLE III3EBIE3— HIS DAKK DESPAIR. The following confession comes from Dunedin> weeping. Have we not had councillors of our own wLo have felt very much as the councillor here below referred toba3 felt? " Some years ago I was a happy man, I kept a general shop and the general shop very comfortably kept me. When I had put up rav shutters for the night I revelled in domestic happiness of ' home sweet home.' My wife was happy and content, and no ambitious dreams of greatness disturbed my serenity. I sold my pots and pans in peace and profit, was happy in my little way, and found existence sweet, until one fatal day a requisition was sent to me to become &. candidate for the Council. I felt flattered.' I consulted my Fife. She urged me to stand, it was all I wanted to give me a status. The title of Mr. Councillor was an introduction to any society, and who knew but what I might, become a mavor and hereeif a mayoress, I was to thiuk of that. Besides, I had talents, look how I had spoken at tea-fights and temperance entertainments — almost as good a3 a minister. X consented, and was returned. From that moment my hi-tory commenced. One clique of councillor; made a tool of mo, another a butt of me. The town clerk pulled me like a puppet, and the Press made public my ignorancc, which I might have kept concealed had I not by blind infatuation emerged from that obscurity which so well became me. The Municipal Act to me was a wilderness of words in which I became bewildered and lost, and the way I construed its clauses provoked tlie jeers and jibes of my opponents. I was not slow in resenting. I would have been sarcastic had I had the Fit: having it not, I showed my temper, and any man possessing one of an ordinary kind won't be long in a municipal council without his little points cropping out. I got personal in my remarks. The retorts I evoked generally soothed me, and in place of getting the honor and respect I anticipated, I got nothing but contumely and derision. My wife was harder on me than my opponents. What was I thinking about to let men like those ridicule me ? I hud even grown smaller in her eyes. I must redeem myself at any cost. Determined thus, next night I went to the Council. There was a debate about cutting a gutter. Alderman Jones said I wanted to improve jnv property at tlie expense of the corporation. I replied Jones's great grandmother was not lawfully married. He retorted that he never was a sbopboy and robbed his employer's till of half-a-crown. He moved that the words of the mendacious miscreant be t*ken down. I shook my fist in his face. Tiie Council broke up. X was stuck for damages in both actions, —for slander and assault. My customers deserted me. My wife upbraided. The public derided me, and the b»nk Bquashed me. My unchristian resignation followed, and the sands of my (public) life are run out."