ed during the past
twenty years by the different persons who have held the office of tax
collector. I find during nineteen years of that time that the lowest
percentage of taxes left unpaid at the end of the year was five per
cent; the highest percentage during these nineteen years, and that
occurred during the war, was fourteen per cent; but I find that during
the past year only seventy-eight per cent of the taxes due have been
collected, leaving twenty-two per cent still due the town, and the
non-receipt of this money will seriously hamper the selectmen during the
coming year, unless we choose a man who can give his entire time to the
business and collect the money that is due. This statement is certified
to by the town treasurer, and I do not suppose that the present
incumbent will presume to question its accuracy."

Strout evidently thought that a further discussion of the matter might
work to his still greater disadvantage, for he leaned over and spoke to
one of his adherents, who rose and said:

"Mister Moderator, this discussion has taken a personal nature, in which
I am not disposed to indulge. I don't think that anything will be gained
by such accusations and comparisons. It strikes me that the last speaker
is trying to give tit for tat because his candidate lost at the last
election; but I am one of those who believe that criminations and
recriminations avail nothing, and I move that we proceed to vote at
once."

"Second the motion!" screamed Abner Stiles from the settee on which he
had assumed a standing posture.

The vote was taken. Those in favor of Obadiah Strout being called upon
to stand up first, they numbered exactly one hundred and one. Then those
in favor of Wallace Stackpole were called upon to rise, and they
numbered two hundred and eighty-four; several citizens having put in an
appearance at one o'clock who had not attended the morning session.

The next matter was the election of the Board of Selectmen; and the old
board was elected by acclamation without a division. The meeting then
adjourned without day.

The five minutes past six train, express from Boston, arrived on time,
and at twenty minutes of eight, Mr. Quincy Adams Sawyer entered the
private dining-room in the Eagle Hotel. There he found gathered Mr.
Tobias Smith, Mr. Wallace Stackpole, Mr. Ezekiel Pettengill, Mr.
Sylvester Chisholm, and the Board of Selectmen, making the party of
eight which Quincy had mentioned. It was eleven o