Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler

[1029] who had attended his funeral, earnestly and zealously defending his murderer's life, and at last saving it. They came to the determination that a lawyer so utterly lost to every sense of decency and proper conduct, hardly deserving to live, should never have a vote in that town if he ever ran for office; and they with vigor carried out that determination at the next election..

That was a favorite method in Massachusetts of dealing with a lawyer who did not carry on his business to suit a community, and this I will illustrate by another case:--

The town of Malden, a very excellent town in which very fine people lived, and in which I was reasonably popular, got its first fire engine. Then they had a fire and the engine squirted. The boys had never seen an engine squirt. Then they had cakes and coffee, which were distributed freely to the firemen and boys. Soon afterwards they had another fire in which rather a worthless barn was burned, and the engine turned out again and squirted some more, and more cakes and coffee were distributed. Then shortly after another barn took fire, and there were more cakes and coffee. By that time the good farmers of Malden came to the conclusion that there was a “fire bug” in their midst who was going to burn down everything, and the town offered $300 or $500 reward to anybody who would catch the “fire bug.”

One of the constables of the town had observed that three of the finest boys in the town were always together at the fires, and he came to the conclusion that they had something to do with the fires, or knew something about them. So he went to them separately and told each one of them that the other two had confessed to him that they had started the fires, and that if the one present then did not confess he would be sent to prison, but if he would confess he should have a part of the reward. And when he had got that confession he proceeded to have the boys arrested for arson in the night-time, and had such large bail fixed that it would be very difficult to get. And then he went before the grand jury and told his story of what they said to him. The boys were in prison, and of course there were three weeping fathers and mothers in my office the next day.

I heard them and told the fathers to go down to the jail and tell their boys not to speak a word to anybody about what they had done,