He had a system of government peculiarly his own; and no one possessed the heart or temerity to upset it, no matter what may have been the political inducements.

It would have been like trying to improve the laws of nature to put a new man in his place.

He had become a fixture that only dissolution could remove.

Be it said, however, that dissolution did not have its common and accepted meaning when applied to Anderson Crow.

For instance, in discoursing upon the obnoxious habits of the town's most dissolute rake--Alf Reesling--Anderson had more than once ventured the opinion that "he was carrying his dissolution entirely too far." And had not Anderson Crow risen to more than local distinction?
Had not his fame gone abroad throughout the land?
Not only was he the Marshal of Tinkletown at a salary of $200 a year, but he was president of the County Horse-thief Detectives' Association and also a life-long delegate to the State Convention of the Sons of the Revolution.