The story
“Ebenezer Jay, justice of the peace of Peach Hollow, is a famous man in his home town. They tell a lot of stories about him there. But the best one of all Cy Peters relates in this way: ‘Eb had got back from the city and was yarning to us about this Chester gal—Cherry Chester, she was called. She was an actress. She’d followed Eb everywhere and had given him her picture. He showed it to us. Then Bill Cannon, who clerks at the Mansion House, butted in to say the gal was stopping there and had played at the opery house the night before. Well, Eb was pretty much taken aback. And just then the woman herself come down the street. He took her to his office to tell her that she must keep away from him in the future, or he’d have the law on her. Next minute, her husband busted into Eb’s office like a cyclone. But he come out again quick enough, all bunged up. That feller and his wife kept running till they reached the train—and we haven’t seen them since. Eb don’t talk much about it. he’s too modest.’
“But despite the unanimous evidence of Peach Hollow, there’s not a word of truth in the story. Eb never met Cherry Chester in the city. He bought her photograph himself, and induced her to visit his office on the plea that she would have to get a license for her dog. Her husband’s excitement was all due to fear of losing the only train to New York that day. But the way the village folk construed the thing was lucky for Ebenezer. For now they’re planning to run him for the legislature, and he regards it as a stepping-stone to Congress.”
Summary from Reel Life · 5 June 1915
