Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Monday
December 15, 1980
Slouch By Jim Earle
“The strangest thing just happened to me! By the time I finished writing
up my cheat notes, I realized that I had learned what I was supposed to
know. ”
Just who (or what)
is a Texas constable?
There are some things that are just not
thought about readily until events jog them to
the consciousness. Things like Crazy Water
Crystals, or Harold Stassen, or rhubarb. Or the
town constable.
My last memory of the constable of my
hometown, or of any town, was of a wizened
little man who drove a decrepit vintage-1930’s
pickup truck. The constable wasn’t a part of my
life then, nor has he been since. But when one
Barazos County constable race drew five candi
dates for the Democratic primary, required a
runoff, and was contested in the general elec
tion by a Republican, it got my attention. And
when a Republican won the constable race in
another local precinct against a Democratic in
cumbent, I got downright curious.
Just exactly what was the constable and what
did he do?
The name comes from the Latin words “com
es stabuli,” which means, literally, “officer of
the stable.”
In the British pecking order of law enforce
ment the constable is a policeman ranking be
low sergeant.
In 16th-century Europe he was a royal per
sonage who was the principal military assistant
to the monarch.
But in Texas and Brazos County, the const
able serves a regular and contemporary func
tion.
“He is considered to be the law enforcement
arm of the J.P. (justice of the peace) courts,”
said Brazos County Judge Dick Holmgreen.
The Handbook of Texas Government de
scribes the constable as process server for the
courts of the county, having the authority of a
general peace officer and empowered to make
arrests.
“He does not work for the sheriff,” Holm-
green added. Under certain conditions he said,
the constable “could even arrest the sheriff. ”
“It is a part-time job,” Holmgreen con
tinued. “No one is paid on fees. All are paid out
of the general fund, just like everybody else. ”
Holmgreen explained that, in Brazos Coun
ty, the constables do not all receive the same
pay. The two officers whose jurisdictions in
clude Bryan and College Station are paid more
than the constables in the rural areas.
The constables of the two municipal jurisdic
tions are paid an annual salary of $6,290. In
Precinct 4 (Bryan), the constable receives a
monthly car expense allowance of $100. Pet. 7
(College Station) is allocated $200 per month for
car expense.
The constables of the rural precincts are paid
$1,244 per year.
So why, with the job not paying a particu
larly handsome salary, would anyone seek the
job? And why would one candidate, Richard
Fronterhouse, spend over $4,000 to get a job
that pays only half again as much.
Holmgreen ventured one reason: “There are
Notepad
By Wiley Gilmore
Warped
Culture in Carter White Hoi
By WESLEY G. PIPPERT
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President and Mrs. Car
ter were recognized the other night for having
attended the Kennedy Center for the Perform
ing Arts 28 times, a record for a chief executive.
The previous record wasn’t even close.
Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford attended the
Kennedy Center a grand total of three times.
The Carters have felt hurt that some people
have said the election of Ronald Reagan would
mean the return of class and style to
Washington.
Carter betrayed his feelings when he told a
tribute dinner for Robert Strauss this week that
his mischievous campaign chairman had sent
him a note telling him that in getting ready for
the evening preparation, “Just wash your face
and put on a clean shirt.”
“This new crowd will be a little more classy,”
Carter said as the predominantly Democratic
crowd joined in ironic laughter.
The irony was that Vice President-elect
George Bush also spoke to the same audience
and told a joke he admitted he “cleaned up” for
the Carters.
Carter may be remembered in the minds of
some people for merely having invited country
rock singer Willie Nelson to the White House.
Actually, few presidents sponsored as many
cultural events in the executive mansion as he
did.
The Carters also invited opera singer Leon
tyne Price, Russian ballet dancer Mikhail
Baryshnikov and others to the White House for
Sunday afternoon performances. They held
concerts on the White House South Lawn for
jazz, gospel, country and a spectrum of other
kinds of music.
The jazz festival, with Lionel Hampton, Diz
zy Gillespie, Stan Getz, George Benson and
others, rivalled the Newport Festival in talent.
Andrae Crouch stole the show at a gospel sing-
“I think of all the performances I ’ve heard in
the White House the greatest thrill of mine was
when Leontyne Price came here to perform,”
Carter said in praising her as one of the five
1980 Kennedy Center honorees.
“The only single exception I can think of was
the first time that Amy got her violin and played
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” he said.
His joking reference to Amy was typical. Car
ter often appeared unable to suppress the urge
to remind people that even rural Georgians
enjoyed the finer things of life.
“It’s a very fine thing to have people
out our country, in New Yorkandlfc
— and also in Plains and otherplM
— who can observe and appreciate!
pate in the finer things of life, ” I
Early in his administration, Sei
Kennedy, his mother Rose, and!
ers from the nation gathered in t
I louse Rose Garden for a receptionlji|
nedy Center’s corporate hind.
He told the story of the NewOila
phony Orchestra coining to nearby]
Ga., while he was in business
Plains. The orchestra played at "an
college — no auditorium, no air
“There were 3,000 people st
on a warm day, ” Carter said,
around the circle of symbolic]
of Carter’s warehouse,
among those farmers who
heard any sort of classical musiewasij
experience that was one ofthemostj
ing of their lives.”
Carter’s message to that high-brosi
was clear: You don’t need to live in \n
Washington to enjoy culture. Thereist |
he will leave office in the beliefthatbi®
•never got through.
"Forti
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INTRODUCING
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arrive
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able at
A&M
a smal
certain people who have a true, honest interest
in law enforcement,” he said.
Law enforcement for the constable entails, in
great part, the serving of legal papers on indi
viduals. Legal actions involving debts, such as
hot checks, form a bulk of this activity.
Both of the winners of the municipal const
able races in Brazos County emphasized the
importance of this phase of their new jobs.
Richard Fronterhouse, 47, will take office in
January as the new constable of Bryan’s Pet. 4.
Fronterhouse, a grocer, was quick to men
tion the processing of unpaid debts as one of his
motivations for entering the race.
“Because of me being in business,” he said,
“I knew I could do a better job. ”
Confirming Judge Holmgreen’s opinion,
Fronterhouse also mentioned his 16 years of
law enforcement experience in Conroe and
Brazos County as reasons for his candidacy.
Dick M unday, the man Fronterhouse de
feated in the runoff election, was philosophical
about leaving the office he had held for 12
years.
Munday, 46, is an insurance agent in Bryan.
He said he would welcome the free time he
would have when he was no longer constable,
Munday said he once had to go to Houston to
return a prisoner to Brazos County. It turned
out to be a former football player that Munday
had once coached in high school.
“It’s pretty tough to take a kid you had on
your team and take him to jail,” Munday said.
But he didn’t say constable work was all un
pleasant.
“My best part was in helping people who
need help, who were ignorant of the law,” he
concluded.
Winfred Pittman is 42 years old. He is a
financial technician with the U.S. Army Re
serve.
Republican Pittman defeated the Democra
tic incumbent E.W. Sayers in the constable
race in College Station’s Pet. 7.
Pittman, too, emphasized that he intended
to make a “daily effort on serving of warrants.”
The foregoing is not absolutely all one might
need to know about the office of constable. The
Texas civil statutes contain detailed job descrip
tions, limitations, authorities, and constable-
related court decisions in such quantity as to
frustrate the layperson completely. So this
could not be called The Compleat Constable.
But it’s a start.
'MW&.
A&M computers bring Christmas
It’s your turn
’Twas the week before finals
And caught in a bind
The students were scared
’Cause their programs were dyin’.
Set the fire alarms off,
And some students did flee.
The terminals printed
“It’s permanent crash!”
Some si
The students all hung
’Round the terminals with care
In hopes that a seat
Soon would be bare.
The next step on its program
Was du’fully done
All hard disks were wiped
No programs were run.
The last of the students
Crawled out of the door
And just like the Raven
Cried “C.S. Nevermore!”
WYLBUR, in guise
of a friend to us all.
Sent all of us lies
And said “Try ’gin next Fall I’
And woe to all those
Who were caught in the system,
We haven’t seen them since
And can’t say we’ve missed ’em.
Then started the AHMDAHL,
Which cackled like mad,
And said to itself
“Well ain’t that so sad!”
The printers all clattered
And sputtered along
They ripped all the paper
And typed “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!”
Students stomped on the floor
And yelled for their moms,
Others followed their programs
(They simply got bombed!)
The system then hummed
And roared off in the night
While deviously planning
The next evening’s fright.
The card reader and punches,
All strewed in a row,
With signs on their faces
Telling us where to go.
The cards were all over
The ground and the floor
As the students got stewed
And stormed out the door.
On Regents please listen
To our plaintive sigh
“Please, PLEASE fix the system,
Before our grades die!”
And all of a sudden,
With a very bright flash,
The AHMDAHL was decked
With a large blinking light
That started flashing
“This just ain’t right!”
It followed a sequence
Encoded with glee:
By Scott McCultar
I’ve got to get something
TO RELIEVE THE STRAIN
OF STUDYING. I'M HOT SO
MUCH HU/V6RY AS NERVOUS.,
HMM, CORN CHIPS, POTATO
CHIPS, PRETZELS, MIXED MnS
cookies, no, yvo, A10! i no/Vr
Really WANT awy of this
WHAT I REALLY NEED 15
JUST SOMETHING TD GNAW
ON PESIDES MY
»
SACKS OF fingernails!
"NEW FROM FRITO-LAY."
PERFECT!
The Battalion
l’ S P S 045 360
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congrcs
Questions or comments concerning miy
should bo directed to the editor.
editoriil s
Editor Dillard Stone
Managing Editor Rhonda Watters
Asst. Managing Editor Scott Haring
City Editor Becky Swanson
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Asst. Sports Editor Ritchie Priddy
Focus Editor Scot K. Meyer
Asst. Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff
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Staff Writers Jennifer Afilerbach, Kurt Allen,
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Liz Newlin, Rick Stolle
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Photo Editor Pat O’Malley
Photographers Greg Gammon,
Jeff Kerber
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