When Shop Is Closed Even Constable Can't Buy Dinner, Oct. 30, 1925

Lost Encounter When He Lost His Pants. . . Hersey Williams Up Against It When He Got Put Out of Markethouse

Hersey Williams, Elizabeth City’s own 300-pound constable and candy manufacturer, found himself somewhat worsted in an encounter with Walter Eason, keeper of the Elizabeth City markethouse late Saturday night when on a belated visit to his butcher after closing hours, he was put out of the building. When Mr. Williams tried to gain admission at the door of the markethouse after 10 o’clock, he was informed by the keeper that nothing was doing.

Williams has the proportions and genial smile of Fatty Arbuckle, and without thinking about being late, obtruded his personality in the main entrance of the building. Eason, the markethouse keeper, didn’t see why Wiliams should enter after working hours, and laid a heavy hand on the constable’s shoulder.

“I thought Mr. Eason was joking with me, as we often carry-on,” says Mr. Williams, “and I didn’t pay any attention to what he was doing. The first thing I knew, he had me going backwards out of the door.”

Williams, with his added weight, might have gotten the best of the encounter, but sadly he was in a serious plight. Being of greater girth at the waist line than anywhere else, his trousers in the struggle began departing from their proper station, and with belt and waistband doing stunts about his thighs and knees, he had to use his hands to recover his nether garments. While Hersy was busy recovering his breeches, his adversary was getting the best of the struggle and by the time Williams had again hitched the breeches to the proper notch, he had lost ground. By the tie he had regained the lost ground down went the breeches again, and he gave up the struggle, and departed without his Sunday morning meat.

Opinions differ:

“I have to enforce the rules that are in effect, or lose my job,” says Mr. Eason.

“I have to have my meat. I pay taxes to the city for the markethouse, and also pay tribute to the butcher, so I thought I had the right to go in,” says Mr. Williams.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Oct. 30, 1925

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