A local magistrate. A warden of a guild.
"He was a pirate with a tremendous and sanguinary history; and as long as he preserved upspotted, in retirement, the dignity of his name and the grandeur of his ancient calling, homage and reverence were his from high and low; but when at last he descended into politics and became a paltry alderman, the public 'shook' him, and turned aside and wept. When he died, they set up a monument over him; and little by little he has come into respect again; but it is respect for the pirate, not the alderman. To-day the loyal and generous remember only what he was, and charitably forget what he became."
Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883).
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