Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1855-05-04
MISCELLANY.
A Profess Scar.
BY AN OLD LAWYER.
fFrom the Kniekerbockcr.l !

tFrom the knickerbocker.l
Your kind letter, Harry, came duly to
hand; and you will be surprised to learn that
a careless question of yours will draw forth
enough in answer to cover q sheet W hat
caused that scar on your temple !
1t is professional scar, Harry; one that
! have carried ever since my earliest practice,
and although have now arrived at tolera-
Die old age, and have many intimate friends.
it is most singular fact that you are the first
and only person that ever inquired into ito
origin. | can tell you all about it, but must
avoid names and places for the parties most
interested in the incident are yet living and
| am under strong bonds of secrecy.
In the year -, after passing through
long examination before grave judges and
shrewd barristers, l was pronounced pro-
pcrly qualified person to appear before juries
and courts for others as we'll as myself, and
at once proceeded to large southern city,
where, by modest little sign over the door
of a modest little Office. | announced my
readiness to commence the practice of the
law. For three months | waited, but alas
no business came. | sat IN my Office on
dreary night, at about eleven o'clock, in this
very comfortable position and absolutely
feared to 60 to my boarding house. and waited
in what seemed the forlorn hope that some
thing in the way of fee might appear,
either by dropping from the skies, or sudden
ly appearing on my desk. Outside no step
was heard and as ! occasionally glanced
through my window, the flame of the street
lamp moved by the wind, would seemingly
move me homeward but would not go. A
footstep sounded in my entry a second, and
third, and more, but so light that my heart
beating prevented my counting them ; and
then delicate knock, compelled myself
to say, Come in, with a calm voice, al
though | expected to be instantly ris-d-r's
with u young woman the door opened, and
| saw--an old one.
had only time to move toward chair be-
fore she was in tho center of the room and
speaking.
Il have no time to sit. Young man, you
are a lawyer are you good for anything
My insulted dignity was controlled by an
effort, and | answered than iattered myself
that | possessed some talent for my profess
sion, or | should not have chosen it.
We'll, we'll, no gas can you draw a
paper1'
Here again, ventured to remark, that it
depended somewhat on its nature, but saw
from her impatient manner that she wanted
no triflng Before finished the sentence,
she interrupted me with ierceness of man.
ner exceeding her former rough one, saying
Il want will drawn; quick hurriedly
! but so strong that all the imps in liades can
undo it = and she fairly glared at me with
| impatience for my answer.
/ Now, you know, Harry, that my legal edu
cation was obtained entirely in surrogate
/ Office and you may presume that on the law
| and forms of last wills and testaments iel
/ myself sufficiently posted up. accordingly
assured her that | could draw will which
though could not warrant it to pass thu
ordeal she mentioned, would, am sure, b'
proof against the efforts of all the lawyers il
Christendom.
And now her manner changed from thu
fierce and bold to the anxious and hurried.
Como. then. quick quick young man
and you shall pocket one thou sand dollars TO
your nights work y she exclaimed.
And amazed and bewidered as was,
found myself at the neighboring corner
stepping into hack, before the startling ou
comfortable words {; One thousand dollar
for your nights work had ceased rlngin
in my ears. My conductress followed in, an
without orders we we're rattling along tn
streets to the - House, then the large,
hotel in the city. My visions of one thousan
bright dollars kept my tongue bridled, nnd
was led in silence up two flights OF stairs Int
a suite of rooms comprising parlor and tw
bed rooms. The parlor, however, was occl
r pied by bed, in which lay an old and ev
+ IDENTIFY dying man. A servant was with hin
i but he left upon a motion from the hand I
! my companion, who approached the bedsic
y and said
+ L have an attorney here, sir, shall he pr
> coed .
The old mans eyes frightened up, an
p after glaring on mo for moment, he spok,
Ii you can draw my will, do it quick
now, for ! must save my breath.
I turnad ~ fha IA hla Nyhara / fOun1 ma ne
pens, ink, and everything necessary and
thu light Of two sperm candles in heavy sily
candlesticks, was soon busily engaged
b.. the will.
- will not trouble you with the details, nc
in fact, do remember them but il is enouj
to say that large amount Of property, re
and personal, bonds, mortgages, &c, we
left, in the words Of the will, to my 60
- and faithful housekeeper, Angelinc =, a
token Of gratitude for her long, faithful
D meritorious service But the concludi
u words of the will shall never forget III
ir were written from his mouth, and made
e. shudder as ! wrote them. There is son
re thing fearful, dreadful in thus deliberate
recording, in what purports to be your Ia
written wish, u curse upon your own
- spring. And felt, as | wrote it, an in
untary desire to tear the paper into fri
a.. ,nents, and to rush from the room, but
he thousand dollars were like SO many ancho
and staid and wrote -
.h' leave to my daughter Dora all the sal
o. faction she can obtain from my hearty cur
Cd When rags whip about her in her only hon
IN. the street, aud dogs share with her the
fuse of the gutter, she may regret that
on disobeyed him who once loved her, but W
dying, cursed her.
There was something like a chuckle in
direction of old Angeline as the dying wre
dictated these fearful words but as loo
aud saw the stern iace as rigid as marbl
concluded must have been mistaken. ] co
not, however, divert myself of certain {
ing that all was wrong, 4 rich old man,
I'M cumpahicd by an old housekeeper, and dy