The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-03-05
RAscALLy LAWYERS.
Legal Practitioners who Never Hesitate
10 do n Mean or Tricky T'hing for
Few Dollars.

Munro Adams, whose real name isn't SPELL
ed that way at all, probably won't be heard
of in the divorce business again. The police
are looking for him just now, and may
catch him before this goes into print Mr..
Adams has been distinguished for some
time past as the boss divorce lawyer OF
New York. Everybody with gumption
enough to know beans knew that the divorce
business of Mr.. Adams was swindle aud
a fraud, but it Aourished finely, neverthe-
less, and would still be doing SO, no doubt,
but for discovery that led some detectives
to Mr.. Adams office, where they found "a
whole trunkful of divorce papers, nearly
thousand in number, and whole deskful
of letters, mostly from women about divorce
matters placed in Mr. Adams hands. But
Adams himself had stepped down and out,
and is still among the missing. 1t turns
out that he was in league with a Supreme
Court clerk in Brooklyn, who helped him
in fixing up his divorce business SO that ii
looked all right on the surface, and got q
shnre of the spoils as his reward. The
name of the court clerk is Law, and IL isn't
the first time that law has been an instru-
ment of fraud and general rascality. Adams
and Law together seem to have turned out
divorces by the bushel. They sent DEGREES
to people In all parts of the country, charg.
ing for them ut an average rate of about
| BOO, and there's no doubt that they made
o good deal of money. Adams caught the
clients by daily advertising, and Law acted
as bogus referee in most of the cases, his
connection with one of the courts enabling
him to make everything appear ship-shape
He is in custody and he seems to stand a
very fair chance of winding up at Sing Sing,
where Adams will surely go, too, II he is
caught. Had he gone there five years ago
there would now be fewer persons in the
country liable to be hauled up for bigamy
through marrying again on the strength OF
their bogus divorces. A pretty large mum.
ber--hundreds, in fact-are believed to be
In this plight. Among the present inmates
of Sing Sing is man named Chase, son of
q clergyman, who got a fraudulent divorce
through Adams and married twice after
ward. 1t was .he third marriage that got
him into the musical conservatory on the
Hudson.
A leading member of the bar, who prose-
cuted Chase, expresses q rather low opinion
of his profession. F" The methods and the
trickery which have erept into and lowered
the profession of the law" he says, ''in
connection with the low tone of society,
have satisfied me of one thing. If l had q
hundred sons not one of them should be
educated to the law This seems rather
sweeping, but it is melancholy fact, as
everybody knows, that the legal brethren
are not all No. in point of moral recti-
tude, by any means. They never were, for
that matter, but it is hardly shooting beyond
the mark to say that there are more rascals
among them now than ever before. The
Tombs shyster has long been the typical
legal rascal in New York, but the profession
has many greater rascals than he who never
go near the Tomhs. Adams, for instance,
would probably have got up fine show of
indignation if anyone had called him a
shyster. New York has many lawyers OF
good professional standing who would not
hesitate to do any mean and tricky thing to
| ilhhe IL lew uOliuusi pioNiutu tuey hleW
they could keep out of Jail. 1t has lawyers
with fine offices and fair repute who would
cheat their gnndmothers out of the last
dollar and then cheerfully see em of to the
poor-house. OF course the profession con-
tains honorable men, but any man entering
it needs great deal of moral backbone AT
the beginning to keep straight to the end.
have the satisfaction of knowing n few
lawyers of this class, but also know some
who could not be trusted in the same room
with dog with hydropbobia, if the dog
had ten cent collar on his neck. As to
Adams by the way, 1t turns out that danger
of arrest for his fraudulent divorce opera
lions was not the actual cause of his running
away. One of his divorce clients had allow
ed him to draw $4,000 from bank. and
when he got the money he refused To give
! it up. The client obtained a warrant sor
his arrest, and il was then, just before the
divorce developments, that he decided to
make himself scarce His real name il
Hardic, but he has gone by three other
names besides Adams. Caspar IN But.
falo Courier.