Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1884-11-15
TERMS: $500 PER YEAR
NYE As A LAWYER.
why He Abandoned the Profession, aud
OH In "rrsting Facts.

WnV lDinuOneu the ffOhsslOH,
OH Increasing Facts.
A ii, ar friend III r. H,ylvania writes
me thai has learned .,s!ally that some
year. % e.. g., .. .nber Of the legal
profession, and he asks Inc to state if |
will, publicly, whether that is true and,
if so, why | abandoned the profession.
1t is true that | did practice law in
the West, for short time. in a very
quiet kind of way. Alter few me Cnths,
however, | abandoned my lucrative
practice to accept the portfolio of the
Laramie City post office During my
brief but tempestuous career as an attor-
ney paid out $l20 for rent, and drew
a chattel mortgage, which was never
paid for, as near as am able to Judge.
My principal reason, however. for
abandoning the profession, was the sud
den death of my client. When young
lawyer has assidously sat and looked
out of his office window for two months,
and client comes in and shows signs
of intrusting actual business to him,
there springs up at once between the
two warm friendship. Such was the
case with me. A middle-aged gentleman
came into my Office one day, and said
he had been referred to me by party
in town, and asked me if | had leisure
to attend to him. SAID tIat | would
lay aside other matters and attend to
him at once, if he wished. He said it
would be great accommodation if l
would allow my other clients to accum-
ulate in the hall for few moments, and
in the meantime do the business that
was on his mind. He had asked Charlie
Kitchen, at the Thoresb urgh House, to
give him the name of some poor young
lawyer, and Kitchen had told him that
l was about the poorest lawyer he knew
| of, so he had come right to me.
/ saw at once that he was a shrewd
business man, and did all / could to
please him. He was delighted with the
promptness with which had done the
werk, and said he would have more for
me TO do very soon, "a he had purchased
the controlling interest in new silver
mine over at Jelm Mountain. On the
strength of this revival in trade. Invent
down town and bought half ton of
coal.
| then opened a set of double entry
books, which still retain, and which
are almost as good as new. ] had just
got my new client fairly on the books,
when he was killed by falling down a
shaft distance of 200 feet in a perpen-
dicUlar direction. then said that the
practice of the law was invested with
too much so rrow and sadness for me. |
could not endure the constant sunder-
ing of pleasant, friendly ties which an
active practice demanded. | sold NV
revised statutes to a new notary public
at Last Chance and gave my other Law
book to a warm personal friend. Hav
ing thus disposed of my library. | re-
tired from the practice of my profession
by taking down my tin sign and mailing
; it to the front door of the pest house at
the close of a beautiful summer dav.
There is nothing that will dam up the
flood of professional business SO quickly
as course like this-if you have "a
flood to dam and wish to have it dam
med quickly-but enough of that. A
young lawyer may be ever so popular
and overwOrked, no matter, he can re-
move bis library to the smallpox hos
pital and in week he will have all the
physical relaxation and intellectual re-
pose he wants.
So like the swift fight of a brilliant
meteor across a black sky, | flashed
through the heavens, lighting up the
wide realms of space and then disap-
peared forever. With thousands OF
other people to select from, death sought
out the only client l ever had and gath
cred him in. With world full OF the
aged and the sick, to say nothing OF
Chinamen and Indians not taxed, the
grim reaper stuck his sickle into man
! in whom | felt a wonderful interest. No
one knows, who has not seen his sole
client cut down before his face, .he
great sorrow that settles down upon the
heart at such time. How lonely my
office seemed after that. How still il
seemed. L could not endure it. | mt once
abandoned the profession to It's fate.
Contrary to my fears, however, il soon
, rallied. Young blood entered into the
, practice, and in three months after
! had turned the key in my Office door
! one would hardly notice that so recently
bright light in the legal profession
! had been sauelched, and clarion voice
, that had always rung out for eternal
justice and equity, at so much per equity
had ceased tO vibratp
was a clear-heaGed and ccol, but
abnormallv conservative, attorney. j
5 was not only conservative in my prac-
tice, but in my gross receipts. L saw at
q once that could not afford to pay $40
per month rent and depend upon book
= account of $3.50 to offset it. While l
a may say that was passionately fond of
: the study and the practice of the law,
, felt most keenly the ostracism and
the depressing isolation which it SEEM
ed to engender. BILL NYE.