Connecticut western news., 1884-11-05
BILL ME AS A LAWYER.
TrngIc Denth of His UlIent-Ths Sorrow
 Incident fe an Active Prnctlce'

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 A dear friend writes me, says Bill Nye, that he has learned casually that some years ago was a member of the legal profession, and he asks me to state, if will, publicly, whether that is true, and if so, why abandoned the profes- sion.
 It is true Ithat did practice law in the West, for @ short time, in very quiet way. After few months, how ever, I abandoned my lucrative practice to accept tho portfolio of the Laramie city post-ofioe- During my brief tem- pestuous career ss an attorney. Ipaid out SEQ for rent, and drew 8 chattel nor gage, which was never paid for, as near as I am able to judge.
 My principal reason, however, for abandoning the profession, was the sud den death of my client. When 8 young lawyer has assiduously sat and looked out of his office window for two m omths and a client comes in and shows signs of in- trusting business to him, there springs up at once between the two a warm friendship. Such was the case with me. A middle-aged gentleman came into my office one day and said he had been re- ferrcd to me by party in town, and asked me if had leisure to attend to him. I said that I would lay aside other matters and attend to him at once, if he wished. He said it would be great accommodation if I would allow my other clients to accumulate in the hall for Q few moments, and in the meantime do the business that was on his mind. He hed asked Charles Kitchen to give him the nsme of some poor young lawyer, md Kitchen told him that I was about the poorest lawyer he knew of, so he had como right to me.
 I saw at once that he was a shrowd business man, and I did all could to please him. He was delighted with the promptness with which I had done the work, and said he would have moro for me to do very soon, as he had purchased the controlling interest in new silver mine over at Jclm Mountain. On tho strength of this revival in trade, went down and bought half ton of coal.
 I then opened a set of double entry books, which I still retain, and which are almost as good as new. I had just got my new client fairly on the books whom he was killed by falling down a shaft distance of 200 feet in a perpen- dfcular direction. I then said that the practice of the law was invested with too much sorrow and sadness for me. I could not endure the constant sundering of pleasant, friendly ties which an active practice demanded. sold my Revised Statutes to O new notary public at Last Chance, aud gave my other law books to a warm personal friend.
 Having thus disposed of my library, I retired from the practice of my profess sion by taking down my tin sign and mailing it to the front door of the pest house at the close of beautiful summer day. There is nothing that will dam up the flood of professional business so quickly as a course like this-if you have flood to dam and wish to have it but enough of that. A young lawyer may be ever so popular and overworked; no matter he can remove his library to the smallpox hospital, and in a week he will have all the physical relaxation end intellectual repose he wants.
 So, like the swift flight of brilliant meteor across the black sky, I flashed through the heavens, lighting up the wide realms of space, and then disap- reared forever. With thousands of other people to select from, death sought out the only client I ever had and gathered him in. With world full of the aged and the sick, to say nothing of China men and Indians not taxed, the grim reaper struck his sickle into & man in whom I had wonderful interest. No one knows, who has not seen his sole client cut down before his face, the great sor- row that settles down upon the heart at such time. How lonely my office seemed after that. How still it seemed. I could not endure it. at once aban- doned the profession to its fate.
 Contrary to my fears. however. itsoon rallied. Young blood entered into tho practice, and in three months after I had turned the key in my ofice door one would hardly notice that so recently a bright light in the legal profession had been squelched, and clarion voice that had always rung out for eternal justice and equity, at so much per equity, had ensed to vibrate.
 was clear-headed and cool, but a normally conservative lawyer. Twas not only conservative in my practice, but in my gross receipts. I saw at once that i could not afford to pay forty dollars per month rent, and depend upon book sc- count of two-and-a-hslf dollars to offset it. While may say that l was passion ately fond of the study and the practice of the law, I felt most keenly the ostra- cism and the depressing isolation which it seemed to engender.
 | One of the White Slaves.