The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-03-21
A PECULIAR CASE.
The Turning Point in My Pro-
fessional Career.

When you said at the bar dinner there
was always one peculiar case which marked
the upward turn of lawyers career l re-
piled that such had been my own expert
ence You desired to learn the particulars.
which had then no time to give. To-day
being rainy time at the Springs, forbid
ding all outdoor exercise, l shall kill time
by writing all about it,
We two first met and laid the foundation
of our intimacy while serving together in
the State Senate. 1 was then in the full
practice of my profession, with no notion
OF going upon the bench. You were from
different part of the State, and it is
scarcely possible that you had ever heard
much of my early career. / began practice
IN Gordon County, which, thirty wears
since, was in the backwoods. Brantford,
its county town, has now over fifty thou-
sand inhabitants; then it was a stragglinr
village of less than eight hundred. It's
coal, It's IRON, and the fact that three rail-
ways cross within its limits, have forced
Its expansion. At the time | settled there
1t gave no promise of a mushroom growth:
and for two years | plodded along, getting
a call occasionally, and just managing to
be out of debt at the end of the year.
When | came to Brantford, the two
i
and Benjamin Cuyp. The former had in
herited fine estate, and also obtained a
large amount of ready money by his wife
The latter, inheriting very little, had made
money very fast, and by means not quite
credltable. The one was a free liver; the
other close and penurious. 1t was known
that Prescott had gone to the bad, as the
saying is, on the death of his wife. and was
getting embarrassed in his affairs. He
drank hard, and thus incapaciated himself
for the prudent management of business.
lie bred and ran race-horseS, and his colts
rarely won. He gained, and was unluckv
at that. The result was that his ready
money gave out, and the most of his real
estate became heavily mortgaged The
money was always loaned by Cuyp; and
whenever Cuyp advanced money in that
way, the property securing the loan came
into his hands sooner or later. 1t got to be
a saying, when mortgage with Cuyp as
mortgage was recorded: "Old Ben has
been buying another farm cheap" Cuyp
rarely put himself forward in these trans
actions. Nose M'Kissen was the go-be-
tween. Moses was a justice of the peace,
conveyancer and real-estate agent. He
was also an auctioneer: in fact, he en-
gagged in almost anything whereby penny
might be made. And he had made good
many pennies. He was growing rich
Through him Cuyp loaned Trescott quite
large sums of money, which the latter
squandered.
Prescott had an only daughter. Marion
Prescott was-but | need not describe her.
You saw her when over fOrty-a handsome
woman; and you can imagine her at
eighteen had met her on several occa-
sions; but the father was still considered
rich, and !, a poor young lawyer, had no
pretensions as a Suitor. Her father doubt
less loved her; but he did not alter his
habits for that. At length he was attacked
nv HiSpaGp and his G+ittrtipn hni,r
utterly broken up, could not Withstand it.
He died, not at the Prescott homestead, but
on what was Familiarity known as the Four
Section Purchase. About a year before he
had let the family place, which was heavily
mortgaged, and removed to the large tract,
which was free from all encumbrance. His
grandfather had bought from Govern
ment four sections of rich land, extending
two miles along the river, and a mile from
it on either side. Then it Just touched the
village; now it is nearly all closely built
ON and cut up by streets. 1t contained
twenty five hundred and sixty acres of the
finest land in the county. One section had
been cleared and put under fence, on the
right hand side of the river, and on this a
rude but substantial frame house had been
erected. Nearly as much had been cleared
on the other side of the river. The place
was rated at between twenty and thirty
dollars an acre.
On his death bed Prescott said to his
daughter 81 have not done very well by
you, Marion; but you'll not want. The
old homestead, and the valley farms, and
the three town houses are heavily encum-
bered. By good management, you may
keep the homestead the rest will have to
go Cuyp III get them. Let him foreclose
ON them. You can't pay the interest, much
less the principal; but you can pay one
years interest on the homestead. Therest
are desirable property, and will yield a
surplus over the debt upon them enough to
clear the homestead. / have left you exc
cutriX. This property we are on has not II
cent against it. The cleared part will pay
the taxes and keep you after fashion;
and in time it will be very valuable"
In spite of all that, on the day after the
funeral, CuYp produced deed from Tres
colt to himself, conveying this very prop
erty in fee, for the expressed considera-
tion of thirty thousand dollars, little more
than half its value. The deed was dated
and acknowledged more than three months
before it was offered for record. 1t was
acknowledged before M'Kissen, who was
also one of the subscribing witnesses, the
other name being that of a 10 Davis, sort
of hanger-on of M'Kissen, who had been
drowned about four weeks before by the
Upsetting of boat in the river. | hap
pened to be in the County Clerks office
when Cuyp brought in the document.
was at deed book, engaged in search
and, after Cuyp had gone out, Parsons, the
County Clerk, spoke to me about it, saying
it was bad business, as it left Miss Tres
colt without anything. l took the deed
from him, and looked it over. There could
be no doubt about Trescott's signature, @