The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1885-03-05
THE "sHysTER..
How Young Lawyers Are Led into Dis.
reputable Practice.


HOW YOunS Lawyers Arc Leu AntO DASs
reputable Practice.
Chicago Herald.]
''The majority of young lawyers in .
large city have to wait for years for
their first brief, said member of the
profession whose reputation assures him
large annual income, and whose legal
standing is unquestoned. If they
have influential connections some col
lection OF some commercial business
might be thrown in their way, but if
these connections fail them their lot is,
indeed, a sorry one. Many bright
young man has lost energy and hope for
brighter prospect waiting in his dingy
Office for some legitimate case to turn
up. His little savings are gone up in
books. Office rent and the necessities of
life; he has no means in view, no
friends, no briefs. Finally he drops out
of the list and clerks for his more sue
cessful brethren or does something else
than practice law to earn an honest
living.
But only too often he gives way to the
tempter He becomes the teacher of
sharks in human disguise, showing them
how they may squeeze the very life
blood out Of their victims skin them
alive, as the saying goes-or, worse
still, he associates with criminals and
becomes himself criminal Naturally
sharp, his observation becomes sharper
by disreputable practice. Always bor-
dering on the brink that would precipi-
tate the unwary, he shrewdly evades
the law, trusting to the many techni-
calities which, unfortunately, cucumber
the practice of the profession and give
rise to the phrase of the glorious uncer
tainty of the law Some are quite sue
cessful financially in this direction, but
they have lost caste with the honorable
majority of the profession.
The desire to be mentioned, to become
acqu ainted, to 'have their names in the
papers" I" leads many a promising young
lawyer to take up criminal cases of a
sort that had better be left severely
alone. Criminal cases in general-so
all the respectable practitioners with
| whom the reporter cOnyersed, said-tre
not the best means to build up a law
yer's practice, and some criminal cases
are positively injurious to fair pro-
fessional reputation. Here, then, is the
dividing line between the reputable law
yer and the police court shyster-a
venomous, rascally inyividual that
abounds in every large city.
These malignant excrescences of an
/ honorable profession hang around the
police courts like harpies waiting for
prey. The disreputable female, the
professional hummer, the yeriest gutter
snipe, the Dragging rowdy, the drunken
sot are alike their customers, and fees
range from so cents to whatever
! amount of lucre this malodorous
clientele can scrape together. There
are cases on record where the shyster
has exchanged his seedy coat or torn
hat for the better articles of his client
in cases where no cash could be OBJ
tanned. As rule the staggering,
rum soaked shyster is a power in ward
politics, and not seldom he has an
alderman or county commissioner
'deai to rights for political services
pounding of the law of the land before
the magistrate.
Habits of Birds.
Atlantic Monthly.l
Birds not only cough and sneeze, but
they dream and snore, making most dis
tressing sounds as if strangling. They
hiccoug gh-a very droll affair it is, too
and they faint away. A goldfnch,
having been frightened one night, in his
struggles was caught between the wires,
and gave cry like the squeak of a
mouse in distress. Cn my fastening to
his release, he slipped out in the room
and flew wildly about till he hit some
thing and fell to the ioor. He was
picked up, and his fright eliminated in
a dead faint. The little head dropped,
the body was limp, apparently perfectly
lifeless, and he was laid in his cage,
ready to be buried in the morning He
was placed carefully on the breast, how
ever, and in few minutes he hoped
upon his perch, shook out his run.ed
feathers, and composed himself to sleep.
Cne feat sometimes ascribed to man
is in the case of birds a literal fact-they
can sleep with one eye open. This curl
GUS habit l have watched closely, and /
find it common in nearly all the varie
ties have been able to observe.
Curious VIII Of q Cook.
[Pau Mall Gazettel
A peculiar story about an eccentric
chef has been going the rounds of the
French papers. Felix Duryos, for
some years cook in the kitchen of Louis
Philippe, died recently in Paris. Dur
ing his lifetime he had amassed a
pretty considerable fortune, no less than
$50, 900 francs. This sum he left to his
two nephews, but on one condition.
They were to place on his tombstone,
instead of the usual high-fown inscrip-
ton extolling the many virtues of the
deceased, a brass frame, in which one
of his famous cookery recipes, written
in large characters, was only to be in
serted.
''Thus," as the benevolent old man
says in his will, people desirous of in.
structing themselves will be able by
paying visit to the cemetery to gain
some useful information. If the
nephews did not follow out these in
structions the money was to go to the
Assistance Publique" Unfortunately
for them, the Epitaph commission will
not allow the dying wish of the veteran
| chief to be executed.