Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-10-22
EMORY STORRS.
The Great Chicago Lawyers Eccen-
tricities-ScOundrel for Clients.

The Great Chicago Lawyers Eccen.
tricities-Scoundrel for Clients.
Emory Storrs is dead, and the Repub-
lican party has lost the most effective
campaign orator it has had since Inger-
soil lost his interest in the plumed
knight. Storrs had been eating cigars
and poisoning his blood in other ways for
many years. He always carried a cigar
in his mouth, generally unlighted, and
the CHASTITY hue of his skin told of the
effect upon his heart and stomach. As
Storrs was famous for his large fees, and
rascal-''and my clients are mostly of
that persuasion"-he would interpolate
in his inimitable way: '1 always charge
them double what / think my services
are worth, half the fee for professional
advice, the other half for wear and tear
of conscience and loss of reputation" He
was joking on this subject one night at
the Riggs house, and l asked him how
his clients liked that sort 81 thing. at
seems to please them,'' he replied. ga
rascal will always pay twice as much to
get out of trouble as an honest man. It's
part of the risks of their trade.
ri was defending firm of swindlers
in Chicago once" he continued, 'and
their case was one of the meanest I ever
tackled low, dirty, miserable swindle,
by which they gouged the farmers of the
northwest out of their savings in the most
constituencies way. l heard they were
going to retain me, and l made up my
mind I'd
MAKE THEM PAY FOR IT.
So when they came to my Office the first
question I asked was How much money
have you got?' They said they had
enough to see the thing through. When
I told them 1 wanted a retainer of 900
they stared at me in wild sort of way
| and then retired for consultation. After
| awhile they came back and said they
would be willing to pay something like
| SIS 5000, and as they had hired a good
many lawyers, thought that was quite as
much as the service they asked would be
worth. told them they had figured it
| out with unusual accuracy, as S., 900 was
just about what the charges ordinarily
would be, and was willing to accept that
as full compensation for my professional al
services. But then, Iadded, want So, 900
| loT dSSoCldtllS Will SuCu CdItlc do you.
And they paid me $4,000 in advance. !"
once heard Storrs tell of the first fee
he ever received. He was just admitted
to the bar, and was in the Office of a
prominent lawyer of an interior city of
Illinois. A farmer who had COW killed
by railway train employed him to prose
cute suit for damages, and Storrs got a
verdict for $75. A few days after the
farmer came in rubbing his hands in
great glee, and congratulated Storrs on
the eloquent speech he made to the jury.
"The old critter wasn't worth more than
$15," said the farmer, land how you got
$75 for her is more than can compre.
hend 1t must have been that speech Of
yours. know it was that speech, and
I'll pay you literally, my boy. Have you
collected the judgment?"
ri have" replied Storrs.
"Then we'll settle; and I'll pay you
literally, too"
Storrs handed out SIS, saying: "There's
your share of it.
CLOVIS that?" asked the astonishec
farmer
"Well, you say your old cow was worth
only SIS, and you admit my speech was
worth $50. Amt you satisfied ?''
"Waal, no, responded the farmer. 90
don't think it's quite honest"
''Then take that, you black cormor
ant" exclaimed Mr.. Storrs, throwing
out another S. bill.
Storrs was never very dressy man
but had
A PASSION FOR NECKTIEs,
And seldom wore one three or four times
Two of the leading dealers in Chicago al
ways notified him when they received :
fresh supply, so that he might make hi
: choice, and he usually bought them b.
|, the dozen. When he had worn them
!. few times he gave them to his lad!
friends to cut up for crazy quilts. He wa
, very extravagant man, liberal to reck
lessness with his money, and, although
he had an income from his fees anywher
! from $25, 900 to $1,000, he was always il
5 debt, and seldom paid borrowed money
He had a friend in Chicago, Samuel w
, Allerton, a millionaire pork packer an
cattle king, on whom he always dreN
D when he got short of funds, and Alberto
never failed to cash the drafts. He Wa
very fond of Storrs, and often when h
was taking a trip to one of his ranches il
Texas or Colorado would ask him to G
along for company, usually paying hir
. for the time occupied in the trip,
: Storrs had only one child, sor
George Storrs, who at last accounts wa
in the office of Chauncey Depew, of tn
. New York Central Railroad. He had a
adopted daughter, who some two or thre
years ago eloped from a boarding scho'
near New York with an actor. A tell
gram was received at the Office of one {
, the Chicago newspapers announcing til
I escapade, which had occurred some DAY
before, and the editor sent the dispatch
Storrs, who happened to be at Dime
party, with the words, lis this true
written under it. He took out his penc
at the table, after reading the dispatc;l