Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-12-19
CALLERS ON LAWYERS.
TIE PRECAUTIONS THAT ARE TAKEN
AGAINST soRES AND cRANKS.

How Mistakes Are Sometimes Made.
People Who Are Hardest to Get Rid of.
Troublesome Women Clients-Desirs
for Litigation.
People who visit the offices of prominent
LAWYERS find that they are usually cooped
up in little dens of their own, and laby-
rinthine passages and inquisitiye clerks
bar the way. Those who are known to
have important business with the firm
are readily admitted to the inner cham
Der, but strangers are examined and cross
examined and their intentions thoroughly
sifted before they can gain access. This
exclusiveness is a matter OF protection,
and while the incivility of clerks and
middle men may be trying to the temper OF
O person having right in the office, yet
such q course must be taken or the law
yers would have their hands full OF busi-
ness i'll which there was no money, and
be driven to the verge of suicide by bores.
1.-The reception room," said the chief
clerk of a large law firm TO a reporter,
''has many queer people in it at times.
There are q set of cranks of the most an
moving kind who make the rounds OF the
leading law firms in the city. They are
born litigants. Some of them have
money; the most of them have none.
Whenever a man comes into an office for
the first time and unrolls an old map or
any other document with the yellow tinge
of age on it the guns are at once trained
on him. Mistakes are sometimes made.
It does not always do to size up man
from appearances. My resignation was
asked once because / sat down hard on
client who could sign his check for a mill
ion but looked like tramp. That's one
serious drawback; millionaires do not al
WAYS look like it.
HARD TO GET RID OF.
"The people who own half the city and
can prove it and those who are interested
in inventions and patents are the hardest
10 get rid of. If they can get hold with
an eyelid they will never let 60. They
have plausible stories all, and insist on see
ing the head of the firm. Sometimes they
do get an audience, and as long as they
pass the outer gate he thinks they are
all right and takes an interest in the bust
ness. One smart fellow got us to bring
a suit for damages against II well known
business man. Our client had dOcumen-
tarv proof that made splendid case and
would have stood in any court, but when
the case came to trial 1t was shown that
the people and facts were drawn from
his own imagination and the case was
thrown out of court. 1t was the third
time he had fooled a lawyer, but as he
paid for his fun no hearts were broken.
1.-The women clients Of this kind are the
most troublesome. They insist on seeing
the head of the firm without telling their
business to any one else. To tell them q
little lie about his being out is no good,
for they will sit the whole day, if neces-
sary, to test the statement. There are
three or four women who have money and
spend their time going the rounds of the
prominent lawyers, trying to enlist them
in some imaginary suit. They will put
ND retainer, if asked to, but woe be to
the man who takes it. A trip to Europe
is the only means of escape. They will
bring a suit on the slightest pretense, but
usually there is no ground for complaint,
1.-The desire to litigate seems to be over
Lowering. One of the women visits the
courts regularly, has picked up good
knowledge of law and can ask questions
that would make the oldest practitioner
scratch his head. Nearly all these 'pecul-
lar people are eccentric or mentally UNI
sound and most of them really believe
that they have been injured and are en-
titled to redress At one time there were
several fine looking women who sought TO
get an audience with first class lawyers as
well as business men for Matchmaking pur-
poses, and it is rule in some offices that
strange women are never seen by any
member of the firm except when wit
nesses are present. 1t is peculiar thing
that women clients who have legitimate
business in court form violent antipathy
against any one who is opposed to them
and do not hesitate to make known their
intense hatred by word and manner u
New York Tribune.