Smyrna times., 1889-06-19

!
the Buckeye State, is another frightful
example of the uncertainties of public
life. AS soon as he got out of Congress
he could not stand the narrow limits
of country life in GAINESVILLE, and he
went to New York to make money at
the legal profession. He married over
in Jersey and his home is there.
Milton SaylOr, who was for some
time Acting Speaker of the House of
Representatives after Michael J. Kerr's
death, also fretted and fumed in the
narrow limits of Cincinnati after he got
out of Congress, until he reached New
York city with an ambition to practice
law there.
Colonel Robert G.. Ingersoll was en-
ticed away from lovely life in Peoria,
ILL.,, in 1876 to the disappointments of
Washington only to end with a law
office in New York, where he makes
great deal of money and has a fair
amount of enjoyment.
John S. Wise, of Virginia, whose
lite's ambition was to be Governor of
the Old Dominion, as father had been
before him, served one term in Con-
gress, and then being beaten for Chief
Executive of Virginia by Fitzhugh Lee,
soon tired of his old home and reached
the metropolis as the attorney of big
corporation at large salary.
General Roger A. Pryor, also of Vir-
gInia, is a conspicuous illustration of
the ups and downs of political life. A
General in the Confederate army, a
brilliant Member of Congress before
the war, he found after the war no
happiness in the old associations which
first brought him into prominence.
lie drifted into New York in search of
power and money. His early expe-
rlences there were not pleasant. He
went there at the time when the Tweed
ring had its iron hand on every feat
ure of life. 1t owned the Courts, the
Legislature and every other depart
ment of government. The Judges
were corrupt, and many times ignorant.
General Pryor was poor, and necessity
often compels men to work in fields
they would otherwise shun. He was
| obliged to take references or almost
any small commission from the Courts.
Judge McCunn was then on the bench,
a rough and ignorant man, unlettered
in the law and in almost everything
else. He enlisted this talented Vir.
ginian's favor in writing his decisions,
and it came out in later legal proceed
ings that General Pryor wrote nearly
if not quite every important decision
that this Judge made. They were so
universally sound in law, as we'll as
perfect in diction, that McCunn was
regarded as one of the strongest Judges
on the bench. When the expose came
he died of broken heart, and although
General Pryor's associations with him
and the Courts had been entirely hon
orable, he was not benefited during
the storm ofindignation which followed
the death Of the Tweed ring.
His first appearance in a great case
was as one of the counsel for Theodore
TiltOn in the Beecher trial. His work
there attracted public attention, and
from that day he has been very sue
cessful man at the law and in every
other phase of life that he has chosen
to cultivate.
Study the latest and most significant
addition to the bar of New York.
The man who little more than two
months ago was the Chief Executive of
the Nation, has hung out his shingle,
and is now one of the big lawyers of
that city. After the glamour of public
life in Washington had ended, the
humble city of Buffalo on the lake.
where his whole career, both as lawyer
and politician was made, had no charms
for the ex-President when his season
of power and glory had ended.
The same is true of the great Conk-
ling, who settled in New York to find
in the hazards and exactions of a law
yer's life sterling relief from the regrets
of a public career which should have
entitled him to the respect and ad-
miration of the Nation.
Other characters Of lesser note from
distant States have also drifted hither.
One of them said to me that the reason
men of superior legal attainments
came to New York was because work
here was comparatively easy, Most of
it was done in the Office, while large
fees were many times as easily earned
as in any other place in the United
States.
Another one explained that a man
was untitled to live in the humble sur
Foundings of . country Aome or an
inland city after he had once gone out
and tasted the exhilaration of power
and of communion with people from all
parts of the country.
After all, life is a curious study, and
you get a new phase of it at every
turn of the haphazard existence that is
found in every line of human endeavor.
FRANK A. BURR.