Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-27
THE LAWYERS STORY.
Written for the SUNDAY UNION, by Z. B. Sher-
mani

ing lawyers, we legal lumlnaIles meet
with many peculiar experiences in the
course of lifetime.
~ have a very vivid recollection of one
such instance that occurred away back in
the 16fties,' when l, like you young men
here, was Just lighting my fires, as it were,
in preparation for the blazing notoriety l
hoped to earn some day by my genius
81 had short time before been taken in
as junior partner of a well-known law
firm, and the case of which 1 shall tell you
was one involving the validity of will.
"Peter Fulljames, a wealthy merchant,
had died few weeks previous, and when
his will was read it was found that the
bulk of his vast fortune had been left to a
poor nephew, while his only son, a most
exemplary young man, who had for years
borne the brunt of his fathers extensive
mercantile business, had been cut off with
a mere nominal sum.
''As the nephew had no actual claim
upon the decedent, and was, moreover,
none too well liked by the Fulljames fam
lily, owing to his wild and unsteady habits,
this naturally was hard pill to swallow,
and the son, after seeking advice from our
firm, decided to contest the admission OF
the will to probate.
Judge Barrett, one of my partners, and
myself were placed in charge of the case,
and as there was large amount of money
involved in the transaction we went to
work with more than ordinary zeal to win
the suit for our client.
"The will, we found, had been drawn
by well-known law firm, whom | shall
call Worth & Strand, was properly made,
and contained the names, as witnesses, Of
two prominent interior merchants-one
from Stockton and the other from Sacra-
mentO.
"Thus far all was regular, and but one
of two other courses lay open to us. We
must either prove that Peter Fulljames
was of unsound mind at the time he made
the will or else we must show that it was
forgery. The first was wholly impossi-
BILE, for the reason that the decedent had
preserved his clearness of mind to the
hour of his death-a fact everyone would
have to admit-and that left us but the
hope of showing the signature to be a
forgery.
"Eyen this seemed slim ground to be-
gin an action upon, for, if it was not Mr..
Fulljames' own handwriting, it was so
clever an imitation that l believe he him.
self would have been deceived by it.
However, we believed in our own con-
sciences that we were right, and that re-
lieved our toilsome task of some of its
worst features.
For week or two we worked like
beavers, studied every legal point having
bearing upon the case and left no stone
unturned to secure evidence, which, we
hoped, would secure for our client just
decision.
"Well, the matter at last came up in
Court and both sides had come with their
war-paint on, so to speak. The testimony
of the applicant, through his attorneys and
witnesses, showed strong case in his
favor. The two merchants whose sigma
lures were upon the instrument testified
clearly that they had affixed their names
to the will at the request of Messrs.
Worth and Strand that while waiting an
audience with the attorneys in their public
Office they had been requested to enter a
private apartment adjoining, where man,
who had been introduced as Mr.. Full
james, was seated at the table; that the
man had, in their presence, affixed his
signature to the will and they as witnesses
had done the same.
Unfortunately, we had no photograph
of the decedent to submit for their inspec-
ton, but from the description each was
able to give of the man who had signed
the instrument, there could be little doubt
that il was Mr.. Fulljames himself.
Experts were brought upon the stand
to pass upon the signature, and although
they were not of the same mind, the bur-
den of their testimony went to show that
the handwriting was that of the deceased.
1.-THE result need not be told; judgment
was given in favor of the applicant and
the will admitted to probate.
"The matter might have been soon for
gotten, so far as | was concerned, had not
one little incident come to my notice i'm
mediately after the adjournment of Court
AS we passed from the Courtroom
observed dark-visaged man sneak through
the crowd toward Mr.. Worth, the attorney
representing the rephew's interests, and,
drawing him aside, whisper something in
his ear Then both men chuckled with
evident satisfaction; a significant glance
passed between them, and after shaking
hands, the dark man skunk hurriedly out
of the lobby and disappeared upon the
street.
"Somehow l could not get this little in
cident out of my mind; a strange freak of
fancy kept continually associating the dark
stranger with the will of Peter Fulljames,
and | could not drive it from me, although
if / should have been asked to define my
suspicious or surmises | could not have
done it.
Even after several months had passed
and the estate had been distributed ac-
cording to the terms of the will, 1 could
not wholly dispel the recollection of that
little scene in the lobby.
"Thus matters ran along until one day,
nearly year after the admission of the
will to probate, when once more received
a forcible reminder of the occurrence.
a had been detailed by my seniors to
seek out some evidence in an important
criminal case in which we had been re-
tanned, and in the course of my search it
became necessary to look up face in the
'rogue's gallery kept by the police depart
ment.
permission was readily granted me by
the Chief to pursue my inquiries in that
quarter, and few moments later l was
slowly turning the leaves of one of the
great albums, critically scrutinizing each
face that appeared before me.
SAT length l paused instinctively,
chained, as it were, by strange fascina-
zion to photograph of dark, sinister
faced man that seemed to possess most
familiar expression and appearance.
"For the life of me l could not tell
when or where / had seen the face, and
the officer who accompanied me, noticing
that | was mentally puzzled, asked if l
knew him.
GO cannot place him. answered, al
though am quite sure | have met him at
some time or other. Who is hep
"'That? Why, that's Sym Earle, one
of the most expert forgers this country
ever knew
"The word 'forger' seemed to clear the
cloud from my memory, and almost
started as the truth flashed upon me. 1t
was the man l had seen speaking with
Mr.. Worth in the lobby of the Court
room.
.ss VIII n,