Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-06-16
HIS FIRST CASE.
sTAKED HIS LIFE UPON THE VERDICT
OF e JURY.
Thrilling Account of How a Prominent
Lawyer Commenced a Success
full Career.


remarked venerable and prominent at
tcrney the other morning, as several of us
sat around the bar of Judge Van Fleets
Court waiting for his Honor to make an
appearance and dispose of lengthy law
calendar, that occasioned the presence OF
nearly every attorney in the city.
"You see, was just q, had Just been ad-
mitted to the bar, and the three years study
Just preceding my admission had prevented
any accumulation to my already scanty
pocket-book, so on the 2Sth day of March,
1856, | found myself seated in a small,
cherries, half-furnished office in the little
town of Wheatland, Fayette county, Ill.,,
with my rent and board paid for one month
in advance and 81 10 in my pocket, pa
tiently awaiting for the first individual
who should require the services of coun-
selor-at-law.
For three weeks and half / was in my
Office at 8 o'clock in the morning, and re-
mained until 6 in the evening and up to
this time neither friend nor foe had
ventured to cross the threshold of my
humble office. And as the time for the
payment OF my second months board and
Office rent gradually approached confess
| was nearly wild with despair. l
should certainly have given up everything,
deserted my office and forsaken my profess
sion, had it not been for another fortunate
circumstance growing out of the location
| had selected for the scenes of my future
battles with legal complications and hu-
name entanglements.
Immediately adjoining my Office and a
little beyond was good old German shoe
maker, who pegged away from morning
until night, and but for the noise of whose
pegging l should have gone wild with the
quiet and oppressive solitude of the noise
less village. Well, on the other side of
my office was long, tedious flight of
wooden stairs leading up to the story in
which we were located.
"The shoemaker, having lived there for
years, of course had his regular customers
and friends, who, either for business or a
friendly chat, would frequently come up
these stairs. My spirits would be way
down to zero and the last glimmer of hope
about to expire, when To- | would hear a
footstep on the stairs; my expectations
would again revive, my spirits raise to the
highest pitch of expectancy Of future glory,
and from the moment of .he sound of the
first step on the stair until the person
from whose feet the sound had come
passed my door to the shoemaker's shop,
my fancy had built a score of castles and
every ambitious dream of my life had for
that short time seemed a century Then
again | would sink into dependence, and
at the next footsteps again ride for brief
spell on the buoyant wave of boyish antici-
pations.
|, "These conflicting and ever changing
moods continued, until at last a sound of a
footstep greeted my ear, and with the
same breathless anxiety waited, until at
last, at last the hand of stranger
touched the door-knob of my office door,
and before me stood the Constable of the
township.
Ellis name was Mike Heiney.
"I asked him to sit down moment,
until | could finish a most important
document made dive at the ink bottle,
wrote something that l never have been
able to read, and in a most deliberate
manner inquired if there was anything |
could do for Mr.. Heiney'
"'Well,' says he, 'Oi hav mon in the
'ijug" as wants to see a lowy'r, and Oi taught
as yez seemed to be dacent young mon,
with nothin' to do, 'twould be no NOR n a
dacent job for me to put yez onto EN-, and
if there Is anything in it, and Oh think
there is, Oh would loike to put yez in the
way of maxim it,
Il thanked him very kindly, and added,
while | prefer probate and commercial
law to criminal practice, Mr.. Heiney, l
shall, under the circumstances and in con-
sideration of your kind recommendation,
at least so and interview the prisoner and
as certain what | can of the factSa leading
up to his arrest
Consequently | hurried up to the little
Jail that Mike had called the Jug, and
had an interview with the prisoner. He had
been accused Of stealing S29S and a lady's
gold watch and chain. The officer told
ME also, that when he arrested the man
he had exactly the sum of money claimed
to have been lost, on his person, but
nothing could be found of the watch and
chain. The prisoner, it is needless to say,
protested his innocence, and / confess be-
lieved at the time he was telling the
truth. Well, we had an examination in
the lower Court, and the Judge held the
fellow to answer, much to my discontinue
| confess
MY client also felt discouraged at first,
and it was not until | had dIlated upon
the great right of American citizenship in
the trial by jury that the honor Of men
can be vindicated, and assured him that
| could acquit him before a jury, that |
succeeded in consoling him to the horror
he had of going back to Jail. That prom
ise was the most foolish one ! ever made
and let me say to some of you young attor-
neys, never in your life allow yourself to
be so overcome with confidence rs to assure
a man you win win his case. The more
doubt YOU create in the mind of your
client the more surprised and gratitied
will he be, and a better estimation will he
place on your abilities. Never allow your
self to speculate on Court or jury to the
extent of giving assurance to any one.
"Well, as | was saying, declared to
him he should go free.
1.-The day set for the trial of the case
arrived at last In the meantime the i'm
mediate neighborhood had become consid-
erably excited, and nearly every one in the
village who could go went to the county
seat on the eventful day with very decided
opinions that my client was dangerous
man TO be at large
at would take too long to relate fully
the circumstances of the case, and it is suf-
fcient to say that the exact sum alleged
TO have been stolen was found on his per-
son, and the evidence ei- a little girl was
that she saw the man standing at a win
dow of her fathers house; upon seeing him
she ran a considerable distance to give the
alarm, and, upon returning In about twenty
or thirty minutes with a neighbor, she
found the window bad been broken from
the casing, many drawers and closets in
the house turned topsy turvey, the money
and watch found missing, and her identif-
cation of the man was positive and COM
plete.
"As said, the day of the trial had ar
rived, and in the meantime two friends of
my client arrived also They seemed very
anxious indeed about his safety, frequently
visited him, and the morning of the trial,
and Just before the Court was to convene,
they sent for me to come to the cell of the
prisoner.
Il stepped into the narrow passage of
the Jail and soon stood in the door of the
cell. One of them addressed me as follows
Now, see here, young man, Greene
(that was my clients name) tells us that
you refuse TO allow any attorney to assist
in the trial Of this case, and If he EMPLOYS
anyone to do so he saws yot, will with