The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-05-10
snaFWD CRIMINALS.
Many Obtain Legal Advice Before
Violating the Law.

"The public has a curious and
false idea Of the criminal classes,
said a lawyer who has had a good
deal to do with them in the courts
ut is true that majority of them
are coarse, hard-visaged wretches
but they don't represent the brains.
They are like the tools in a black.
smith shop-useless unless directed
by the mechanical ingenuity of the
learned worker. The brains of the
criminal classes are furnished by
the men whose histories would
make the most intensely interesting
pages of romance. Some of these
leaders, I know, come from good
families, whose social and political
distinctions make them the shin
ing lights of society. Educated in
colleges, learned in professions,
they, by a singular perversity of
nature, seem to have no other use
for their talents than in concocting
schemes to set at defiance the laws
for the prevention of crime.
cts true" he continued, "that
all the leaders are not college grad
yates or men of professions, yet
they are all possessors of more than
the average shrewdness; quick to
see, determine, and act, grasping a
situation at a glance, devising ways
as only men of intelligence and
ability can. These are dangerous
men-that is, dangerous to prop
erty-their tools, who do the rough
work of carrying out the perfected
schemes, being the ones who care
for neither life nor limb in pursuit
of the object which they have been
instructed to attain. When the
public read of some daring crime
that seems to have been committed
on the impulse Of the moment they
will scarcely believe that weeks,
months, may be a year, have been
consumed in planning a way for
the successful termination of the
outrage.
my own experience has taught
me that this is the case, and not
only are the crime and the mode of
its perpetration carefully consid-
cred, but probable failure also en-
ters largely into the programme
marked out; and it is in this re-
spect that the advice of a lawyer is
often sought. NY first contact with
criminals of the kind was with three
well-known men who probably have
never had their equal in this coun-
try as bond forgers. 'Tis unneces-
sary to mention their names. Both
are the possessors of considerable
means.
''On a certain day l received a
visit from one of the trio, who, by
the way, is man who, if he had
pursued the paths of morality,
would be capable of filling any po-
sition requiring education, gentle
manly address, tact and shrewdness.
I was unacquainted with him at
the time he called, and his mode of
procedure was identical with that
Of any business man and did not
in the least arouse my suspicion.
Upon the contrary, l found him
such a remarkably affable and in
telligent gentleman that / consid-
cred his acquaintance worthy Of
being cultivated. He called my at
tention to a law and asked my con-
of it. He desired a written
opinion, and requested me to take
ample time to carefully ly consider it.
"Depositing a goodly fee, he de-
parted, remarking that he would
call in day or two. Within the
lime specified he called and received
my written opinion he read it care
'ully, discussing it's principal points
With me with a vigor showing an
intimate knowledge of law which
greatly surprised me at the time.
For nearly month he was a fire.
luent caller at my Office, each time
presenting either his own construc-
ion of a law for my approval or
asking for written opinion, as he
1ad at his first visit. The singu-
arity of his proceedings finally
struck me as curious, but it was
lnintelligible, and for months after
1is visits had discontinued l often
gave the matter serious considera-
ion, without arriving at any salts
actory conclusion.
II failed to mention, however,
hat while he paid me a good fee
or each opinion he invariably trip
ed the amount whenever my opin-
ons were indorsed by a then we'll
Znown Judge of criminal court
If this city.
"About a year after these trans
Ictions l was one day engaged in a
criminal case before this Judge and
vas surprised to see among the
prisoners at the bar my former gen.
lemanly client, and l then and
here learned who and what he was. {
The crime with which hewas charged /,
vas the extensive forgery of bonds,