The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-14
m1RABEAU LAmART1NE TOWNS.
A Lawyer Who Comes in For Fortune
by Doing His Briefs in Verse.
Prom the SnrinPfleld Ran1rhlic

TOM the Springfield hepuDnCan.
Mirabeau Lamartine Towns of Brook
Ign, who is known as the poet-lawyer, has
fallen heir to a considerable fortune by
reason of his prediction for rhyme Mr.
Towns is a next-door neighbor of Judge
Gaynor in Eighth avenue, and posed as
the personal representative of the latter
at Saratoga. An eccentric Irishman
named Broone, who lived in Queens
county and owned an estate valued at
S60O0O has made Mr.. Towns one of his
heirs, and his share win be $15O,OOO The
story told by Mr.. Towns in relation to the
way in which ne came to be one of the
heirs is interesting. He says that about
ten years ago he was sitting in his office
at Is Court street on a hot August day.
when an old man entered and requested
an interview. He had been interested in
reading of litigations, and ne had seen
the name of Mr.. Towns in the newspapers
as lawyer who did not take the law too
seriously, so he had decided TO give him
the first case that he was Interested in on
condition that he would sum up the case
in rhyme. The case was that of Mrs.
| Bridget Rowan against John Bedell for
damages for being bitten by a hog and
! drenched with water from a hose. To
| comply with Mr.. Broone's request Mr..
| Towns summed up the case as follows;
In July last, about the time
That hungry mortals like to dine,
The plaintiff being a married woman,
Went forth to see her husband Rowan
The frugal meal, yet smoking warm
She had in bucket on her arm.
For, It's the plaintiffs chief delight
To quench her husbands appetite.
Now the defendant, Charles Bedell,
Keeps near the park, oh, sad to tell,
A low resort of vice and sin,
Where he dspenses rum and gin.
Yet not content with deadly cups,
He keeps two wild ferocious pups
TO Stay those who escape the lair
With deadly hydrophobi-air.
When plaintiff came into the park
This Charles Bedel just for a lark,
| AS he says in his own defense,
Seeing that she was but a woman,
Set his puppies on Mrs. Rowan,
And as he saw her race with fright,
Trying to save herself by flight
! He shouted: bill, before she goes
Just play upon her with the hose"
| Cursed, assaulted, all but drowned,
| Bleeding from the puppies wound,
| The plaintiff, gentlemen of the jury,
At last escaped this blackguards fury,
| And comes in court to see If you
viii do as you'd have others do
| He recovered a verdict of $575 for his
client. and Mr. Broone was greatly grati-
fed. The latter gave Mr.. Towns another
case against the Long Island Railroad
| Company, in which he recovered 81, 5S3, as
! damages for injuries to a womans knee.
This case he summed up as follows:
| Breathes there man with soul so dead
! Who never to himself has said
| The fatrest thing on earth to me
! Is lovely woman's beauteous knee;
Inspirer of ancient chivalry,
| A limb Of loves outrageous tree, .,
Midst lace and brilliant foliage
|
| The golden fleece for which this age
| Makes ArgonautiC pilgrimage,
| The modern warriors battle wage,
| All, could /, in language hfalute
! Thy need appraise, 'twould burst my
flute.
Mr.. Towns pleads guilty to summing up
| other cases in rhyme for his eccentric
| friend, and that he won them all He also
| admits that he wrote the rhymed reply to
! City Works Commissioner White for Foley
| Fitzgibbon, a friend of Mr. Broone when
| Fitzgibbon failed to get a position in the
city works department which ended:
| I'm Irish and take my whisky clear;
| I'm Foley Fitzgibbon, a true son of Erin,
| And don't care a -- for Gambrinus or
! SChieren.
His rhymed argument before the consti-
| suffrage was written at the request of Mr..
| Towns his interest In Ill acres of salt
meadows on Newtown creek, with this
note:
Dear Friend You have been kind to me
/ and humored me for many years: you
! have devoted your muse to my whimS and
/ fancies. and your Pegasus has been at nv
disposal as "a hobby horse The salt mead
ows of NewtoWn creek are not irrigated
by any Hyperan spring, but your winged
steed may find there, If not an ideal pas
] tur0Ee, at least a change of diet and
| sufficient Of the wherewithal to keep both
him and his master harmless OF fortune
Ever yours, Michael Broone.