The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-08-10

u
Reed and incidentally narrates a few
good anecdotes. or course, writes Mr.
Wellman, Tom Reed was a poor boy
Every one of his friends in Portland
knows he IL an avowed candidate 70,
the presidency. and there would be nc
need OF Indulgence In an ambition like
this II he had been born with any silver
spoons In reach Of his mouth. Some one
suggested the spoon simile to Mr.. Reed
the other day. and the big man replied
Silver spoons? We used pewter ones
when was a boy. and when they ran
snort father carved others out OF
pieces OF wood" Young Thomas Brack-
EFT attended the city schools and went
through the high school without any
one suspecting that there were in him
any elements Of greatness. ! looked all
about Portland, and was agreeably dis
appointed when failed to discover the
ancient and toothless prophet who had
ntty years ago predicted that TOmmie
Reed had great future before him.
AT II Or l5 he was big, overgrown boy.
with plenty Of flesh, but without much
strength or activity, He has never fully
recovered from his tendency to fat
ana IaZiness. That he Is lazy he ad-
mits, out 1t fs physical and not mental
Incidence. for Mr.. Reeds mind Is and
always has been exceedingly busy from
early morning until late at night. He
mas read everything. studied every
thing, and mastered three or four lam
guages. including one that is dead. No
lazy man takes up the study of French
al 80, or Italian at So. and of Spanish
AT DO, as Mr.. Reed has done.
Reeds First Lawsuit.
There Is a good story about Tom
Reeds first lawsuit After leavinp COL.
Iege Mr.. Reed studied law with Judge
howard and Sewell Strout, and then
mad an attack Of the California fever.
Ihis was In 1861. and Reed was 20 years
old. He went to Stockton and San Jose.
ana In the latter town finally hung out
his shingle. 1t was there that Mr.. Reed
trieu his first case in court. He was
employed to defend Jose Garcia, a
Spaniard. charged with assault with
intent to XIII and murder" The ac-
cused was out on bail, and when the
to present any defense, for the simple
reason that he had killed his man, and
did not know how to lie out Of it. The
testimony offered by the prosecution
made this fact plain enough, land all
could do" said Mr.. Reed once upon
a time. was to offer some evidence con-
cerning my clients previous good char
acter, and then talk. This did to the
best Of my ability. l scarcely knew
what l was going to say. but while on
my feet a happy thought came to me.
Admitting. for the sake of argument
said to the jruy, In my most persua-
sive way, that Senior Garcia did shoot
this man, where Is the evidence that
that Jose Garcia is the Jose Garcia now
on trial In this court?' I went on toi de-
clare that, while the prosecution had
offered considerable testimony to the
effect that Jose Garcia had done the
shooting, II had not in the least particu-
lar identified this Jose Garcia with the
crime. Suppose l asked, a hundred
witnesses were to come into court and
swear they had seen John Smith shoot
Bill Brown, and then suppose John
Of the crime. Would 1t not be necessary,
gentlemen Of the jury, to offer proof
that this John Smith was the very
John Smith who had committed the
crime?' 1t chanced to be an unusually
intelligent jury" said Mr.. Reed. In con-
clusion, "and 1t saw the point very
quickly and acquitted my man. This
is the way in which tried and won my
first case in court"
Another Interesting Case.
Probably the funniest lawsuit Tom
Reed ever had to try came into court
here in Portland shortly after he re-
turned from his extremely peaceful en-
periences In the war. He defended
newspaper in an action for libel brought
by a citizen Of Portland who had been
charged In print with being "on record
as the biggest liar in the state Of
Maine" This was Mr.. Reeds first I'M
portant case at home. and he was nat
urally eager to win 1t. When he an
nounced his intention Of pleading the
truth of the charge In justification his
friends, Judge Howard. Sewell Strout
and others, told him he was making
a great mistake. You never can JUS
tify such a sweeping charge as that
they sa,d land If you attempt 1t you
will only make the damages so much
the heavier for your client to pay"
Reed admitted 1t was hard task to
prove that any particular man the pig
gest liar in a state which has been
famous for Its production of liars, but
he though ne would chance 1t. He put
on the. stand great number of Wit
nesses whose testimony tended to es-
tablsh the reputation of the plaintif
as an habitual and artistic liar
When the evidence was all In Reed
addressed the jury. After reviewing
the testimony he said he believed every
one of the Jurors would agree with him
they had shown the plaintiff to be as
big liar as any self-respecting state
O, ght ITO have within its borders. and
the onus of producing bigger liar than
this plaintiff, with the consequent dis
grace to the fair state OF Maine. would
have to rest upon the prosecution. This
the. jury. and from that on
the young lawyer had things all his
own way. 1t CHANGED that one Of the
witnesses had brought out the fact that
Colonel Jones, the plaintiffs lawyer.
had himself certified on more than one
occasion to the plaintiffs habit OF pre-
voricating, and so in the course OF his
argume mt young Reed frequently made
use Of such expressions as these:
"Twenty-seven witnesses, including
Colonel Jones. swear so-and-so."
Flight witnesses. exclusive Of Colonel
Jones, swear to the contrary" BY
these means the ambitious young law
yer managed to keep grin on the
faces of the jury from start to finish,
and verdict was promptly rendered
for the defense. When this amusing
and somewhat celebrated case came to
an end young Reed developed one Of
those characteristics which have