Evening star., 1896-01-25

years brought cup OF boy Into his
office and wanted the Senator to make
lawyer of him.
''Some people," said the Senator, think
you can make lawyer of almost any
material. This boy sat around my Office
for two months, and I saw all the time
that he was not happy. Ore day 1 spoke
to him about it, and he acknowledged that
he was not. I hate books he said. I
hated them at school, and 1 hate them
more every day. I asked him what he
liked to do and he said that he liked ma
chinery, and that he could whittle out
tbirgs with his knife better than most boys
could. He wanted to be machinist. But
it's no use,' he said. Father wants me to
be lawyer I sent for his father and
told him of my conversation with the boy.
He'll never make lawyer I said and
1 advise you to take him across the river
and apprentice him in the railroad shops.
What! Make a common machinist of my
boy! he saiL. I told him machinists like
Ericsson and Fulton, were far above us
lawyers. Anyway. it required a peculiar
faculty to be a lawyer. and his boy did
not possess it. He had good deal of con-
fidence in my judgment and after time
he agreed to follow my advice. Today that
boy is drawing salary of $1,000 a year
and has a great future before him. And I
have to be thankful that I saved my pro-
fession from the infiiction of one more
very bad lawyer and gave to mechanics a
very fine machinist."
The Senator's idea about choosing a vo-
| cation was not that of his father, for if
the Senator had had choice when he was
young he would have gone into literature.
He thinks, perhaps, he would have been
more successful in that than in the law;
though he is one of the leading practi-
| TONERS of the northwest. He has written
books. and he has tin trunk full of un-
| published manuscript, which he has never
offered to any publisher
The Senator's chief interest is in his
books. He began the accumulation of a IL
| brary early in life, and he made rule
| then. which he has kept religiously, to de-
vote his evenings to literary recreation. He
never takes the papers in law case home
| to study them in his library. He devotes
| his time there to reading light literature or
history, or anything which pleases his
With all his book knowledge. he is
| not pedantic; in fact, he is delightful
| modification of the New England type. He
| was born in New York state, but he never
| been elected governor of Minnesota. Out
of his public service. Mr.. Davis practices
| law earnestly. and he is one of the most
| successful criminal advocates In Mime
| sofa. n
| Public and Private Duties.
Senator Gray of Delaware is anoth-
er lawyer who keeps up his practice
in spite of his public duties, but he has de-
clined twice to go into the cabinet. because
| he believed that in cabinet position he
ought to give up all private business and
attend to public duties Mr. Reed Of Maine
tells me he finds no time for law practice,
but he reads law industriously and keeps
| in touch with his profession. Mr. Edmunds
never allowed the law. to suffer from ne
| glect because of his public duties when he
! was in the Senate. He used TO go from the
| Senate chamber to the Supreme Court
1 t1 tyvy rDtr- \ h{r
| torial duties when it was disposed Of. Sena-
| tor Hill has some practice in the Supreme
| Court, and he Is extending 1t all the time
He has begun to realize in recent years that
| office-holding is not of necessity a perma-
| nency.
Senator Teller told me the other day that
| he had given up most of his Jaw practice.
| The Senator has mines which bring him a
good income and he has son, a graduate
in law. who looks after his fathers busi.
ness interests in Colorado. The young man
has an ambition to go to the new mining
| camp at Creede to practice his profession
| hut his father has not encouraged it. The
| Senator's fortunate investments have beer
entirely in gold mines, so the slump in
silver which followed the repeal of the
| purcha sing clause of the Sherman act die
not affect him financially. Yet SO con-
scientious is the Colorado Senator that one
Of his colleagues told me recently he never
saw more pathetic sight than when Mr.
Teller. conscious of impending defeat, got
UP in the Senate to make final appeal fol
silver in the last Congress. Mr.. Teller's
investments in mines have been always
for cash, and he has let slip many oppor
tunities for getting rich because he would
not take mining stock in exchange for lega
services. One of them he told me on
train coming east few years ago-thougl
before repeating 1t / want to say that tht
Senator's tone was not one Of regret. Tht
remembrance of his experience, in fact
seemed to afford him great deal of amuse
ment.
Escaped Being a Millionaire.
The Robert E. Lee mine at Leadville wa!
in litigation. The Senator was one Of thu
attorneys in the case and the owners offer
ed him a one-thrd interest in the mine fol
his services. He declined to accept this
saying he preferred cash. Then they of
fered him, when the title of the mine wa!
settled, one-third interest for cash, agree
ing that they would let him owe the pur
J chase money until the product of the min
| paid 1T. Even then the Senator would no
go in. year afterward, he met one o
the owners of the mine who told him tina
another man had taken his place, putting
up cash for a one-third interest in tn
property, and that he had cleared 5000
from it. 1 fancy thee Senator was a littl
envious at the time, But, ~ he was, he ha
: laughs now over hisoiescaae from being
| millionaire. 9
great many public men have let oppor
| tun1t1es like this slip fhrcagh tneT nngers
) One of the historic eSbertsnces of that kim
was Senator Don Cameran's. He had
? chance to buy heavy interest in the Be-
telephone for few thousand dollars. The
would be today as rnany millions If he ha
invested them. But the Senator from Penn
l sylvania, though he0is al good deal Of
t speculator, is not mitch Of a hand for in
} ventions. Mr.. Brice;s on Jthe other hanG
will speculate in aAythiHg-if he sees
, chance to make friend by doing SO. Brio
; fimself made his fortune specializing in rail
, roads and the story .of the way he force
? Vanderbilt to buy the Nickel Plate road is
matter of history. He went to Jay Gould an
2 asked him to buy tthe property. Goul
: laughed at him. Then he suggested tina
Gould could help bina sell it to the Wander
bilts, who had refused to buy 1t in the be
e lief that they had only to wait a certai
l length of time till Br.ce would be forced
drop it. Gould's enmity 20 the Vanderbilt
made him a willing party to the schern
and he agreed to go over the Nickel Plat
road in an observation car as though
were Inspecting the property with view {
r buying 1t. He made the trip rather leisure
f ly and the papers we're full of the repol
, that Gould wanted to buy the Nickel Plat
!, The Vanderbilts became frightened an
i gave Brice his price for the property
n | which was q fortunate thing for Brice, q
Q his capital was exhausted and he woul
/ not have been able to hold out much longe