The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-06-24
The Late Judge Hubbard, of Cedar
Rapids, Was the Hero Of I'm
numbered Anecdotes.
POSSESSED WONDERFULLY READY Wit.
His Long Life of Experience
Equipped Him with n Remarkable
Fund of Wisdom and Knowledge
Some, of the Stories Character
istic of the Jurist.

died Thursday, June 10, will be in or
der for a long time in Iowa. The
judge was a great story teller, and
was the hero of u%nnumbered anec-
dotes. He possessed a wonderfully
ready wit and his long life of expert
ence had equipped him with such a
fund of wit and knowledge as is given
to few men.
After he passed the three-score-and-
ten milestone Judge Hubbard used to
admit hat he was above the limit.
I'm like Uncle Ed Campbell, of Fair
field" he said once; 81 calculate Pm
living on borrowed time. Uncle Ed
used to say he took to the cornfield
and hid himself every time his birth
would discover he was living over
time and blow a blast for him. feel
a good deal the same way"
1t is a little over a year since
Judge Hubbard, then 72 years old,
went to Sioux City to try a
case in the district court. He had
then lived 46 years in Iowa, and
had been 80 years Iowa counsel for
the Northwestern. After a long fore
moons work in court he walked down
to his hotel at noon and told a caller
his recollections of early Iowa.
81 lived in Iowa when it had 200,-
600 people," said the judge, "and l an
still here when it has 100000. l have
lived in Linn county all the time; first
at Marion and then, after the rail
road went to Cedar Rapids, l moved
there. Why, l remember coming to
Sioux City in 1856, when there were
more Indians than white people; no
railroad was even in reasonable pros
pect. All this bottom land along the
Missouri flooded every year and was
supposed to be worthless. You can't
imagine what a barren country it
was. There was a little collection of
traders in Sioux City, dealing with
the Indians with stocks that consist
ed mostly of red blankets, wampum,
beads and cheap trinkets. AS late
as 1875 l bought a piece of land down
near Salix for two dollars an acre.
and that was all it wa worth; there
would be a foot of water all over the
bottoms almost any spring. I sold
it some years afterward for SIS an
acre, and suppose it is worth $50 to
$75 now"
Judge Hubbard in politics was an
ardent hater, and no man could say
more contemptuous things of those
who had incurred his displeasure.
1t was told of him hat the day after
the Cedar Rapids convention last
year, when he was numerically de-
minis, Judge Hubbard was asked how
he felt.
"Well," he replied, 81 feel a good
deal like the gambler who walked
into a saloon in the morning, after
playing and drinking all night. He
had a bad head and a brown taste,
and stepping up to the bar said:
CT wish you'd do something for
me-
"'Don't believe 1 cam was the re-
ply.
"'Why not?
"'Well, you'd want whisky, and
you've had enough of it already
"'That's just where you're mis-
taken replied the sport. I've got
past that point. l don't want whisky.
All I'm asking is a couple of glasses
of ice water and a few kind words.'"
Judge Hubbard didn't like Senator
Dolliver. They had a falling out years
ago, it is understood, because Dolli-
yer couldn't see certain railroad legis-
lation through the same glasses as
Hubbard. Hubbard didn't want Dol
liver appointed senator; he would
have been willing to make trouble in
the Tenth, if it had been possible,
long before Dolliver was promoted
from the house.
One time Congressman Dolliver was
in Des Moines, en- route to Washing
ton. He sat in the hotel lobby wait
ing for the east-bound train on the
Rock Island. Judge Hubbard spied
him and walking over shook hands.
"Goin' east tonight, Dolliver?" he
asked.
Eyes; I'm waiting for this Rock
Island train" was the reply.
Say, Dolliver," went on the Judge,
"why don't you yer ride on our rail
road? We'd like to have you do it
occasionally"
"Much obliged, Judge replied the
congressman, "but your railroad
doesn't seem to run any place where
it would accommodate anybody
well, D%olliver," drawled the Judge,
'if our road don't suit you, we might
build it over for your accommodation
and put it further up into your dis
trict."
"Thanks, Judge replied Deliver,
with a laugh, "but l guess I've got
all | need of your kind of a railroad
up there now"
Every once in awhile the nevspa-
pers print a story of Senator Hanna
getting enraged over cartoons of
himself. Judge Hubbard wasn't that
-