St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-07-13
ANECDOTES OF PARKER
Early Ambition of the Demo-
cratic Nominee For President.
A STIRRING INCIDENT OF HIS LIFE

A STIRRING INCIDENT OF HIS LIFE
How the Judge QueIIed a Panic In a
Bank-Experience With a PhOtog-
rapher who Interrupted His Morn
ing Dive In the Hudson-Why He
Refused a Prominent Omce.
The ambition Of Judge Alton Brooks
Parker, chief judge of the New York
court of appeals and the Democratic.
nominee for president of the United
States, to become a lawyer was early
formed and came about in an interest
ing way, says the New York Times.
His father was summoned for jury
service in a case which was to be tried
at Cortland, n. Y. He brought young
Alton to court with him. The case was
of some Importance, and one of the par
ties to it had employed the services Of
a Syracuse lawyer of some distinction
as a pleader. This lawyers address
made such an impression on young Par
ker that when he and his father were
driving back to the farm he Informed
his parent that he intended to become
a lawyer when he grew up. Once hay-
ing formed that purpose he began to
bend all his efforts toward its accom-
plishment. To get the money neces-
sary to attend a law school the young
man decided to take up teaching upon
the completion of his academic course.
In connection with this stage of his
career he himself relates an incident
which is eloquently suggestive of the
sturdy honesty Of his ancestry.
On the Friday afternoon on which he
received his certificate from the Cort-
land academy he hired a horse at the
village livery stable and started out,
unknown to his father, in search Of
employment. After a thirteen mile
drive and several disappointments he
was engaged by the trustees of Virgil
township school. His father, too, had
lost no time in looking out for his sons
interests, and at the same time that
the young man was on his quest in
search of employment the father had
secured him an engagement which,
from a pecuniary standpoint, was more
attractive than that which the young
man had concluded for himself. ~
When the young man returned home
late at night and related to his father
with some pride the result of his mis-
sion, his father, instead of sharing in
his elation, expressed his regret, ex-
planning that he had secured for him
the promise of a much better place
than that at Virgil. Young Parker,
much crestfallen, proposed that he re-
turn to Virgil the next morning and
cancel his engagement.
NO" said his father; you have
made it and you must keep it. l have
observed that when young man once
all through life"
There were some boys at the Virgil
school who were larger than their six
teen-year-old teacher, and he found 1t
difficult to maintain discipline. One
day when he had corrected the bully
OF the school that individual not only
resented the correction, but showed
fight One blow from young Parkers
fist sent him sprawling to the floor.
After that the young teacher had no
difficulty In commanding obedience
from his pupils.
That Judge Parker is a man OF &C
ton and a doer as well as student
and man of meditation was well evil
denced In a matter which is a part
of the. history of the city of King
ston, N. Y. says the Brooklyn Ea-
gle. One September day, in 1891, the
Ulster County Savings bank. of which
he was a trustee, closed its doors sud-
denly because Of entertainments ON the
part of the treasurer and assistant
treasurer, which could no longer be
concealed. 1t was bank which had
deposits OF So, 500 900 and the embezzie-
ment amounted to $4OO, 900, wiping out
the supposed surplus and making de-
ficiency. The bank had invested about
81, 500 600 in real estate mortga ges, one
half of which were on the farms in
Ulster county To wind up the bust
ness of the bank. by appointing
temporary receiver, and distribute the
assets pro rata-the ordinary way
would be to foreclose these mortgages,
throw many on the market, reduce
their values and ruin the farmers and
infiict further loss on the depositors.
At the time Judge Parker was at his
farm at Accord, but hearing of the dis
aster he hurried to an investigation.
There were other trustees, among them
General George II. Sharpe, but Judge
Parker, in his masterfulness, became
the only one. His first act was to lodge
the assistant treasurer in Jail that
night, his next a prompt effort to in
duce a strong fiduciary institution to
take an assignment of the mortgages
with a local bank as discount agent.
But that failed. No institution was
willing. Then he showed his resources
and his inventive powers. He asked
the equity court, in the place Of APP
pointing temporary receiver, to name
TWENTY-FIVE prominent citizens as trus-
tees. 1t was a new idea and it COM
mended itself to Charles NJ. Preston,
who was at the time state superintend-
ent of banks and resident OF King
ston. The judge pleaded with the
Of merchants.