The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-09-22

| Ill SOclety dHu WHcic SimPic Nheuc anu
common honesty fertilizes the soil that
nations spring up and take on the ele-
ments of their sturdy growth
Depend upon it, a commonwealth
springing from any soil but this will
turn to ashes like the apples of So
dom.
1t is because Mr.. Barney was a faith
full worker at the very base of society
that this memorial delights in unfold
ing the record of his life. Few of the
members of the present bar of this
county knew Mr.. Barney in his pro
fessional career and during the period
of his greatest activity, but those who
did know him never lose the impression
of his unique personality.
His nerves We're so tensely strung by
nature that they seemed to vibrate in
frenzy when he spoke in forensic or
political debate He never spoke unless
he had something to say and then he
seemed to take fire with his own earn
estness. He was epigrammatic and in
cisive in speech, disdaining the flowers of
rhetoric, and he dipped his arrows in
reason and logic and never feathered
them with emotion.
As a lawyer Mr.. Barney ranked high
in his profession. He never rushed
blindly into cause leaving a result to
the accident of. a trial, but on princi
pie and authority he urged his way,
confident in his diagnosis of the case.
His mind was alert to every phase of
his case and he never suffered himself
to be ambushed in court. He under
stood that the true office of an attor-
ney at law was to fairly present his
case to the court and then aid it by ar
gument and authority to arrive at a
just legal conclusion. He was so hostile
to every sham that he would never veil
his case in smoke to delude either the
court or jury. He was engaged in an
early day in hundreds of important
cases involving the rights of the settlers
on the lots of Mankato against the
claims of its original proprietors, and
in every case the courts sustained his
contention of the law.
Mr.. Barney held many offices in his
state, county and city and with such
care and integrity did he discharge his
trusts in all that he left them unstung
| by criticism. Office had no allure
ments for him, and he wasted no energy
in its pursuit.
Mr. Barney was known for his con
slant loyalty to civic duty, and his re-
lentless warfare upon official corrup-
| ton, the same that now causes every
honest citizen of the United States to
blush for his country.
He was thought by some to be too
exacting and cynical when he demanded
that no public officer should transcend
the letter of his authority, or yield any
thing to political policy or public clam
or, but this watchfulness over the con-
duct of those charged with the execu-
ton of the trust is the safest of So
ciety and government.
Mr.. Barney was bold, brave and self
reliant, forming and entertaining a de-
cided opinion upon all questions of pub
lie or private concern after mature de
liberation and then no Establishments OF
cajolery could entice him to abandon
and substitute one suggested by the
self interest of another.
Mr.. Barney was in every respect ant
in every walk of life an honest and up
right man. He claimed only what be
longed to him and withheld nothing that
belonged to another. He understood the
mutual obligations of his race and Sc
far as their application to life devol
we'd upon him, he was never remiss
No living man can say that he was
ever guilty of breach of faith either
i'm public or private life and he left M
accuser behind him and none to rail al
his tomb, and no man can be more for
tunate than this.
His creed was honesty of purpose
purity of life and exact justice to his
fellow men. He was content to play al
transformations part in life, noiselessly
discharging such duties as fell to his
lot.
He never played to the galleries, snt
rejected with utter contempt any APP
plause for duty performed. Free from
hypocracy and cant, he never turned
but one face to the world, and when he
announced his opinion upon an. subject
it admitted of no menIaI reservation.
He lived and died in the bosom OF
that order that acknowledges no creed
more sacred than that of the brother
hood of man, and when his companion
ship was ended. it laid him to rest with
more than filial affection.
When we weigh the virtues of Shell
don F. Barney against his faults, we
shall find that he did not live in vaiI
and that victory over human infinity
may be justly claimed for him.
And now the bar association of Blue