The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-12-02
"HOOT MON

HOO i MON
Boss Ruef of San Francisco certainly
had the right idea. All Of his fine work
was done under the guise of giving legal
adV1ce. This reminds one Of the remark
of Boss Butler of st. Louis, who was
fought to finish by Governor Folk when
the latter was prosecuting attorney. But
Ter said that If he were beginning his
political career over again he would as
foundation study law and then he
could do great many things under the
guise OF giving advice which he couldn't
get at as a layman.
De Tocqueville, when he visited
America, unused upon the length of time
1t would take America to discover a fond
ness for titles and on what foundation
our aristocracy which he foresaw, would
be based. He found 1t in the legal pro-
fession. At the time of his visit America
had no vast businesses and no swollen
fortunes. The population was distrib-
uted thru the farming country and stray
Cling villages with here and there a
somewhat modern town. In the villages
he found the lawyer easily the head Of
the community and therefore De Tocque-
Vile predicted for America an aristocracy
Of education, brains, and-lawyers.
The French philosophers Judgment
seems to have gone astray or else Ameri-
ca Is off her trolley, for the lawyer Is
relatively in less position than he was
half century ago. He has not founded
an aristocracy. He is not even so Gag
erly sought as a public servant. He is
less frequently honored by the commu-
nifty In other ways. Some people charge
him with being back of much of our
shady politics thru his opportunity to
confess his clients in secret. Lawyers
themselves lament the decay of their pro-
fesslon thru it's commercialization It Is
easy, good lawyers say, for man of fine
legal attachments to fail at the bar I'M
less he combines with forensic soundness,
business sagacity. This Is a rare COM
D1nation,s but 1t Is the few who have it
who are making the fortunes at the bar.
Ihen, too, the independence Of the pro-
fession is being Slapped by the tremen-
dous power of great corporate interests.
They hire lawyers not to interpret the
laws and gain rights but to twist the
laws and perpetrate wrongs. The sue
cessful practitioner gets good living
but he Is pointed at as a Corporation
lawyer" and he no longer leads the COM
mun1ty as he did once. His advice is
suspected Of being tainted
Years ago when the roller skating craze
went over the country much good lum-
Der was used in building barnlike struc-
lures with long stretches of floor upon
which the maniacs of the sport displayed
their antics. The craze subsidized sud
denly, but unfortunately the awful tenn
pies. erected into it's worship could not
melt away as did the enthusiasm for
skating. Thousands of them survived
to mar the landscape and annoy the as
sessor But they have been absorbed
gradually, some of them by fire, others
into the livery stable and other branches
of trade which withstand public tickle
ness.
NOW the country is being treated to
another craze, that for private conserva-
tories. Private Conservatives do very
Well where the house is large enough to
conceal or obscure their bare outlines
and where the income is sufficient t.
guarantee their successful working. But
there are more private Conservatives to-
day than there are conservatory incomes
Just like the automobiles-and there is
bound some day to be reaction. Wha1
then will become of the Conservatives
New York man has solved it. II tried
flowers for five years. he says, land
failed. Something whispered to me
eggs and turned a lot of hens into the
sun warmed conservatory" Presto!
wealth doomed on his horizon.
The ordinary hen, which, kept in a
zero coop will quit business thru four
months in the year, will lay 200 eggs per
annum In the conservatory. The hens
revel in it's warmth and don't seem to
know when vacation time comes. They
try to lay more than the limit. you
may have the flowers" says the New
Yorker, 1.-The hens for NINE"
That truth is stranger than fiction has
passed into an axiom but that it is more
powerful than any fiction is evidenced by
the letters of the girl Grace Brown. for
whose murder her lover is being tried.
The letters of Grace Brown are of a
kind which rend the heartstrings, while
their moving power is such as make our
great depicters of the tragic in literature
SO tame in comparison. SCOTS "Effie
Dean" and George Eliot's "Hetty' fail to
utterly to convey such a vivid impress
sion Of the hopeless, helpless but alto
gether pitiable condition of the wronged
woman as is given in the simple, broken
sentences Of this girl.
The failure of the Ohio Penitentiary
News is not satisfactorily explained even
by the fact that there is a dearth of
newspaper men under conviction Aren't
there members Of other professions in
the penitentiary and did a newspaper ever
die for lack of men who could run it bet
ter than the editor? There is said to be
enough bankers in the Ohio penitentiary
to open a convention on elastic currency
Bankers always have had ideas on how
a newspaper should be run and this
seems a golden opportunity to use them
Let them revive the Penitentiary News
and run it as a safe and sane publica-
ton devoted to the conservative BUSH
ness interests of the prison, eschewing
gossip, sport, tales Of business derelic-
ton, dangerous assaults upon the tariff
or stories calculated to scare of capital.
There are said to be a number of poll
ticians in the prison also; statesmen who
were caught stuffing ballot boxes or SELL
ing their offices for gold. These fellows
always have ideas about how to run d
newspaper. 1t would seem as tho pub
lie duty rested upon them now to resusci-
tate the News and conduct 1t on a nom
undertaking plane. James Gray.
THE DREAM ~ =
The broad noon blaZed afhyyart fha stroa%