The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-06-21
Embryo Lawyers Make Remark
able Record.
Fifty-FOur Successfully Pass the
Examination.
THEY ARE SWORN IN.
SOlOn William Smith of Rocks
Fails to Appear.
Some of the Problems the Glass
Had to Solve.

There are SO more lawyers in the state
| of Kansas today than there were yes
terGay, and there might have been 81.
but Solon William Smith, of Rocks
county, who was the 54th, failed to show
up in the Supreme court room Thursday
to be sworn in. The 54 young men who
were admitted to the bar had all proved
their worth by taking and passing the
state bar examination which has been
In progress at representative hall for
the past three days. Only one of the
persons who took the examination failed
to pass. This is an unusual thing. for
there are generally several who fail to
make the rifle" at the first trial, and
have to come back and try again
The ceremony of swearing in the
class of SO new lawyers took place be-
fore the justices of the Supreme court.
1t was short and formal, and not at
tended by Speechmaking or fireworks.
The great bulk of the examination
consisted in recital of the serious diff
f1culties which seem to dog the foot
steps of Mr. A and Mr.. B.
Mr.. A seems to have been an army Of
f1cer, though the evidence on this point
is little conflicting. Mr.. b was evil
IDENTIFY in public life to some extent, but
both A and B had a terrible habit OF
going into rash speculations and partici-
pating in deals of a most questionable
nature.
The history of A and B begins with an
army scandal. in which A was evidently
the guilty party. 1t seems that A tried
to clear himself of odium by bringing
libel suit against the newspaper
which printed a story about the AFFAIR.
That is the way many guilty people
seek to obtain whitewash and funds.
The way the board of law examiners
stated the situation is follows:
THE secretary of war appointed a
commission to report upon the conduct
of A, an army officer, who was charged
with improper conduct. B and G, men,
bers of the commission, reported that
AS conduct had been dishonest. d.
published the report in his paper head
ing it "a Dishonest, and editorially ex-
pressed regret that had been found
guilty. The commissioners report was
false and based on evidence not reason
ably pointing to AS guilt. The evidence
did not appear in the record. What are
AS rights against D?''
AS an example of how A tried to get
even with B for this army investigation
affair." after his libel suit fell through,
the following incident is related in the
examination questions:
"a stored q quantity of wool in a
warehouse owned by B, and paid the
usual storage charges. One night B
left the door of his warehouse open,
and A entered secretly and removed the
wool, intending to hold B liable for 1T
and make him bear the loss. Could A
be criminaily prosecuted for taking the
wool which belonged to himself?"
And here was an example of an un-
pleasant situation in which the unfort-
unate Mr.. was continually finding
himself:
"A borrowed a horse from his neigh
Dor and rode to a town five miles dis
tant where he tied it close to another
horse, which kicked and severely in
jured it. Is A liable in damages for
the injury to the horse?"
A seems to have been continually in
I, H. f- f~E,l. A-r.k
did A succeed in getting his neighbor's
horse killed, but he also became in
volved i'll the following difficulty with
a neighbor-probably the same neigh
bor-and the law students had to help
them out:
In building the foundation for his
house, was obliged to blast rock.
which damaged the building of his
neighbor, who sued him for damages
Assuming that he used al reasonable
care, is he liable?"
Digging a little deeper into the his
tory of this man A, we find that he
also had trouble with his wife. The
examination questions say:
"A desired to move to California
from Kansas, but his wife refused to
go. The husband left her and went to
California alone. Was his removal an
abandonment of the wife?"
The correct answer to this question
would be that A exercised poor judg-
ment in going from Kansas to Califor-
i ia. However, A seems to have been a
good deal of a sucker at other stages
in his career. Here is one of the scrapes
into which he got because of his ignor-
ance:
"A purchased a horse of B, who guar
anteed it to be sound and perfect in
every way. A gave note in payment.
AS a matter of fact the horse was un-
sound. and worthless. B sold and as
signed the note to w. w. commenced
suit against A, who answered that the
consider 1tiOn had wholly failed, in that
the horse was unsound and worthless.
Is this a good defense?"
This simply shows the lengths to
which A would go to avoid the penalty
for his ignorance. He had no business
to be buying horses. He might have
expected to get swindled.
AS a matter of fact, deserves very
little sympathy anyway, for one OF the
questions clearly shows that he was try
ing to work a skin game on a crazy
man. Only the fact that A was always
prevented the accomplish
ment of this unworthy object. This
was the situation:
"A knowing B to be of unsound mind,
made a contract with him which turned
out greatly to BIS advantage. A re-
pudiated it, and BIS guardian sued for
breach of contract A answered that b
was non compos mentis at the time the
contract was made. Can the suit be
maintained?"
However, the last question in the ex-
animation shows that A got about all
that was coming to him in the end. A
building fell on him. This was the way
it happened:
while A was passing along a public
street, and without any fault on his
jured him. He commenced a damage
sniff against b the owner for neRli-