Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-07-16
VIEWS OF lands
Chicago Judge Who Insisted
That Rockefeller Talk Be-
fore Him is ForcefuI.
MAN OF TACT; FINE JUDGMENT
Noted for Determination Throughout
His Career-ls Well Grounded
in the Law.

Men who have followed the career
of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Lands.
who insisted on bringing John d.
Rockefeller into court, are not sur
prised at the determination he has
shown to get the rock bottom facts In
connection with the case of the Stand
ard Oil Company of Indiana. Judge
Lands has been II fOrccful character
wherever he has been placed, says Il
Chicago dispatch to tue New York Her
aid.
Directness and thoroughnesS won
him the esteem of the foreign diQlo-
mats at Washington and OF the Amer
lean statesmen and politicians, ms well
when he served rs private secretary to
Walter Q. Gresham. secretary of state
in the cabinet of President Cleveland.
1t is related that upon one occasion
Mr.. Lands, acting for Mr.. Gresham.
clashed with the wishes OF Mr.. CleVe-
land and the president sought his re-
mOval. But so attached had Secretary
Gresham become To the young man
that he stood up Loyalty for his subor-
dinate, and when Mr. cleveland found
that to take Landis' scalp lie would
have to take Gresham'S also he ac-
guessed in the situation. Later Lands
and the president became strongly at
tached to each other. and when they
parted Mr.. Cleveland assured Lands
he could have n high diplomatic post
The Venezuelan ministry was open at
the time, but Lands declined to &C
cept any Office, saying he wished to
come to Chicago and practice law.
every day put it off will be Il day
lost" he told President Cleveland. He
came to Chicago, and every post he
passed became winning one until he
was elevated to the post of United
States district judge for the northern
district of Illinois in 1905.
A man of striking features is Judge
Lands, whose tangled iron gray ha'r
gives him the appearance of Il man
much older, for the judge is not quite
forty-one. He was born in Millville.
O., Nov. 20, 1865, and is the sixth child
of DR.. Abraham II. Lands, who dur
ing the civil war was surgeon in the
Thirty-fifth Ohio regiment. II is to
the fact that his father was badly
wounded at the battle OF KeneSaw
Mountain that the judge owes his pc
cuhar baptismal names.
At the age of seven he went with his
parents to LoganspOrt, Ind, where he
attended public school. As Il boy lie
carried papers. Then he became a re
porter on the LOganspOrt Journal. He
studied stcnOgraply, and from 1883 to
1886 was official stenographer of the
circuit court of Lake county, Ind. Com
ing to Chicago, he entered the Union
College OF Law, from which he gradu-
ated i'll 1890. He was admitted to the
bar, and at the time when Secretary
Gresham chose him for his private sec
rotary and cOnfidant he was one of the
instructors in the Northwestern Uni
versity Law school.
Gained knowledge of Men.
While In Washington Lands gained
most valuable knowledge of men and
things, which proved helpful TO him in
later years. He came to know Mr..
Gresham SO well that he OWNED intui-
lively the famous Kentuckians every
wish, and LandiH often assumed great
responsibilities III JlS aDSenCe OF his
superior, invariably to be backed up in
what he did by the secretary of state,
who had implicit confidence in him
He relieved his chief of as much of
the burden of the Office as possible
and came to be known in and out
of the department as having Gresham'3
sanction for all matters in which he
assumed authority. Thoroughness and
directness characterized his every act
and being gifted with tact and fine
judgment he knew as we'll what mat.
ters to let alone as what to take up
He made friends with all who mad bust
ness with the department, and espe
cially was well liked 10y many mem
bers of the diplomatic corps. On first
arrival he stunned the social side OF
diplomatic life, but before he left was
we'll broken into the dress coat and
reception habit.
A thorough American, well grounded
in the law, interchangeable, not TO be
swerved from a purpose once fixed
such is the judge who told John S