The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-26

Cooy' who spent many thousands yearly In booming the shows she starred in.
 Miss Clemmons was born in Illinois, and IS a granddaughter of Col. Thomas Fltz- patrick, who was killed at the battle of Shiloh. Her real name was Viola Dayan, but in San Francisco she appeared in a musical comedy as Katherine Clemmons.
 Her star appearance was in "A Lady of venice, at the Fifth Avenue theatre, in 1894. The show was a failure, and Colonel Cody dropped about s5O.Oo0, 1t was
 Howard Gould is a8 years old. and his wife Is year or so younger.
 The law firm of Howe 6 Hummel which the district attorney said was flor more than twenty years a menace to this com munity," is no more. Big Bill" Howe Is in his grave and Little Abey' Hum mel Is in the county penitentiary. Abe kauffenbursh, Hummels nephew, who has tried to continue to practice under the firm name has ben prevented from doing so by the courts.
 Few there are in this country or abroad that have not heard of Howe & Hummel, probably the most notorious law firm that ever existed in the United States The firm was feared by men and women who burn the candles at both ends and lead the life that leads to scandal and the divorce courts. A letter bearing upon 1t the imprint of Howe & Hummel was apt to cause the gay man-old or young old boy"-who received 1t to be thrown into a panic and a nasty mental review of all his little affairs of the heart or of pass ing fancy. There is a story to the ef- feet that some years ago a prominent and witty business man, when he chanced to meet an old friend in Howe & Hum mels office, said:
 So you are here, too. Hope she was a pretty girl and you did not have to pay too high for your little experience. .-
 When the other men flushed and sighed his tormentor said:
 There, don't mind, secrets are kept here-When once paid for-and there are two things that no one who enjoys life can escape-death and Howe & Humm.
 The two partners were in marked con trast. Howe was tall, broad shouldered and massive He wore loud clothes and was blustry sort of person. Hummel was short and narrow and sleek. Howe who has been dead these five years, was the foremost lawyer of the New York criminal bar in his day Many stories are told of the tricks he resorted to in the o0O murder cases in which he figured He always wept when addressing a jury Once he was defending a woman charged with homicide who sat in the court room with baby in her arms. While Howe Was pledulnB TOT her acqulttal he was seen to scowl at his client. She gazed at him in blank amazement and the lawyer moved up closer to her and the baby Suddenly the baby began to cry and Howe Wept. Then the baby's screams suddenly ceased. The presiding judge looked up with a smile and said
 MT. Howe, you had better give the baby another jab with the pin"
 In telling the story afterward Howe said:
 That remark of the judges about the jab of the pin won an almost hopeless case for me- for I used 1t against him for all l was worth and got an acquittal"
 After Howe's death Hummel dropped the criminal end of the business and handled only civil cases because there was much more money in them. The firm handled divorce suits, all kinds of natri- monial tangles. breach of promise of mar riage actions and suits for alienation 1t Is said that many of their biggest fees came from scandals that never reached the courts. The income of the firm was estimated at $2O0,000 a year, and yet the man who went with 1t thlrty-seven years ago as an office boy and soon became a partner goes to the penltentiary a poor man. Ills money has gone in high living and trying to extricate himself from the Dodge-Morse tangle, which brought about his downfall. Hunmel seemed to take his fate calmly. One of his last acts before going to serve his sentence of a year for conspiracy was to shave off hls mustache in order to cheat the prison barber. A few nights before his incarcer- atton he gave farewell dinner to hts friends.
 mt of ,-fa