Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-02-04

aye must have been in the black hole
Of Incarceration indeed If ye haven't
heard that Mr.. Louden has his law Of
fee on the square and his livin' room
behind the Office. It's in that little
brick buildin' straight acrost from the
sheriff's door O the jail. we've been
nefghbors this long time. A hard time
the boy had persuadin' any one to rent
to him. but by payin' double the price
he got place at last. He's practic-
In lawyer now, and all the boys and
girls Of our acquaintance go to him
with their troubles. Yell see him
with murder case to try before long
as sure as ye're not worth yer salt!
But expect We can still call him by
his name OF Joe. all the same!'
It was bleak and meager little Of
fee into which Mr. Fear ushered him
self to offer his amends. The cracked
plaster Of the walls was bare, save for
dust. There were no shelves. The fat
brown volumes, most OF them fairly
new, were piled in regular columns
upon cheap pine table. There was
but one window. small PANIED and
shadeless. An inner door OF this sad
chamber stood half ajar, permitting
the visitor unreserved acquaintance
with the domestic economy Of the ten
ant, for it disclosed second room,
smaller than the Office and dependent
upon the window Of the latter for mir
and light. Behind canvas camp cot,
dimly visible in the obscurlty Of the
inner apartment, stood small gas
stove surmounted by stewpan, from
which projected the handle OF a big
tin spoon, so that it needed no ghost
from the dead to whisper that Joseph
Louden, attorney at law. did his own
cooking. Indeed, he looked 1t!
Upon the threshold Of the second
room reposed a small worn, light
brown scrub brush of dog, so cosmo-
polItan in ancestry that his species was
almost as understandable as the cast
iron dogs of the Pike mansion. he
greeted Mr.. Fear Hospitality, having
been so lately an offcast OF the streets
himself that his adoption had taught
him to lose only his old tremors, not
his hopefulness. At the same time Joe
rose quickly from the deal table, where
he had been working, with one hand in
his hair, the other splattering ink from
q bad pen.
"Good for you. Happyw he cried
cheerfully. II hoped you'd come to
see me today. I've been thinking about
job for you"
II don't want job. nohow! said
Mr.. Fear. going to the door. Il don't
want to work. There's plenty ways fer
me to git along without that. But I'll
say one thing more Don't you worry
about gittin' law practice. Mike says
you're goin' to git all you want, and II
there amt no other way, why, few
OF us'll go out and make some fer We"
These prophecies and promises. over
which Joe chuckled at first, with his
head cooked to one side, grew very
soon, to his amazement, to wear SUI
pernatural similarity to actual fulfill
ment. His friends brought him their
own friends such as had sinned against
the laws Of Canaan, those under the
ban Of the sheriff. those who had
struck in anger, those who had stolen
at night, those who owed and could
not pay, those who lived by the dice.
and to his other titles to notoriety was
added that Of defender Of the poor
and wicked. He found his hands full.
especially after winning his first i'm
portant case, on which occasion Ca
naan thought the jury mad and was in
dignant with the puzzled Judge, who
could not see just how it had happened.
Joe did not stop at that. He kept on
winning cases, clearing the innocentand
tightening the burdens of the guilty.
He became the most dangerous at-
torney for the defense in Canaan. His
honorable brethren, accepting the pop
ular view Of him, held him In personal
contempt, but feared him profession
ally, for he proved that he knew more
law than they thought existed. Nor
could any trick him, failing which
many tempers were lost but never
Joes. His practice was not all crimi-
nal, as shown by the peevish outburst
Of the eminent Buckalew (the squire's
nephew, esteemed the foremost lawyer
in Canaan), Before long there won't
be any use trying to foreclose mort
gage or collect note unless this shy
ster gets himself in jail!''
The wrath of Judge Martin Pike was
august-there was kind Of sublimity
In Its immenseness-on a day when 1t
befell that the shyster stood betwixt
him and money.
That was 8 monstrous task-to stand
between these two and separate them,
to hold back the hand Of Martin Pike
from what it had reached out to grasp.
It was in the matter of some tax titles
which the magnate had acquired, and
in court Joe treated the case with such
horrifying simplicity that 1t seemed al
most credible that the great man had
counted upon the Ignorance and be-
sottedness of Joe's client, hard drink
ing, disreputable old farmer, to get his
land away from him without paying
for it. Now, as every one knew such
q thing to be ludicrously impossible, 1t
was at once noised abroad in Canaan
that Joe had helped to swindle Judge
Pike out of. large sum Of money-it
was notorious that the shyster could
bamboozle court and jury with his
tricks, and it was felt that Joe Lou
den was getting into very deep wa
tiers indeed This was serious. II