Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-02-21


 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 bad pen. ..
 Good for you. Happy" he cried cheerfully. T hoped you'd come to see me today. I've been thinking about a job for you" T don't want a job, nohow" said Mir. Fear, going to the door, T 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 if there ain't no other way, why, a few of us'll go out and make some fer ye." 1 These prophecies and promises. over which Joe chuckled at first, with bis head cooked to one side, grew very soon, to his amazement, to wear su. pernatural similarity to actual fulfill ment His friends brought him their own friends such as had slnned 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 inn l 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 Joe's. 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 i ster gets himself in jail.'
 l The wrath of Judge Martin Pike was august-there was kind of sublimity | ill its immenseness-on day when 1t befell that the shyster stood betwixt him and money.
 That was a 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 it 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 thing to be ludicrously impossible, 1t was at once noised abroad in Canaan that Joe had helped to swlndle Judge Pike out of large sum of money-it was notorious that the shyster could bamboozle court and jury with his tricks. and 1t was felt that Joe Lou den was getting into very deep wa ters indeed. This was serious. If the young man did not look out he might find himself in the pen!tentiary.
 Joe did not move into larger of fee; he remained In the little room with it's one window and Its fine view of the jail. His clients were nearly all poor, and mary of his fees quite literally nominal. Tatters and rags came up the narrow stairway to his door-tatters and rags and pitiful Enerles: the bleared, the sodden. the Haunting and rouged. the furtIve and wary. some In rags, some in tags and some-the sorriest-in velvet gowns. With these, the distressed. the wrong doers. the drunken. the dirty and the very poor. his work lay and his days and nights were spent.
 When Joe went about the streets hs was made to feel his condition by the ! elaborate avoidance, yet furtive at tention. of every respectable person he met. and when he came home to his small rooms and shut the door behind him he was as one who has been hissed and shamed in public and runs to bury his hot face in his pillow. He petted his mon-rel extravagantly (well he might and would sit with him in his rooms at night holding long con- CT. The dog was not his only con fidant. There came to be another. a more and more frequent partner to their conversations. at last a familiar spirit This third came from a brown jug which Jee kept on . shelf in his bedroom. a vessel too frequently re- plenished. When the days work was done he shut himself up. drank alone '. and drank hard. Sometimes when the :. jug ran low and the night was late he would go out for a walk with his dog i and would awake in his room the nszt morning not remembering where he had gone o- how he had come home Once. after such lapse of memory. he woke amazed to find himself at Beaver Bench. whitber. he learned from the red bearded man. Happy Fear had brought him. having found him wandering dzzeily in field near by-