The Sauk Centre herald., 1907-05-16


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. Happy- he cried
cheerfully. Il hoped you'd come to
see me today. I've been thinking about
a job for you"
Il don't want a 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 if
there amt no other way, why. few
Of us'n go out and make some fer ye,'
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 a Su-
pernatural similarity 10 actual fulfill
ment. His friends brought him their
own friends such as had Sinne0 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 innocent and
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
be any use trying to foreclose a mort
gage or collect a note unless this shy
ster gets himself in jail"'
The wrath of Judge Martin Pike was
auguSt-there was Il kind of Sublimity
in its immensenesS-on 4 day when it
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 il had reached out to grasp.
1t 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
a thing to be ludicrously impossible. it
was at once noised abroad in Canaan
that Joe had helped to swindle Judge
Pike out of a 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
tiers indeed. This was serious. If
the young man did not look out he
might find himself in the penitentiary.
Joe did not move into a larger Of
fee; he remained in the little room
with its one window and its fine
view Of the Jail. His clients were
nearly all poor, and many Of his fees
quite literally nominal. Tatters and
rags came up the narrow stairway to
his door-tatters and rags and pitiful
fineries; 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 he
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 mongrel extravagantly (well
he might and would sit with him in
his rooms at night holding long con-
verse with him, the two alone togeth-
er. The dog was not his only con-
fidant There came to be another, a
more and more frequent partner to
their conversations, at last familiar
spirit. This third came from brown
jug which Joe 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 60 out for a walk with his dog
and would awake in his room the next
morning not remembering where he
had gone or how he had come home.
Once, after such lapse Of memory,
he woke amazed to find himself at
Beaver Beach, whittier, he learned
from the red bearded man, Happy Fear
had brought him, having found him
wandering dazedly in field near by.
These lapses grew more frequent until