The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-25
Special to the New York World.

| TN EMPHIs. Tenn.-L F. I(p1 Wright, the new secretary of
 war, was private soldier in
 the Confederate army at the age of 10, and at IS he was on-commissioned of-
 fcer. At r he was In charge of a battery
 in the battle of Stone River. His older
 brother was an officer of artillery. Judge
 Archibald Wright, his father, was old and
 crippled, but he went along with his poys and brought one of his sons home dead
 after the battle at Stone River. He re- turned and watched over the other boy until the end came.
 At Stone River the Federals occupied
 strong position, and the Confederates assailed it and failed in their attack An artillery officer suggested an artillery
 charge unsupported by infantry. It was
 an unheagd of military movement. The officer proposing the plan urged that It
 would demoralize the enemy because It
 was new, and in the confusion the lnfan- try could move against the shattered lines and smash them.
 In this charge Luke Wright's brother, who was a lieutenant, was killed. A non commissioned officer, who was family
 friend, said to the surviving brother:
 Luke, Eldridge has just been killed
 Have his body taken to the rear said
 Luke. You continue to work that gun and I will work this one"
 The young officer honored his dead
 brother by naming his son after him, and
 he is now the leading lawyer of Tennes- see. He was major under the Stars and
 Stripes in the Spanish war. Luke Wright sent three of his sons to the war.
 After four years of fighting, which be-
 gan at Shiloh and ended at Savannah, Luke Wright, then not quite 21, started to get an education. He went to the Univer- sity of Oxford, Mississippi, and studied law. He didn't wait to graduate but re-
 turned to his fathers office, and the law
 firm of Wright, Hurley & Wright was 1 formed. Hurley, the other member of this
 firhh, was formerly United States senator | from this state.
 In 1870 Wright was elected attorney gen.
 eral for Shelby county. This is the same office you New Workers call district attor- ney. In those days many of the leading
 citizens were very quick to use their
 guns. As soon as Wright became attor-
 ney general he began a campaign for en-
 forcement of the law. A prominent citizen
 shot another prominent citizen without le
 gal provocatiop. He was arrested and
 put in jail without bail. Archibald Wright,
 Luke's father, was employed to defend
 him. The trial lasted three weeks, with 1 the father pitted against the son. The son won, and it was established that if | in the city of Memphis man did murder
 he must answer to the law for it. | In 1878 Memphis was visited by yellow fever and 15,000 people fled in 60 days. Thirty thousand people fled the city and
 only 10000 remained, and half of them
 were i'll. The police force was disbanded
 and there was no law. Luke Wright was chairman of the citizens committee. Peo- pie were frenzied. It appeared as though
 every man was ready to fly at every other
 mans threat. A mob threatened pillaga
 and chaos. Wright faced this mob and
 announced that the first man to start any thing would be shot He was talking to his neighbors. They knew him, and knew that he meant what he said, and there was no more disorder.
 | One of the picturesque characters of Memphis was Jules J. D. Dubose, soldier
 duelist newspaper man and lawyer. There
 had never been any good feeling between Dubose and Wright Dubose became judge of the criminal court. and in that court he was combination of Jeffries l and Torquemada. If lawyer did not please hifo Dubose sent him to jail for contempt His likes and dislikes were the | moving springs of his decision. He was not corrupt, simply tyrant.
 Luke Wright in arguing a case before