The Virginia enterprise., 1908-08-14

a Hebrew lawyer of wit and worth,
who did not particularly fancy the
first speaker. This gentleman struck
An attitude and launched his Grafton
in the following terms: Sprung
from race whose blood dates back
to the dawn of creation" and so on
and so forth. It was unanimously
voted that the second speaker was en-
titled to the claim of first blood"
In the city council you would al
ways find the lawyers to the front;
and on the committee requiring the
handling and disbursing of money
none was complete without lawyer
on it. The study of their profession,
and their opportunities for speaking,
developed them in the matter of pre-
senting ideas shorn of surplus words,
and While they were not by any means
the wittiest of the council orators,
they were usually the weightiest
1t is really amazing to look up and
ascertain what a remarkable influence
the lawyers have had in politics, and
to reflect that this influence is steadi.
ly held up in present times. New laws
are being ground out regularly every
session by state legislatures, old laws
repealed, and laws rendered null by
decisions of the supreme courts are
followed by fresh patches of legisla-
ton. We have too many laws in this
country. Don't you think SO? And we
don't enforce enough Of the good ones!
And yet, and yet. my experience in
politics has convinced me that the
leaven of lawyers in the political strife
of the country makes generally for the
good. say this because have known
hundreds of them, and rs q class they
are honest, and collectively intelligent.
AS oflce-holders l have found them
capable, including myself. AS legisla.
tors have not had much experience
with them. But the criticism that l
would pass upon them is not that they
hold so many of the Offices, but that
they make too many laws.
One young lawyer of my acquain.
tance whose ambition once ran to the
nomination for sheriff, was shown that
resourcefulness is not entirely alb.
sorbed by the members of his guild.
He was an Irishman, living in a
| county where the vote WAS German
| one as to majority. He figured over
| the situation with an Irish friend of
his who had been brought up from
boyhood in the German settlements,
and who spoke German like native
| At last he came to the conclusion that
| it couldn't be done.
} They've got 112 votes to our so, the
very best way you can figure it, he
announced to his faithful lieutenant
do I get the chief deputyship If
you VIM" was the answer.
"Certainly," was my friends reply
Leave it to me-" was the mysteri.
GUS response.
On convention day the Irishman
who spoke German circulated among
the Germans who came from his part
of the county and who were trying
for candidate of their own. The
other German contingent had candi.
date also, and the Americans and Irish
were secretly and solidly for my friend
| McHugh. The Germanized irishman
got his German friends to throw "a
complimentary vote" to McHugh lust
for the first ballot, dye see," to the
number of enough votes, when the
Irish and Americans came in solid, to
barely scrape McHugh in on the first
ballot, leaving the worthy Germans to
hold the bag" By much "soothering'
afterwards a truce was effected, and
McHugh triumphantly elected. But
i he didn't run for sheriff next time.
! ERNEST M'GAFFEY,
! Copyright, 1905, by Joseph b. Bowles)