The morning journal-courier., 1908-04-23
IN JEROME'S OFFICE
Large Number of Yale Men Assist the New York Dis
 trict Attorney.
DIR. SMITHS SON THE CHIEF
Francis F. Garvan, Famous Through Tllaw Case, Started the
 Yale Influx.

In the current number of the Yale Alumni Weekly Is ar interesting inter- view with District Attorney Jerome. on the general subject of Yale law yers In New York
 Why do have so many Yale men in this otice?" asked MT. Jerome, turning good-naturedly 10 the inter- viewer. Well, now, ] had hardly thought of that. Yale men are pretty thick around here, aren't they?"
 Tt Is probably due largely to accl. dent, he said. "One Yale man gets a place here and his friends naturally become interested in the office and he is Interested in having them with him
 Another thing are more Yale men practicing law in New York city than there are graduates of any oth- CT university. At least there are more good Yale lawyers, men who arr making their mark l have not look ed up statistics on that, but in my own observation 1 seem to meet abou
 two Yale lawyers to one of any other university here. Probably the ideals and traditions of this office may es- peclally attract Yale men. Graduates of Yale are usually interested m inde- pendent and reform politics, they come down here someway with the idea that to do something is better than to do somebody. They are as a rule more willing to enter independent reform movements than men of most New England universities. This office has been run on independent lines and the ideals here may have attracted them"
 Then he said to x, A. Smyth, 97, his right hand man, MT. Smyth, you'd better defend yourself and your fel- lows. You can do it better than can"
 Nathan Aver Smyth, who entered the office in 1902 as a deputy assistant to the district attorney, was advanced rapidly from deputy to a first assist antship and now may be said to stand next to Mir Jerome in the effice as he Is usually the acting district attorney in tho absence of the Chief" To fill this position requires rare tact in meeting and comforting with a great variety of men, good judgment in the handlink of sudden propositions and unexpected situations, and the ] ability to act always in a manner con sistent with the cstablishe' policy of the office. This peculiarly valuable quality MT. Symth possesses. After graduating from the Academic depart mcnt in 1897, he received masters , degree from Yale in philosophy and economies in 1899 and graduated fro mthe Yale law school in 1900. In october of the latter year he was ad- . mitted to the New York bar and en- , tered the office of Reed Simpson, Thacher and Barnum in New York city, with which firm he remained un- til he accepted his first position in , the office of the district attorney. In speaking of the number of Yale men in the office, Mir. Smyth inclined to the same opinion az the district at , torney, that 1t was association and a clan feeling among Yale men in lIk- } ing to get together and mutual in- terest in work in which a number of } Yale men already had a part, which l induced other men to seek positions at the criminal courts building.
 [ If my classmate. Garvan, had not } been in the office I would probably not , be here' he said Lockwood followed 9 us and opened the way for Trowbrdge 6 and Embree and these men were in 5 turn followed by Erwin"
 Francis Patrick Garvan, 97, who in sense started the trend of Yale men / toward the office, was appointed a f deputy assistant to the district attor- ney of New York county in tho fall of
 1900 and has continued In the office
 from that time to this, being at pres
 ent one of the first assistants and at the head of the homicide bureau. He
 is said to be a Tammany hall demo-
 crat. He knows New York city as few f men do, and as a sagacious collector of ! evidence in such case as that grow 1 ing out of the recent Stanford White , murder he Is invaluable to the dis ) trict attorneys office. He assisted MT , Jerome in both the celebrated trials 9 of Harry K. Thaw. After eraduat' l ing from Yale MT Garvan entered the 9 New York law school, graduating there in 1899 and being admitted tc 2 tho New York bar the same year . He at once entered the law office of Q James Schell and Elkns of New York f city, where he worked ono year un' , til he received his appointment in q Al,o hirtrint nttnrnn,.ia nninn