The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-19

| words, his methods were construed tt | debase the good and honest statutes | of the land. Once inside the door o1 | his office-and a heavy spring always 1 closed it behind one-there was quicE | evidence that the lawyer lamentably | disregarded the virtues of prosperity
 no matter how they had been courteC and won. Although his transactions in and out of the courts of that grea city bore the mark of dishonor. he
 was known to have made money dur ing the ten years of his career as {
 member of the bar.
 Possibly he kept his office shabby and unclean that it might be in touct
 with the transactions which had theil morbid birth inside the grimy walls There was no spot or corner in the two small rooms that comprised his
 'cha ambers'' to which he could point
 with pride. The floors were filtered
 with papers; the walls were greasy and bedecked with malodorous nota tions, documents and pictures; the win dows were smokS wand useless; the clerks desk bore every suggestion o1 dissoluteness.
 But little less appalling to ones aes
 thetic sense was the clerk himself
 Squatting behind hls wretched desk
 Elias broom peered across the litter of papers and books with shaky but polite eyes. almost as inviting as the spider who with willy but insidious decorum draws the guileless into his web.
 If one passed muster in the estima. tion of the incomprehensibleD broom he
 was permitted in due season to pass through a second oppressive looking door and into the private office of MT. James Bansemer. attorney at law and solicitor. It may be remarked at this early stage that, no matter how long or how we'll one may have known broom. one seldom fingered to engage in commonplaces with him. His was the most repellent personality imagi. nable. When be smiled one was con. scious of shock to the nervous sys- tenn; when he so far forgot himself as to laugh aloud there was a distinct illustration of the word ''crunching;" when he spoke one was almost sorry that he had ears.
 Bansemer knew but little of this freakish individuals history; no one else had the temerity to inquire into his past or to separate it from his flu ture. for that matter. Once Bansemer ironically asked him why he had nevel married. It was full minute before the other lifted his eyes from the sheet of legal cap. and by that time he was in full control of his passion.
 Look at me! Would any woman marry thing like meY
 This was said with such terrible ear- nestness that Bansemer took care nev- CT to broach the subject again. He saw that Droom's heart was not all steel and brass.
 broom was middle aged His lank body and cadaverous face were con structed on principles not generally ac- credited to nature as it applies to men. When erect his body swayed as if 1t were a stubborn reed determined to maintain its dignity in the face of the wind. He did not walk; he gIided His long, square chin, rarely clean shaven, protruded far beyond it's nat ural orbit Indeed, the attitude of the chin gave one an insight to the greedy character of the man. At first glance one felt that broom was reaching forth with his lower jaw to give greeting with his teeth instead of his hand.
 His neck was long and thin, and his turndown collar was at least two sizes too large. The nose was hooked and of abnormal length. the tip coming down over the short upper lip and broad mouth. His eyes were light blue and so intense that he was never known to blink the lashes. Topping them were deep, wavering. black eye brows that met above the nose, form ing an ominous. cloudy line across the base of his thin, high forehead. The crown of his head. covered by long.