Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1909-06-24
sen. BORAH'S
FIRST LAW SUIT
Golfers Weekly Tells How lie Came
10 the State of Idaho Wins
First Fee

nineteen years ago young man
of 25, having graduated at the state
university at Lawrence and been ad-
mitted to the Kansas bar, boarded a
west bound Union Pacific train in
search of good town to make a
living in He thought he would go
as far as Seattle, dropping off at
various towns en- route to size the
prospects up.
He did not travel in the sleeping
car nor yet in the parlor car The
first night. between troubled maps
in the day coach, he got to talking
with a travelling salesman for moving
machines who showed him map of
Idaho and told him that Boise as
good likely towp for young lawyer to
settle in.
The next night the man who shared
his seat in the day coach as a profess
sional gambler with kindly heart
and quick and accurate knowledge
of strangers. acquired in the course
of his livelihood. He as, like many
of his class-setting aside his profess
sion--a good citizen. with all the
qualities of likeable man and
brother. The gambler, too, told
young Borah that Boise was a good
town to begin in also he said that
he himself lived at Nampa, about 20
miles away from Boise, and that if
the period waiting for clients turned
cut to be long and lean, the young
| lawyer should just drop him line.
| (The gambler was the only one who
did offer to lend the young man any
money!
So sBorah dropped off at Boise. not
knowing one human being of the four
or six thousands who then composed
| the town. After much misgiving he
decided to stay probably the govern
! ing reason was that he had money
enough to keep him 80 days in Boise.
whereas, if he paid his railroad fare
on to Seattle, he wouldn't have any
money left at all. During the early
homesick and friendless days he asked
an old lawyer in the town to hire him
as a'clerk, but the lawyer didn't want
clerk; and that, too, was fortunate
for it compelled Borah to stake his
future on his own efforts altogether.
About that time in the town where
the gambler lived. the telegraph oper-
ator at the station killed the Chinese
cook at the hotel. The telegraph
! operator used to go to the kitchen at
night after his work was done to get
a bite to eat. The Cninaman did not
like this variation of the fixed order
of things and after many quarrels the
murder resulted. The professional
gambler, who had been writing en-
couraging letters to Borah every few
days. sent for him to defend the ac-
cused before the local justice of the
peace At the hearing the proseuct-
ing attorney read the complaint.
charging the telegraph operator with
murder The justice of the peace
thought the charge ought to be
changed to manslaughter, since it was
only a Chinaman. The prosecution
attorney explained that he wouldn t
quite do this; that he would have to
draw the complaint for murder. but
that if the justice wished, he could,
later on, hold the defendant for man
slaughter. The justice did more.
for Cinnamon were not highly thought
of in that community. He set the
prisoner free and the lawyer for de
Tense got $50.
That was William f.. Borah's first
fee and probably it looked larger te
him than any of the many others he
received from that time until hs
stopped practicing law to take place
easily among the first four of tha
generation of United States. senators
who are between the ages of 40 ans