The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-26

welfare of the city and the entire coun- ty, and without single warning note from the Birmingham Bar association. Not single preventive measure has ever yet been taken: not a voice has been raised in protest.
 In the name of heaven, why? Were the Birmingham Bar associa- tion suddenly to become defunct tho spirit of its organization, so to speak, would, like Tomlinson's ghost, have no place whereof to lay it's head. St. Peter would not receive 1t within the gates, to phrase MT. Kipling, for the good it had done could be named in no pos itive terms. The devil would not waste his good pit coaf' upon it, nor put it anywhere near his honest gentlemen" again to quote Kipling. Simply, in a word. 26 years it has lived and it has no soul of its own.
 When I get the bit of paper giv- ing me leave to practice law in Bir- mingliam said F. I. Monks. why, I wouldn't have taken s5o0O for it. Now I'd as lief throw it away"
 In a Cul-de-Sae
 What did I find? I found the condi- ton here impossible to stand. It was impossible for me to make an honorable living without resorting to degener- ate tactics. Therefore, l resigned my practice.
 There is such rascality in this place in hundreds of different lines. It is hard to get the simplest rights for poor people An instance or two? W ell, re- member one of my first small cases when I started out practicing here showed me what I was up against. A young man started in the grocery bus mess on the South Highlands. A well known citizen here took a look over the grocer's new stock and said he'd give him a try-ordered s15 or s20 worth or groceries sent up to his house A couple of weeks later the citizen returned said his wife was so pleased with the goods they'd keep on deal ing with the grocer. He doubled his order accordingly and the business went on. No atten tion, however, was paid to the bills. At last. when it came to breaking point and everything failed, the young grocer sued for his money. was his lawyer. Neither one of us thought the lady in question would care to go into the courts about it. We were mistaken.
 Took Advantage of the Law
 tThe citizen went into bankruptcy. Everything he had was signed over to his wife The couple drove down to the of fee of the justice of the peace, where the wife disclaimed all knowledge of the goods and the grocer saying her hus- band ordered everything and she was not responsible for his debts!
 'I lost my case. The young grocer never got a penny.
 q began to find out then how a good many people in Birmingham live in great style on nothing a year. And dishonesty turks in localities where you'd never dream! Another case concerning people you'd never connect with this sort of business was that of cook, poor col-' ored woman who worked for certain very wel-to-do family here. After long and faithful service she was taken i'll and left in the middle of the month, but sent a girl at once to take her place. When she returned the following month for her two weeks wages the mistress told her she had decided to keep the new girl and didn't happen to have the money in the house and to come the next week. The old woman was forced to return over and over. Her rent only s. came due, and small nstallment on her fur niture-about s5, the final payment. Eight dllars was the wages due her-just | enough to save the situation. The mis- | tress would not pay
 Well, the old colored woman was put l out of her house, and her furniture taken back, and she was left homeless, destitute and i'll. This is very small instance. I | merely mention it to show, as I said
 
 l simplest rights for poor people. Yes, | took up that poor old womans case and many another like it. But could I charge a fee for thing like that? No!"
 Romans When in Rome Yet many lawyer in Birmingham who takes up similar cases would exact not only, say the eight dollars, but an addi- l tional five or ten and "costs" and "costs' again, and the victim finds himself or herself between two fires.
 And then this business of garnishments There is another story. Another ways and means besides ambulance chasing that confronts an attorney just starting out in Birmingham. Trading off the
 ignorance and the poverty of colored and poor white has brought financial "suc- cess' to more than one shyster lawyer 1 here-and elsewhere, to- for that matter
 The following letter has been recently received:
 Chamber of Commerce building, Br- 1 mingham. February 13, 1911. Pardon me, an entire stranger, the l liberty I am taking in addressing you,