Evening journal., 1911-10-10
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Stephen ]. Fields First
Legal Work in California
By Holland.

Stephen J. Field. who for forty-four
years was an Associate Justice of the
United States Supreme Court, was one
of the thousands of men who rushed to
California following the official an
nouncement in 1849 of the discovery Of
gold there.
He set out for California determin I'd
TO follow the advice of his distinguish
ed lawyer brother, David Dudley Field,
which was "Stick to the law at all
hazards. Let others dig the gold" SO,
when he had reached what is now
Marysviile, Cal, he established him
self as a lawyer and sat down 20 wait
for clients to turn up.
But they did not appear, and Mr.
Field had almost reached the point
where he was undecided whether he
would take TO the pick or hire him
! self out in some mental capacity He
took walk to think the situation
over, and in the course of his ram
BILE he chanced to see a sign over a
shack announcing that j. b. Steven
son bought and sold gold dust there
At once, he recalled that his brother
David Dudley Field, had placed in his
hands when they had parted in New
York note for five hundred dollars
which was overdue and the maker Of
which was a Jonathan b. Stevenson.
He's somewhere in California" said
David Dudley Field. "He went out
there just after the close of the Mexi-
can war. If you should ruin across him
| commission you 10 collect the face
value of the note with interest"
Stephen j Field took a second look
at the name on the sign. That is the
very man. he said to himself. He went
to his room, took the note from among
his few papers, put 1t in his pocket and
headed straight for the gold dust deal
er's place of business.
He was greeted most effusiyely by
Mr.. Stevenson, who told his caller that
everybody IN California was making
money, that everybody had plenty Of
money, and that there was no reason
why Field himself should not in the
course of few months find himself on
| the high road to riches. Field let
! Stevens go on in this strain for some
time; then he produced the overdue
note from his pocket with the infor4
nation that his brother, David Dudley
Field, had given him the note for col
lection.
AT once, said MIR. Field years later,
"a most amazing change came. over
Mr.. Stevenson's countenance. A mo-
ment before IL had glowed with op-
timism; now it was as gloomy as an
undertaker's, and no longer did he
talk about great riches. For a long
time he gazed at the note-carefully
he scrutinized the signature. Then he
looked me over sternly.
"All this time he said not a word.
At last. however, he found his tongue
he admitted that the note was his.
that it hadn't been paid, and added
with a sigh that he guessed he might
as we'll pay it then as any time. Then
he calculated the interest due, added
that to the principal. and going 10 mis-
gold scales carefully weighed out a
! quantity OF gold dust, the equivalent
| OF eight hundred dollars. This he
! solemnly handed to me, then he tore
the note into bits, and with that ac-
tion he seemed to regain his optimism,
for the next moment he was expatiar-
ing in his old vein upon the glories of
California and the numberless oppor-
tunities for riches that It held out TO
the young and strong
"And ] was ready to believe all that
he said. for ! had eight hundred dol
lars in gold dust in my pockets where
half and hour before. had only the
remnants of a dollar"
Copyright 1911, by e. J. Edwards. All
rights reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell Of
~An Incident of ArgOnaut Days"