Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-27

somebody is hurt in accident at the nearby street
But the attorney has to sit in his Office and
wait for people seek him out, to put their affairs in
his hands, to lay the money at his feet.
What that period of waiting means only those who
have gone through it understand. 1t calls for in
finite courage and inestimable patience 1t is often
asked what becomes of majority of the young men
who graduated each year from the law schools. |
can that question Their souls tortured and
their bodies starved by the hopeless and terrific
fight they have to make against time and they
driven into other fields of endeavor.
The trials of the years devoted to making good
have infinite variety. AT first you get money all,
and then you get it in ranging from five dollars to
forty In the first four that practised fee of
fifty dollars looked like wndfa. had to decline the
first big fee offered, and it took twenty-our
hours to decide to do it. 1t concerned libel suit. The
complainant in the case had thought of retaining me,
and, before | had told him how much | would charge
him for services, had sketched general way the
basis of his claim After he had decided to get another
lawyer, the defendant offered me two hundred and fifty
dollars to represent him. That money had for all
the charm and attraCtveneSs of section of gold
mine but l told him l could not let him know for
day or two whether l should represent him..
Then thought it By the strcteSt interpreted
ton of the ethics of the profession might have been
liable to criticism for representing one man when the
other side had made partial conhdant of me. More
1t did not appeal to me personally SaVOr1ng OF
fair play When | refused to take the case was the
saddest young attorney then decorating the profession
TO this day remember the face and expression
Of each important who to for legal
advice Do not mistake They did not come quick
~, did they invade my office in shoals For almost
year the one little room where had my poor furnl
re and few books presented all the hubbub of the Sa
hara desert and all the companionsp of monks cell
But gradually, the months and the years rolled by.
the influential men, the big men of affairs in the
munity, came to after another. At first enc
came and then there would be hiatus of five six
months before another benediction in human guse,
cast his shadow my threshold. The arrival of
each one to like the coming of prophet and
finally began to have practice.
The first money ever received after my graduation
thirty dollars for writing final Grafton for the
president of class in my college. But, with the gain
ing of real practice, had work, and work hard. One
day awoke the fact that my future assured if
my health would hold out l had been working day
and highland only those who have gone through the
fires of that particular alicon which to young
and nervous lawyer know with what ncessant dill
genCe | delved into precedents and reports.
AT the end of my fifth year | was made Prosecuting
Attorney for my county. 1t is in such position that
lawyer face to face with the highest and the low
est things in human nature. The thief the frebug the
forger and the murderer pass before you in what is
rather sckening procession You have often heard,
doubt. that every Prosecuting Attorney tries get
an indictment and conviction whenever the oppor-
unity offers, matter whether the suspected
cused is guilty innocent This merely another
popular mistake.
| shall give only example. prominent in
the community had been accused of converting trust