The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-04-05
Captain Joe Waters Will Sob
With Juries No More.
Well Known Lawyer Promises
County Attorneys.
RAISES WHITE FLAG FOREVER
Protection of Criminals Has
Ceased With Him.
Considers That 55 Years of
Practice Is Plenty.

The following speech, ringing with
the spirit and enthusiasm of a law
school graduate, and ripe with the eX-
perience and brilliancy of a veteran
attorney, was delivered before the
meeting of Kansas county attorneys in
Topeka Thursday evening by Captain
Joseph G. Waters, the best known
criminal lawyer in the state:
Before 1 forget it: In the new honor
which the law has just thrust on the
county attorney. if he is diligent in
his inquiries with both sides in these
divorce proceedings. and ascertains all
that each states about the other, he
will be the most valuable adjunct to
a local newspaper AS the epitomized
gossip of the community. Parties and
correspondents might fear him, but
the great people would have their APP
petite satisfied. Anyhow, he has ia
ken away the velvetsthat have for
ages back been the perquisites of the
profession.
When Brother Meets.
With lively recollection of my ac-
Quaintance with the county attorney
in the past, having been dragged by
him the long way over the court room
mating and then rammed by him into
the cuSpidor at the far terminal of the
route, L come tonight to lift to him
the white flag and ask for a cessation
of the hostilities that we have engaged
in heretofore, and to assure him that
my capitulation means peace between
us forever and forever. L am not play
ing for second wind, nor am l like the
unspeakable Turk leaning over my
shot-ridden embellishments, lifting the
crescent and asking for an armistice
and parley simply to provision the fort
and delay the encounter.
1 have one criminal case yet to be
disposed of; the man may die, run
off or plead guilty, but other than this
one, no matter the fee, the person or
the court, 1 am done with it. In the
course of SO years practice, one as
certains much by observation but more
by having it pounded into him. 1 have
found that one can expend all his zeal,
ability and nerve in defending a man,
who, in addition to his prima facies
of guilt, is given the handicap of cross
eyes or widowed fax in his hair. 1
have found that gratitude ends with
jeopardy; that few people commit a
crime who are able to pay a fee; that
none of them have rich relations who
hunger to put up dollar for the poor
devil who is to be tried. l have found
that few people who are anchored to
property or who have wives or fami
lies commit crime or run amuck of
the criminal law, and that good COM
partnership is as sure an immuning
anti-toxin against the commission of
crime as DR.. FTiedmann's lymph cure
be for tuberculosis.
A Case With David Overmyer.
1 can remember when David Over
myer and I defended four men for
murder and the jury mercifully let
them off Dave had taken mortgage
on 200 acres of shocked corn and had,
like national bank, relied on CONNER
ctal paper. l had taken a note to
which L had made my client get addi-
tional names, every time 1 got scared
as to security, until the place on the
note for the payers name was huddled
up and crowded to death with the
names of men who rushed onto the
note like a herd of steers goes pell nell
over the elevated tramway to the
abattofr. His corn dwindled and set
tied and evaporated and when it was
gathered 1t lacked forty dollars of
paying the expense, and Achilles
wrath was stirred and all Olympus
shook. when Dave saw that his two
clients had put in for their wages in
helping to gather 1t. My note, as I
had increased the number of payers
had in mathematical retrogression. de-
creased in value with each name until,
as the banker told me, with his arm
around my neck to ease the killing
force of the blow, when 1 desired him
to discount it, so I could pour into my
wife's lap the trophy and spoil of her
nege, that by every known rule of
arithmetic and by all he problems
and theoreTns of geometry and triangu-
latfon, the note was absolutely worth
less, and as an investment I had lost
the value of the stationery on which
It was written. We had spent money
and time on this case. 1 cannot forget
the conduct of Overmyer; in his chris
tan rage, he roared like the lion he
was; he swore vicious and many syl-
tabled oaths and declared that he had
formulated a new maxim for his own
protection, had illuminated 1t and set
IT on the inside of his forehead, where
every time he opened or shut his eyes
attracted by its luminosity and glare
he would be compelled to read it and
be thereby put on his guard. He shut
his eyes and read it to me: when the
tear is in the zee. then's the time to
get your fee But 1 want to tell YOU
it was not effective. The plant of
woman for her husband, the trembling
culprit's tale of woe would put out its
light, for Dave was mortal and is of
God blessed memory. 1 have found
that a promise to pay in a criminal
case after verdict, is as hoary a headed
1eper as stale house rent when you
come to collect it Worse even than
agencies of crap or stud poker. where
you let the debtor get up from the
table and go horne without redeeming
his clips.
The Modest Lawyer From Hays.
Years ago there was lawyer in Hays
who on being employed by a client to
defend him against a criminal charge,
required the man to stand up and give
in an inventory of all that he had,
tangible, certain, contingent or collat-
eral; lands. mortgages, tail holds and
equities, moveables, farming utensils.
go-devils, horses. cows. shotes and
that particular piece of land in Trego
county that the wife held in her own
name to screen from the basilisk gaze
of a thresher company. After he was
sure the man had givenup everything,