The Washington herald., 1913-02-07
srATEsMEN-REAL AND NEAR
By FRED c. KELLY


Frank T. O'Hair, the man who is to take
Uncle Joe cannon's place. is frst-rate
lawyer. The fact is, he Is such a good
lawyer, especially in Jury cases, that he
once lost case for the oldest reason
on record.
O'Hair Is the old-fashioned kind of
lawyer, and in addressing a jury does
not confine himself just to the law
itself. The trouble with lots Of lawyers
Is that they get too ALFRED learned. II
they try case involving the location of
ditch along the edge OF a farm, they
| adjust their nose glasses, look down over
them at the ponderous law books they
pile UP on the table, and spend hours
| trying to show the jury what Moses or
Blackstone or John Marshall would have
done in similar circumstances They dive
back 80 far among musty authorities
| that the jury. composed OF feed msr-
chants and retired farmers. cannot always
follow. and they lose the case, which
serves them exactly right
O'Hair, on the other hand. gets up
before the jury and talks about the stars
and the birds. and how fine II Is for a
young man to be good to his aged mother
who caressed his brow through the still
watches of the night in his infancy-and
the nero legal aspect of the case sort OF
takes care of itself.
Once O'Hair tried an important will
case-one of those cases involving a
pleasant old chap With thin white whis-
kers and money. who has been imposed
upon by somebody-the case being 10 de-
| termine the somebody's identity. O'Hair
passed up Blackstone for the moment and
quoted such authorities as John Green
leaf Whittier. Then he branched out
and cited a number Of ideas that he him
self had about such matters. and when
he got through nearly everybody in the
courtroom, including the jury, was blink
ing hard. and swallowing.
After about a half hours deliberation.
the jury awarded a verdict to O'Hair's
client.
The Judge promptly startled everybody
by setting the verdict aside. He said that
O'Hair had worked the jury into such a
state of emotion that they were incap-
able of judging the evidence and that any
verdict arrived at by a jury In such
wrought-up mental condition should not
be allowed to stand
Regardless Of the fascinating sound of
the term Secret Service" much of the
work IL just routine plugging away, ike
running a laundry or anything else. Sew
eral years ago. when William Flynn, the
new Secret Service head. was first placed
in charge of the New York office one
OF his tasks was to find the man who
! was putting out lot Of counterfeit pen
mics. At first thought, there wouldn't
be much in counterfelting such a low
value coin. but for Il cents one can but
enough copper to make 40 pennies. and
they are easy to pass, for nobody will
h3Cgie over a mere penny.
Flynn, waving the use Of false whisil-
ers. Cryptograms. and 'hists.' simply
applied common sense to the problem
before him. First he had the counter
felt pennies assayed. Then he wrote to
all the concerns in the country manufaC-
turing copper plate and asked for
statement of the alloy they used. Each
Plant had its own formula. and only one
used the same alloy that Flynn had
found in the bad cent He obtained from
that concern a list of all the shops in
New York TO whom they sold plate COP
per.
After inquiring from each of these
shops about the various people they sold
to, Flynn learned that certain Hebrew
peddler had bought a suspiciously large
amount of copper. The dealer couldn't
recall the mans name, but his recollec-
tons was that IL was painted on the side
OF his wagon. and began with w.
Flynn next got a list OF all the ped
dlers that had ever operated in that part
ed him. The next job. OF course, was to
find weiner. He located q shop Weiner
had once occupied, though at the time of
the quest II was a bakeshop. Flynn
went down into the basement and In
digging about the dirt floor with his shoe
unearthed a couple of pennies. Then he
knew he was on the right trail Within
a day or so he had his man weiner, who
in due season was sent to prison
~ SHn r~h 10
OF Flynn's assistants had rude awaken
ing. There had recently entered the
Secret Service a man named Peter {.
Dick, and his idea Of a sleuth was fel-
low who went about with his hat pulled
down over his eyes, looking mysterious.
Flynn sent Dick TO the bakeshop cellar
with a pick and shovel and told him to
dig and see il he couldn't ind a counter
feitinG outfit.
Dick nearly tainted away. The idea OF
a sure 'nough sleuth toiling with pick
and shovel like an italian laborer was
almost too much. Il was his first
glimpse behind the story-book glamour.
Representative BorIand makes allega-
ton that this happened out in Kansas
City. which Is his base of operations for
collecting votes to come to Congress on
\ man suspected n certain colored ac-
quaintance of stealing his chickens. but
couldn't get complete evidence against
him. He went TO a police Judge and asked
him to throw a scare into the fellow
when he got him up In front OF the
bench.
See here. George began the judge
next morning. Il want YOU TO tell me
just how many chickens you have taken
altogether and also how you got them.
I purpose to give people protection, and
I want to know your Methods
"JedCe.' says the prisoner, you
wouldn't undahstan' It. even II did tell
YOU. and II you was to try II. it'd Jest
git y'all in trouble, anyhow"
Copyright 1913 BY Fred c. Kelly. All night,