Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1915-07-31
B0RAH AS A PRESIDENTIAL
POSSIBILITY
blessing with it?
Continued from page u

unfOlded to this fellow OF the blacl
art his ambitions and his limitations
A seeker of fortune lin a strange cour
try, he was glad to unhmber to any
one. i live at Nampa,' GO miles
from Boise, said the gambler, and
will get you some business. We will
see that you don't starve. o friendly
spirit of the west!
60 OF course | passed lit out of my
mind said Borah in telling the story
years after. 1 thought it was the
last time | should ever see him. Bu
a short time after / located in Boise
got a telephone message from him
1t said: Come over to Nampa al
once-I have a case for you.
"The telegraph operator at Nam
pa had killed a Chinaman The China
man was the cook at the hostelry, and
the telegraph operator had been In
the habit of mouching i'm the kitchen
and helping himself to the choicest
bits of cookery. A feud ensued. O
might the Chinanan started after the
operator with a butcher knife and
chased him through the swinging
doors; then he went back to his
skillet securing. Not so with the
operator, He looked up a revolver,
returned to the kitchen, and shot
the Chinaman in the back.
lit wasn't very good case for a
new lawyer. But some justices of
the peace are ex-officio friends of all
malefactors. Once in Montana cub
prit was charged with stealing fir
kin of butter. The Justice of the
peace held that butter was grease
and that Greece was foreign country;
therefore the court had no jurisdiction
and the culprit was discharged.
when the prosecuting attorney
read the complaint against the tele-
graph operator the magistrate raised
his eyes in utter establishment Read
that again. he said. The statute
made no specific reference to the
killing of Chinaman and he wanted
to be sure that his ears didn't deceive
him. The prosecutor read DIT again.
Do | understand, said the now
irate Justice, speaking in q high nasal
falsetto, and spacing his words. DO
| understand that you charge this man
with murder i'm the first degree for
killing a Chinaman?
Yes, your Honor; have no al
tentative. He was a human being, and
/ don't know amy element of seh-de-
Tense that would reduce it to man.
slaughter or murder i'm the second
degree.
But roared the judge, you can't
charge man with ANYTHING but man.
slaughter for killing a Chinaman.
Borah, seeing that he had friend at
court, was discreetly silent. The JUS
tice finally decided to withhold his
Judgment until he lad heard the evil
dence.
ITO Borah's amazement, he dis
changed the prisoner Then, ON Borah q
advice the telegraph operator left
Idaho ON a vacation, and the murder
of the Chinaman was forgotten
with the $35 he got out of this
case Borah subsisted until another
client materiahzed. This time 1t was
a cattle shipper who had peddled
his case against a railroad among the
members OF the Idaho bar until he
was threatened with incarceration i'm
the insane asylum.
"Borah took the case, and when two
thirds through the trial the railroad
considered DIT wise to settle |
practically in fun That brought |
Borah lot of business. I'm a small
western community professional rep
ltation of that sort advertised itself
with the persistence of buffalo gnat.
There are great lawyers who never
make great statesmen. History Dis |
proof OF that. Napoleon despised the
man of parchment. Jackson laughed
vt him. The mere lawyer has no hori-
ION, His nose DIS always to the grind
stone of precedent He cam dig
Cmong ancient tones and bring forth
'elics, but he is poor archeologist.
lie sees the relic, but fails to mirror
he civilization that produced it.
Borah has a vision He translates
he past into the present, the present
INTO the future. Some one has said
hat the test greatness is that a
nan shall look upon his own age and
zee 1T i'm the same light as that in
which posterity will see 1t. / think
,orah exemplifies that test.
when he was first elected to the
enate his law practice was worth
80 900 a year. He turned it over to
ONE young lawyers and distributed
is law library among others. He
ivorced himself from 1t absolutely.
lie dedicated himself to his state and
alton. Let us take look for a mo
lent at some of the Things Borah
as been doing i'm the senate.
"There are left 100000 acres of
public lands in the
est, rich and fertile. 1t is better ,
nd in a better climate, than across
lie line i'm Canada. Yet 1t is a fact
lat few years ago 100000 Ameri- !
IN homeseekers were annually mi
'ating to Canada. These citizens
ere turning their faces toward am : :
her flag because of the short :. !,
GIFTED policy of our own government. !,
"The western pioneer drove the !.
,lden spike of history that began at J.
oncord and Lexington. He Joined :
70 oceans. He discovered the gold :
i treasures of the Pacific coast. v
e leveled hindering forests. He ',
ected cities and states. He laid the !.
undations of law. He hewed out y