Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1916-01-06
AN AMUSING INCIDENT.
Plea of Kansas Lawyer who had Little
Love for Client of Defendant.

profession by denouneing his client
in court as an "old devti'' unworthy
of winning the suit, and not only won
his client s case, but escaped censure
by the bar association for doing it. 1t
was a long time before Leavenworth
ceased to smile over his remarkable
defense of his client, and the story is
still good for laugh whenever law
years gather to swap yarns.
1t was back in 1889 that the case
came up in the district court at Leav-
enworth before Judge Meyer. Col. -.
IL. Anthony, the fighting editor of the
Leavenworth Times, was Atwood IS
client Colonel Anthony was being
sued by John C. Douglass for posses
sion of valuable lot on which Col.
Anthony had paid taxes regularly for
thirty years. 1t appeared that pre-
vious to that time Dougless had OBJ
tanned a tax title to the property.
Now, Judge Douglass, as he was
known, and Colonel Anthony were
undoubtedly the most hated men in
Leavenworth with the difference that
the editor also had lots of warm
friends Those who didn t like Judge
Douglass called him "tax title
shark which sufficiently explains
the regard in which he was held in the
community. Buying tax titles and
then exacting heavy payments, or buy
ing in the property for little or moth
ing, was his sole business. Naturally,
a man in that business in time gets
somewhat at outs with the sentiments
of his neighbors and is called harsh
names. 1t was the same with Colonel
Anthony. The names Judge Douglass
was called would have sounded like
high praise compared to what Colonel
Anthony S enemies called him. The
colonel himself was somewhat adept in
that line, his mildest epithet for those
he didn t like being "skunk. - What
he called his real enemies had better be
imagined.
When the colonel didn' like a man
he hated him with his whole mind his
whole heart and his whole soul. He
believed in personal journalism, and
when he turned loose the columns of
the Leavenworth Times on an enemy
the town fairly sizzled. He never
used pillow, the meat-aX being
weapon he liked better.
When John Atwood came to town
and hung out a single as a lawyer
and began practicing democratic pol
itics until some law business came
along, it was inevitable that, holding
political views quite abhorent to
Colonel Anthony's dyed-in- the-wool re-
publicanism, he should come into con
flict with the editor. 1t wasn't long
before Atwood became known pretty
well through Kansas as silver
tongued orator. He had gift of
language that could be flowery, satirl
cal or denunciatory Having come, as
per schedule, into conflict with Colonel
Anthony, he had frequent occasion and
opportunity of various political cam
paigns to "burn up" the colonel, the
colonel having been doing the same for
Mr.. Atwood and doing il plentifully
I He let the people of Leavenworth know
that Mr.. Atwood not only was sad
fizzle as a lawyer, but was also men
tai, moral and physical bankrupt, and a
total human loss with no insurance.
The colonel had somewhat the better of
it, speaking, as he did, to the whole
town, while the best Atwood could do
was to get crowd of maybe several
hundred at a political meeting to tell
them that what the own sadly need
ed was large funeral starting from
a certain number on the North Els
planade and winding up with the US
ual ceremonies and a pillow of flow
ers with "30' on it at Mount Munice
cemetery.
AS another famous Kansas lawyer
has written, opportunity knocks once
at every man s door, and sure enough
she came around and pounded at the
entrance to John Atwood IS private of
flee Originally Colonel Anthony had
retained Lucien Baker to defenu his
side of the Douglas suit. Baker and
Atwood were law partners in the firm
of Baker, Hook & Atwood, of which
Judge William G. Hook, now of the
United States circuit court, was mem
, Der. The three were the "bigo law
yers of Leavenworth. 1t happened
that Baker was elected United States
senator before the Douglass Anthony
suit cold come to trial. With Baker in
, Washington, refusing for personal rea-
sons to handle the case, and Douglass
crowding him up in corner, Colonel
: Anthony was faced by combination of
, circumstances, too long to detail here,
that prevented him from obtaining the
services of any other lawyer except
Atwood he though could win the case
There was only one thing to do;
swallow his pride and employ Atwood
, It was bitter pill, and being so he
prODaDly Wouidn I nave sWdiio"o" IL
had he known that the dose was to be
repeated. Finally the case was called
, Judge Dougless, acting as his own at
torney, and Atwood, with Anthony sit
ting at his side, fought the case through
the court. Judge Douglass made his
argument first and then came Atwood Is
long awaited chance and sweet re-
, venge. Rising slowly to his feet, he
turned to his client and bestowed on
him the same fond glance that the cat
, bestows upon the canary cornered in
its cage, and then spoke thus:
MAY it please the court: | con.
! graduate myself upon the judicial
, frame of mind in which l am enabled
to approach consideration of this case
r.a.foatad annrani tinn of the