Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-08-04
LEM AcKLEY, REPORTER
An Aneedote Of the Lawyer Who Was
Assassinated In chieaso-The Lost
Washington Portralt-Ed Maui
ty's Proposed Flight Across
the North Pole
BY GEORGE NOX Mccain

feat, the culprit first tried to kill the Judge
and then shot Attorney Ackley to death in
the presence of his wife and daughter in
Lemue AcXley was one of the finest news
paper reporters l ever knew.
lie was the most conscientious of his
craft, in the matter of professional honor,
1t was ever my fortune to meet.
Born and reared in Pittsburgh, he read
law during the years that he passed as a
reporter.
TALL slender, intensely active, he was SO
near sighted that he was compelled to write
with his eyes following his pencil at dis
tance of four or five inches.
The city room wits used to say that Lem
Ackley rubbed out with his nose what he
wrote with his pencil.
LIE WAS. If I recall Alright, the support
IL of a widowed mother.
About thirty-fve years ago he left Pitts
burgh, went to Chicago and entered on the
practice of his profession.
One night in the early eighties Lem Ack-
ley brought into the city room Of the Pitts
burgh Dispatch what was regarded, in those
long gone days, as big beat.
Ihey were the sanguinary times when
fine old John Jarrett was president of the
Amalgamated Iron and Steel Workers of the
United States and strikes were frequent.
William (''Billy") Martin, who still re-
sides in Pittsburgh, was secretary.
The iron and steel manufacturers met
annually, or at the expiration of their con-
tracts with the Amalgamated, and formu-
lated new sliding scale of prices for labor.
To secure a copy of this scale in advance
of any other paper was, in the Iron City, a
scoop of first magnitude.
Ackley brought It in that night.
L asked him, being city editor at the
time, where he obtained It.
Il cant tell" he replied. insisted. IL
ives necessary to protect the paper in case
of flake" scale.
Besides, city editor 10 supposed to know.
in confidence, such things.
Il can't tell you. I gave my word that
! wouldn't tell living soul. You see I'd
be liar If told even my city editor" was
the reply. -.
There were no heroics about his manner
He was naturally cool, rigid and, in his
way, stubborn.
'Sou needn't be afraid" was all he
would say.
The manufacturers scale was published.
1t raised the very devil. Amalgamated men
stormed over the terms. The manufacturers,
though, were the hottest
They demanded the name of the man who
had furnished 1t to the paper; not the re-
porter, but the one of their own number.
But it never leaked out.
Years afterward the late Joseph D.
Weeks, long secretary of the Iron and Steel
Manufacturers Association and editor OF
the Iron Age. told me that he had given the
scale to Lemuel Ackley with the proviso
of secrecy.
And Lem Ackley kept the secret, / pre-
sumo, to the day of his terrible death.
A NEWSPAPER friend tells this un-
n usual story in connection with the un-
warranted run on an uptown bank last week.
In the crowd lined up at the doors of the
institution was man who had a deposit of
$500 in the bank.
He was in doubt about the advisabiity of
joining in the run.
In conversation with one of the officers
he was told that the bank was solid and
ready to pay every dollar.
The citizen began to waver in his deter
| minatiOn to make the withdrawal. lie
didn't want to lose his funds, nor did he
care to figure as an alarmist.
Say" he said to friend with him,
tell you what III do. I'll let my 'toddle-
top settle it,
Pulling from his pocket one of the little
gambling devices so popular just now, he
stopped and spun it on the pavement
Take all the top said.
And he took it with a check for the full
! amount.
| COME time back I quoted my friend G. S.
| - Bradford genre photographer. in the
| statement that he knew of ten or more Gil
bert Stuart's Washington portraits.
Whether or not this was the inspiration,
| Morris Earle recalled that somewhere he
had heard there was an unfinished portrait
! of Washington by Stuart.
lie began looking up the matter.
1t is Il matter that not one person in n
| thousand, possibly ever heard of. 1t belongs
to the odd and remote in American art his
| tory.
There is an unfinished portrait. but not
| of Washington. somewhere, and ] am in e
dcbtcd to a learned friend for the answer to
Mr.. Eares quest and the story of the pic
| turC.
THE full length portrait of Washington
i known as the "Lansdowne" portrait was
engraved in fine line by Heath. a celebrated
engraver in England after it was finished
by Stuart.
II was originally ordered by the Marquis
of LanSdowne, but Stuart allowed William
| Bingham to pay for it.
Bingham then presented the portrait to
the nobeman.
When Stuart saw the engraving and dis
covered that he had neglected to copyright
it he felt that he had been cheated and grew
very indignant
lie Quarrclod with the Binghams over the
matter and in revenge refused to finish g
portrait of Mrs. Bingham Of which he haC
painted only the head.
1t was this incident that gave rise to the
legend Of the unfinished portrait Of Wash
ingtOn.
LNDWIN FAIRFAX NAULTY. according
T. to New York dispatches, plans a trans.
Polar flight across the frozen North from
Norway. in September.
Mr.. Naulty, who is an inventor, news
paper and magazine writer and amateur
astronomer, is well known to older news
paper men in Philadelphia.
Some years ago--twenty or so-he was
special writer on the old Press.
About ten years ago he, with the aid o
several New York fnancers, patented
solid steel building that was guaranteed t.
withstand the attack Of any mob or an,
body Of armed men
The model he had constructed was
magnificent product Of the model maker
art
1t cost something like $4,000 and was OK
hbitcd by him in New York and Wash
ingtOn.
1t was burglar and mob proof ban
building, In which, he claimed, millions q
dollars might be stored without fear o
thieves.
Up to date no structure after the Nault
model has been built so far as ! hav
heard.
1t was Edwin Fairfax Nauty who pointc
out that the artists who reproduced tn
signs Of the X0dar on a certain great publ
building In New York had the Rams, Fishes
SrorniOnS and other ZOdiacal symbols run