San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-27


where 1 caught a vision that
ice.
ng in Jacksonville it was only
len I would reach the limit OF
the time and he had suffered be
cause of having had no partner.
When / went to Nebraska / car
ried with me about $500, a fee that
I had just earned in law suit wor
in the Appellate Court. ! carried witt
me to Lincoln letter of introduc'
ton to the German National Bank
Joseph Bochman, the cashier of that
bank had gone from Quincy to Lin
coin and the letter was from a man
named Erwin Wood who had known
him in the former city. / deposited
the $500 in the German National
Bank and soon became its attorney.
The business that received from
the bank and through its influence
aided me materially in the beginning.
Soon after / located in Nebraska our
offices were changed to the Burr
Block, n new building just completed.
AS ] was alone and 30 as to make
my $500 run as far as possible I
saved room rent by sleeping on a
folding lounge in the office.
economical on food also by buy
ing 81 meal tickets for $3.50 at
O'Dell's Restaurant and using them
two a day instead of three. / ate
in the morning and in the evening
and contented myself with a lunch
at noon, usually an apple and few
gingersnaps. / can remember with
great distinctness when the office re-
ceipts became sufficient to justify the
use Of three meal tickets a day.
LEGAL POINT RAISED.
was always interested in the es-
Establishment of important legal prin-
ciples, as two illustrations will show.
Not long after 1 located at Lincoln,
Editor Emmons Of our local weekly
Democratic paper called on me for
advice in regard to a suit. He had
been circulating cards advertising his
newspaper among the delegates who
had come in to attend the county
convention.
Some Of them threw the cards upon
the sidewalk and a policeman at
tempted to arrest Emmons for vio-
lating a city ordinance that forbade
the throwing Of paper upon the street.
Emmons resisted arrest and came out
second best in the encounter. He
went to the office of n justice of the
peace and filed complaint against the
policeman for assault and battery and
the constable refused to serve the
papers without fees being paid in aG-
vance. Emmons wanted to know
whether it was necessary for him to
advance the fees in order to secure
redress.
AUTHORITIES SILENT.
] looked for authorities and could
find none. Our statute specifically
gave the constable the right to demand
fees before serving papers. After
careful consideration Of the facts
reached the conclusion in which Judge
Cassidy, who was associated with me,
concurred, that while the statute made
no exception of papers served in Grim
inal cases, such an exception must
be presumed, otherwise, redress for
criminal assault would be impossible
to those without means.
Pleading the case upon what I re-
garded az a fundamental principle,
namely, that justice could not be
sold and that remedy in criminal
case could not depend upon the finan-
cial ability of the party injured. 1
drew a petition for n writ of manda-
mus compelling the constable to serve
the warrant without prepayment of
his fee.
When took the petition to Judge
Chapman and told him the nature of
my petition he shook his head and
replied: "You will have to have
very strong case before ! will make
an officer serve papers without fees
being advanced" IL have a strong
case" answered, "as I think shall
be able to convince you"
WRIT Is ISSUED.
At the hearing / did convince him
and he issued the writ from which
the defendant appealed. When the
matter came VI in the supreme court
the hearing was held in a room on
which appeared the seal of the state
with the stats motto Equality be-
fore the law"
As that was the basis upon which
our fight was being made was able
to point the judges to the states
motto and it doubtless had its effect
in securing a decision, the first, 1
think, in the United States establish
ing this important legal principle.