NAVY RECRUITING STOPPED.
Secretary of the Navy Daniels announced on January 4 that recruiting for the Navy has been stopped for the present, the enlisted strength having reached 132,000. The naval appropriations for the current fiscal year were made to take care of the pay of an average of 120,000 enlisted men. By expiration of enlistments the number soon will drop to about 122,000, which will give the Navy an average of 120,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30. One reason for the action is uncertainty as to the number of enlisted men Congress will authorize for the next fiscal year. Navy authorities have recommended 143,000. Another reason is found in the fact that the U. S. Atlantic and Pacific Fleets soon will sail for their rendezvous at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. It was not deemed desirable to go ahead with further enlistments with most of the active ships in distant waters. Although the Marine Corps has not suspended recruiting, the standard has been raised, requiring a minimum of twenty-one years of age, five feet five inches height, and 130 pounds weight. The quota for January has been cut to 1,400 and this low figure will keep the enlisted personnel of the corps within the average of 20,000 for the fiscal year 1921 for which appropriations are available. Two-year enlistments have been suspended, and recruits confined to a choice of enlisting for either three or four years.
[A Lawyer At Nineteen]
——OR——
FIGHTING AGAINST A FRAUD
By GASTON GARNE
(A Serial Story)
[CHAPTER I.—(continued)]
And then the busy lawyer caught up his satchel and started out of the office to catch his train. Lew opened the bundle of papers, and was soon studying them hard.
He had tried minor court cases, but had never had one in the supreme court, and he felt that it was rather unkind of fate that the first one that came to him to try in the upper court was regarded by even his shrewd employer as quite hopeless. However, he bent himself to the task, reflecting over the one saving point of the week that Smollett had worked, and trying to decide just how to make that fact effective.
Just as he had made up his mind what course to pursue about it, the telephone rang, and he was notified that the case was called and that the office boy had answered ready.
Stuffing the papers in his pocket, Lew walked over to the courthouse, thinking deeply over the idea that had come into his mind. He got there just as the jury box was filled, and eyed them narrowly while the counsel for the plaintiff was examining them. It looked like a good sensible jury to him, and he made but two objections to the men in the box.
The jury was sworn and the case opened.
Smollett's lawyer told how the accident had happened, and then drew a touching picture of how the plaintiff's wife, a sickly looking woman who sat at his side in court, had slaved to support the family, Smollett being unable to work, and not having done a day's work since the time he was injured. Lew cast down his eyes when this statement was made, and began to feel a little more hopeful.
Then Smollett was put on the stand and told his story, moaned about the constant pain that he had suffered since he was hurt, while the jury began to look sympathetic. In response to the questioning of his lawyer he declared that he had not been able to do more than to sweep a room since the day of the accident. Then Lew arose to cross-examine him.
"Mr. Smollett, what was your business before you were injured?"
"I was an iron worker."
"That requires great strength, does it not?"
"Yes, it does."
"All parts of the work?"
"Yes, all parts of the work."
"And you could do any part of the work?"
"Yes, I was a pretty powerful man."
"And you have not been able to do anything more laborious than to sweep a room since you were injured?"
"That is true."
"How long have you lived in this city?"
"Three years."
"Where did you live before you came here?"
"In Far Rockton."
"At what address?"
"Two-forty-one Vine street."
"How long did you live there?"
"Four months."
"Where did you move to when you came to this city?"
"One-seventy-two Bear street."
"How long did you live there?"
"Six weeks. The house was cold and we could not stay there."
Lew bent down and selected a paper, glanced at it as though to refresh his memory, and then went on with the examination.
[CHAPTER II.]
The Result of the Young Lawyer's Keen Management of the Smollett Case.
"Where did you move to then?"
"Seventy-nine-eight Locust street."
"How long did you live there?"
"Only three weeks. The plumbing was bad."
Lew kept on in this line of questioning for several minutes more, by which time Smollett had testified that he had moved thirteen times during the past three years, in each instance telling the address of the house he had lived in and the length of time he had lived there.
"This is astonishing," said Lew. "You certainly possess a remarkable memory, Mr. Smollett."
"I think I have got a good memory," complacently said the witness.
"There is no question about that," said Lew. "I very much doubt if any gentleman on the jury could have remembered so much and so positively as you have done, and yet you have apparently forgotten that you worked for the Continental Iron Works for one entire week since the date of your accident!"
A murmur of surprise went around the crowded courtroom. The witness grew pale and then flushed fiery red, and shifted uneasily in his seat, while the members of the jury glanced at each other in a significant manner.
Smollett's lawyer half arose as though to make some objection, and then seemed to realize the hopeless nature of the situation and sat down again with a scowl on his face.
The witness was trembling, and Lew went at him savagely.
"I have here a sworn copy of the time-book of the Continental Iron Works, in which your name appears as having worked from the seventh to the thirteenth of June in the year you were injured," he said, fixing the unhappy witness with his piercing eyes. "Do you deny that you did that work?"
(To be continued.)