“Saul,” said he, “I traded horses with a man over on Scrabble Hill and he is all stirred up about it. He has put the matter in his lawyer’s hands and thinks he is going to be able to make out a strong case. What do you think I better do about it?”
The lawyer regarded the matter calmly. It was hardly necessary to ask any questions. The details of such transactions were apt to bear a strong similarity in different trades.
“What can you prove?” he asked.
“Hang it! Saul!” said Oliver. “It isn’t a question of what I can prove; it is what I have to prove.”
The attorney, therefore, although not especially edified at this kind of professional routine, proceeded to give Oliver an outline of the kind of testimony that he should be able to produce to offset the righteous claims of his opponent. Tradition says that Oliver was nearly always prepared to furnish the evidence, having some very accommodating friends and neighbors.
The Attorney Who Scorned Divorce Business
In a certain locality in northern New England there was a journeyman tinsmith who was nearing his thirtieth birthday. This young man, although possessed of much natural wit and ingenuity in argument, had never exhibited any desire to better his position. A young girl, of seventeen or eighteen years, aroused his ambition and he decided to study law. His mind absorbed information like a sponge, and by teaching school during the day and studying at night, he was able to prepare himself for what proved to be a very satisfactory examination for admission to the bar. His success was immediate. Marrying the girl who had inspired him to a higher walk in life, he became a brilliant figure in the legal annals of this period.
At the height of his career his wife died, and just as he had never manifested the slightest interest in any other girl prior to his marriage, he was equally indifferent to all other women after the death of his wife. But apparently to overcome moments of black depression which assailed him out of business hours, because of his tense grief at the loss of his wife, he gradually acquired intemperate habits. Then followed a strange record for a thoroughly modern court, of frequent -----File: 164.png—- -----File: 165.png—- cases called in their regular order, quietly transferred further down the docket list, because of the murmured report of some tipstaff to the judge that “Jim,” who was to try the case, was temporarily incapacitated. Such was the personal regard in which this man was held that there seldom was an instance where an opposing attorney made any objection.
A TYPICAL NEW ENGLAND ELM