第44章

I'm going to get Watling to fix it up with the City Hall gang.Old Lord doesn't like it,I'll admit,and when I told him we had been contributing to the city long enough,that I proposed swinging into line with other property holders,he began to blubber about disgrace and what my grandfather would say if he were alive.Well,he isn't alive.A good deal of water has flowed under the bridges since his day.It's a mere matter of business,of getting your respectable firm to retain a City Hall attorney to fix it up with the assessor.""How about the penitentiary?"I ventured,not too seriously.

"I shan't go to the penitentiary,neither will Watling.What I do is to pay a lawyer's fee.There isn't anything criminal in that,is there?"For some time after Ralph had departed I sat reflecting upon this new knowledge,and there came into my mind the bitterness of Cousin Robert Breck against this City Hall gang,and his remarks about lawyers.Irecalled the tone in which he had referred to Mr.Watling.But Ralph's philosophy easily triumphed.Why not be practical,and become master of a situation which one had not made,and could not alter,instead of being overwhelmed by it?Needless to say,I did not mention the conversation to Mr.Watling,nor did he dwindle in my estimation.These necessary transactions did not interfere in any way with his personal relationships,and his days were filled with kindnesses.And was not Mr.

Ripon,the junior partner,one of the evangelical lights of the community,conducting advanced Bible classes every week in the Church of the Redemption?...The unfolding of mysteries kept me alert.And Iunderstood that,if I was to succeed,certain esoteric knowledge must be acquired,as it were,unofficially.I kept my eyes and ears open,and applied myself,with all industry,to the routine tasks with which every young man in a large legal firm is familiar.I recall distinctly my pride when,the Board of Aldermen having passed an ordinance lowering the water rates,I was intrusted with the responsibility of going before the court in behalf of Mr.Ogilvy's water company,obtaining a temporary restricting order preventing the ordinance from going at once into effect.Here was an affair in point.Were it not for lawyers of the calibre of Watling,Fowndes and Ripon,hard-earned private property would soon be confiscated by the rapacious horde.Once in a while I was made aware that Mr.Watling had his eye on me.

"Well,Hugh,"he would say,"how are you getting along?That's right,stick to it,and after a while we'll hand the drudgery over to somebody else."He possessed the supreme quality of a leader of men in that he took pains to inform himself concerning the work of the least of his subordinates;and he had the gift of putting fire into a young man by a word or a touch of the hand on the shoulder.It was not difficult for me,therefore,to comprehend Larry Weed's hero-worship,the loyalty of other members of the firm or of those occupants of the office whom I have not mentioned.My first impression of him,which I had got at Jerry Kyme's,deepened as time went on,and I readily shared the belief of those around me that his legal talents easily surpassed those of any of his contemporaries.I can recall,at this time,several noted cases in the city when I sat in court listening to his arguments with thrills of pride.He made us all feel--no matter how humble may have been our contributions to the preparation--that we had a share in his triumphs.We remembered his manner with judges and juries,and strove to emulate it.He spoke as if there could be no question as to his being right as to the law and the facts,and yet,in some subtle way that bated analysis,managed not to antagonize the court.Victory was in the air in that office.I do not mean to say there were not defeats;but frequently these defeats,by resourcefulness,by a never-say-die spirit,by a consummate knowledge,not only of the law,but of other things at which I have hinted,were turned into ultimate victories.We fought cases from one court to another,until our opponents were worn out or the decision was reversed.We won,and that spirit of winning got into the blood.What was most impressed on me in those early years,I think,was the discovery that there was always a path--if one were clever enough to find it--from one terrace to the next higher.Staying power was the most prized of all the virtues.One could always,by adroitness,compel a legal opponent to fight the matter out all over again on new ground,or at least on ground partially new.If the Court of Appeals should fail one,there was the Supreme Court;there was the opportunity,also,to shift from the state to the federal courts;and likewise the much-prized device known as a change of venue,when a judge was supposed to be "prejudiced."IX.

As my apprenticeship advanced I grew more and more to the inhabitants of our city into two kinds,the who were served,and the inefficient,who were separate efficient,neglected;but the mental process of which the classification was the result was not so deliberate as may be supposed.