第45章
Sometimes,when an important client would get into trouble,the affair took me into the police court,where I saw the riff-raff of the city penned up,waiting to have justice doled out to them:weary women who had spent the night in cells,indifferent now as to the front they presented to the world,the finery rued that they had tended so carefully to catch the eyes of men on the darkened streets;brazen young girls,who blazed forth defiance to all order;derelict men,sodden and hopeless,with scrubby beards;shifty looking burglars and pickpockets.All these Ibeheld,at first with twinges of pity,later to mass them with the ugly and inevitable with whom society had to deal somehow.Lawyers,after all,must be practical men.I came to know the justices of these police courts,as well as other judges.And underlying my acquaintance with all of them was the knowledge--though not on the threshold of my consciousness--that they depended for their living,every man of them,those who were appointed and those who were elected,upon a political organization which derived its sustenance from the element whence came our clients.Thus by degrees the sense of belonging to a special priesthood had grown on me.
I recall an experience with that same Mr.Nathan.Weill,the wholesale grocer of whose commerce with the City Hall my Cousin Robert Breck had so bitterly complained.Late one afternoon Mr.Weill's carriage ran over a child on its way up-town through one of the poorer districts.The parents,naturally,were frantic,and the coachman was arrested.This was late in the afternoon,and I was alone in the office when the telephone rang.Hurrying to the police station,I found Mr.Weill in a state of excitement and abject fear,for an ugly crowd had gathered outside.
"Could not Mr.Watling or Mr.Fowndes come?"demanded the grocer.
With an inner contempt for the layman's state of mind on such occasions Iassured him of my competency to handle the case.He was impressed,Ithink,by the sergeant's deference,who knew what it meant to have such an office as ours interfere with the affair.I called up the prosecuting attorney,who sent to Monahan's saloon,close by,and procured a release for the coachman on his own recognizance,one of many signed in blank and left there by the justice for privileged cases.The coachman was hustled out by a back door,and the crowd dispersed.
The next morning,while a score or more of delinquents sat in the anxious seats,Justice Garry recognized me and gave me precedence.And Mr.
Weill,with a sigh of relief,paid his fine.
"Mr.Paret,is it?"he asked,as we stood together for a moment on the sidewalk outside the court."You have managed this well.I will remember."He was sued,of course.When he came to the office he insisted on discussing the case with Mr.Watling,who sent for me.
"That is a bright young man,"Mr.Weill declared,shaking my hand."He will get on.""Some day,"said Mr.Watling,"he may save you a lot of money,Weill.""When my friend Mr.Watling is United States Senator,--eh?"Mr.Watling laughed."Before that,I hope.I advise you to compromise this suit,Weill,"he added."How would a thousand dollars strike you?
I've had Paret look up the case,and he tells me the little girl has had to have an operation.""A thousand dollars!"cried the grocer."What right have these people to let their children play on the streets?It's an outrage.""Where else have the children to play?"Mr.Watling touched his arm.
"Weill,"he said gently,"suppose it had been your little girl?"The grocer pulled out his handkerchief and mopped his bald forehead.But he rallied a little.
"You fight these damage cases for the street railroads all through the courts.""Yes,"Mr.Watling agreed,"but there a principle is involved.If the railroads once got into the way of paying damages for every careless employee,they would soon be bankrupt through blackmail.But here you have a child whose father is a poor janitor and can't afford sickness.
And your coachman,I imagine,will be more particular in the future."In the end Mr.Weill made out a cheque and departed in a good humour,convinced that he was well out of the matter.Here was one of many instances I could cite of Mr.Watling's tenderness of heart.I felt,moreover,as if he had done me a personal favour,since it was I who had recommended the compromise.For I had been to the hospital and had seen the child on the cot,--a dark little thing,lying still in her pain,with the bewildered look of a wounded animal....
Not long after this incident of Mr.Weill's damage suit I obtained a more or less definite promotion by the departure of Larry Weed.He had suddenly developed a weakness of the lungs.Mr.Watling got him a place in Denver,and paid his expenses west.