A Lawyer's Oratory.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 19, 31 July 1890, Page 4

A Lawyer's Oratory.

Jonathan H. Pugh was a palefaced yoiiug lawyer. Day after day he sat waiting for briefs, but none came. The first term of court appeared and his name had not appeared on the! docket. At that time my father was Clerk of the Circuit Court. One day there came to him a poor, sad womau, who poured into "his ear a pitiful tale of woe. A broth<sr-in.law nad robbed her of all the property left her by her dead husband, had oppressed and abused her, and was now seeking to take from her care her only child, a little girl three "years old. My father bacame deeply interested in this woman and ; promised to help;her. He at ouoe sent for Pugh. The young lawyer came andtpok charge of her case. The poor woman's brotlier-in-law was. ri«:h, and he employed the best of counsel, and made eyery preparation in his. power to defeat her in court aud-suKject .'-her to still greater oppression.; , He. even circulated the most eland eroti 8 stories against her, and suoce.eded in totally, destroying her goqd;. reputation. : This story kindled^thei soui. : of P/ugh, and he. went to work wi^h a fierce determination to unmask the villain. The day ior the trial arrived. The neighbourhood ;was. -thoroughly aroused, and the old courtroom was crowded with spectators. The sad and dreamy young lawyer 'became another man— a bold and-dauntlesß knight ; fighting ior outraged owomanhood; : He arose to speak.?' • -The" silence was : pairif ith Witha master.lia.ud he laid before the ! Oourt and jury the. work of the poor woman's -oppressor. - The 1 perjured witnesses withered beneath his, fiery denunciation. Judge, jurors, and spectators bent forward to listen. As he told of • the woman's wrongs tears filled the eyes of all. - Then he turned irom the weeding woman to the oi 2 her sorrows. In horrible language he. exposed the villainy .of the man." Suddenly he faced jthe "victim of his scprn, : and : pointing Ms ■quivering finger at hini exclaimed :. "•Ybu have: stolen, from this pbbr -woman all Her property. Not only "this: you have. robbed her, not. only., of her last dollar, but of what is more precious than gold— her good name. And now .with savage hands^ you, try to tear from her arms her darling •child. '-In .the awful hereafter you -should not even fee allowed' the miserable comfort of herding with the common damned, but in some lower ■deeper hell be compelled, singly, and *lone to howl out ap eternity of woe," As Pugh reached this climax it fell like a bolt of thunder on the ears of the guilty man, and he rushed headlong from the court-room. Pugh's reputation was made. He was flooded with clients and was at once one of rthe busiest lawyers : in. town.— lllinois 'JState Journal. 1 . r ~" ' :'