A Lawyer’s Effective Oratory.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 489, 16 July 1890, Page 6

A Lawyer’s Effective Oratory.

Jonathan 11. Pugh was a pole-faced young lawyer. Day after day he sat waiting for clients, bub none came. The first term of court appeared and his name had nob appeared on the docket. At that time my father was Clerk of the Circuit Court. One day there came to him a poor, sad woman, who poured into his ear a pitiful tale of woe. A brother-in law had 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 became deeply interested in the woman and promised to help her. He at once sent for Pugh. The young lawyer came and took charge of her case. The poor woman’s brother-in-law was rich, and he employed the best of counsel, and made every preparation in his power to defeat her in court and subject her to still greater oppression. . He even circulated the most slanderous stories against her, and succeeded in totally destroying her good reputation. This story kindled the soul of Pugh, and he went tp work with a fierce determination to unmask the villain. The day for 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 dauntless knight fighting for outraged womanhood. He arose to speak, Tho silence was painful. With a master hand he laid before Court and jury the work of the poor woman’s oppressor. Tho perjured witnesses withered beneath his fiery denunciation. Judge, jurors, and spectators bent forward to listen. As he told of tho woman’s wrongs tears filled the eyes of all. Then he turned from the weeping woman to the author of her sorrows. In terrible language he expossed the villainy of the man. Suddenly he faced the victim of his scorn, and pointing his quivering finger at him, exclaimed : ‘You have stolen from this poor woman all her property. Not only this ; you have robbed her not only of her last dollar, bub of wbat is more precious than gold—her good name. And now, with savage hands, yon try to tear from her arms her darling child. In the awful hereafter you should not even be allotved the miserable comfort of herding with the common damned, bub in Borne lower deeper hell be compelled, singly and alone, to howl out an eternity of woe.’ As Pugh reached this climax it fell like a bolt of thunder on the ears of the guilty man, and ho rushed headlong from the court-room. Pugh’s reputation was made. He was flooded with clients and was at once one of the busiest lawyers in town.—' llinoia State Journal,’ ,