ir attorney, one of the best lawyers
in the State. It's too cussed bad." He looked sad. "I can't account for
it. I suppose he got hard up, and couldn't stand the pressure. I wonder
if you know how these infernal corporations capture a State!"

"No, but I'd like to know. I'm down here to fight 'em."

"That so? From where?"

"From Rock County. I'm the representative; Talcott is my name," Bradley
said, seizing an excuse to announce himself.

"_Is_ that so! Well, now, I'm an old cock in the pit, and I want to
warn you. I've known many a fine, honest fellow to get involved. Now
I'll tell you how it's done. Before you have been here a week, some of
these railroads will send for you, and tell you they've heard of you as
a prominent young lawyer of the State. Oh, they've heard of you, we've
all heard of your canvass; and as they are in need of an attorney in
your county, they'd like very much to have you take charge, etc., of
any legislation that may arise there, and so on. There may not be a
week's work during the year, and there may be a great deal, etc., but
they will be glad to pay you six hundred dollars or eight hundred
dollars, if you will take the position.

"Well, we'll suppose you take it. You go back to Rock, there is very
little business for the railroad, but your salary comes in regularly.
You say to yourself that, in case any work comes in which is
dishonorable, you'll refuse to take hold of it. But that money comes in
nicely. You marry on the expectations of its continuance. You get to
depending upon it. You live up to it. You don't find anything which
they demand of you really dishonest, and you keep on; but really cases
of the railroad against the people do come up, and your sense of
justice isn't so acute as it used to be. You manage to argue yourself
into doing it. If you don't do it, somebody else will, etc., and so you
keep on."

After an impressive pause, during which the speaker gazed in his face,
he finished: "Suddenly the war of the corporation against the people is
on us, and you find you are the paid tool of the corporation, and that
the people are distrustful of you, and that you are practically
helpless."

The man spoke in a low voice, but somehow his words had the quality of
exciting the imagination. Bradley thrilled at the picture of moral
disintegration hinted at. The imaginative tragedy was brought very
close to him.

"Do they really do that?" he asked.

"That's a part of their plan.