ed to be a judge
because I supposed a judge was the king-pin of the profession.
Now, as Pat Flanagan says, "I know different." The judge is apt
to be no less a tool of the boss than any other public officer
elected by the suffrages of a political party. He is merely less
obviously so. There are a few men in Wall Street who can press a
button and call for almost any judge they want--and he will come--
and adjourn court if necessary to do so--with his silk hat in his
hands. And if any young aspirant for legal honors who reads these
fugitive memoirs believes that the road to the supreme bench leads
_via_ Blackstone, and is lighted by the midnight oil of study, let
him disabuse himself of that idea, but seek rather the district
leader; and let him make himself useful in getting the boys that
are in trouble out of it. Under our elective system there is no
more honor in being a judge than in being a sheriff or a hog-reeve;
but, when one is young--and perhaps starving--it may seem otherwise.

If any of my lay readers believe that the practice of the law is
a path of dalliance, let him but hazard his fortunes for a brief
space on the good ship Jurisprudence--he will find the voyage
tedious beyond endurance, the ship's company but indifferent in
character and the rations scanty. I make no doubt but that it is
harder to earn an honest living at the law than by any other means
of livelihood. Once one discovers this he must perforce choose
whether he will remain a galley slave for life or hoist the Jolly
Roger and turn freebooter, with a chance of dangling betimes from
his own yard-arm.

Many a man has literally starved at the law. And most of the
profession nearly do so; while some, by merest luck, have managed
to struggle on until they stumbled upon some professional gold
mine. I have heard many stories of how some young men managed to
pull success out of disaster when the odds seemed overwhelming.
One which has particularly appealed to me I shall call the anecdote
of The Most Capable Young Lawyer in New York.

Some years ago there came to the great city a young fellow who had
always lived in a country town where the neighbors were all such
good friends that they never went to law. He was able and industrious,
but in his native place found it almost impossible to earn a living;
and when by chance he met a well-known and prosperous attorney from
New York who advised him to seek his fortune in the whirlpool rather
th