ted county attorney,
local counsel for the railroad, and judge of the circuit court. He was
mentioned for gubernatorial honours, and would perhaps have received
the party nomination but for the breaking out of the civil war. Not
fancying the personal risks of the army, he hired a substitute, and
this sealed his political fate; for Illinois at that time did not put
in power men who sent substitutes to the war. None the less, the lands
and moneys of the most prominent lawyer of the place kept him secure,
and human memories are short; so that, when Edward Franklin and others
of the young men of Bloomsbury returned from the war, they saw upon the
streets of the little town, as they had seen before they went away, the
tall form, the portly front, the smooth-shaven face, and the tall silk
hat of Judge Hollis N. Bradley, who had in every sense survived the war.

It was an immemorial custom in Bloomsbury for the youth who had
aspirations for a legal career to "read law" in Judge Bradley's office.
Two of his students had dropped their books to take up rifles, and they
came not back to their places. They were forgotten, save once a year,
upon Decoration Day, when Judge Bradley made eloquent tribute above
their graves. Upon such times Judge Bradley always shed tears, and
always alluded to the tears with pride. Indeed, his lachrymal ability
was something of which he had much right to be proud, it being well
known in the legal profession that one's fees are in direct proportion
to his ability to weep. Judge Bradley could always weep at the right
time before a Jury, and this facility won him many a case. Through no
idle whim had public sentiment, even after the incident of the
substitute, confirmed him in his position as the leading lawyer of
Bloomsbury.

It was therefore predetermined that Edward Franklin should go into the
office of Judge Bradley to begin his law studies, after he had decided
that the profession of the law was the one likely to offer him the best
career. In making his decision, Franklin was actuated precisely as are
many young men who question themselves regarding their career. He saw
the average results of the lives of others in a given calling, and
conceived, without consulting in most jealous scrutiny his own natural
fitnesses and preferences, that he might well succeed in that calling
because he saw others so succeeding. Already there were two dozen
lawyers in Bloomsbury, and it was to be questioned