Judge Elbridge

Example in this ebook. CHAPTER I.THE STUDENT AND THE ORATOR.. When John Elbridge retired from the bench the newspapers said that he had been an honorable judge. He was not a pioneer but had come to Chicago at a time which we now call an early day when churches rang their bells where now there is a jungle of trade when the legs of the Giant of the West were in the ache of growing pains; at a time when none but the most visionary dreamed that a mud-hole full of old boots dead rats cats dogs could ever be worth a million of dollars. Elbridge came from Maryland with a scant wardrobe a lawyer's diploma and the confident ambition of youth. It was not long before he formed a copartnership with a young man named Bodney a Kentuckian in whose mind still lived the chimes of Henry Clay's bells—a memory that not so much fitted him to the law as it atuned him to oratory; but in those days the bar could be eloquent without inviting the pitying smile which means Oh yes it sounds all right but it's crude. Elbridge was the student of the firm and Bodney the orator not a bad combination in the law at that time for what one did not know the other was prepared to assert. They prospered in a way but never had the forethought to invest in the magic mud-hole; took wives unto themselves and in the opinion of the orator settled down to dull and uneventful honesty. The years like racing horses flew round and round the track and a palace of trade grew out of the mud-hole. Bodney and his wife passed away leaving two children a boy and a girl. Elbridge had stood at the bedside of his partner who was following his wife into the eternal shadow. Don't worry about the children Dan; they are mine said the student and the orator passed away in peace. And they were his. He took them to his home to be brother and sister to his son; and the years raced round and round the track.At the time of his retirement from the bench the Judge was asked why he refused longer to serve the people. Because said he I am beginning to be afraid of my judgment; I am becoming too careful—like the old engineer who can't summon the nerve to bring his train in on time.. To be continue in this ebook..................................................................................