Author: Lewis Alexander Leonard

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13: 9781230395876

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ... influences, and be able to catch the point of view of every class of workers. An episode of his life while studying law and doing newspaper work is told by a recent writer much as it was recorded at the time of the occurrence. A man named Rose ran a blackmailing newspaper in Cincinnati. Rose was an ex-prize fighter and an all-round ruffian. He printed a scurrilous article about Judge Alphonso Taft, which was so palpably a slander that Judge Taft's friends only laughed and gave it no serious thought. But it didn't strike Will Taft as in any way funny. He started for Rose's office with his face flushed and his fists doubled up. On the street he met his man. "Are you Rose?" demanded Taft . Rose started an affirmative nod, but before he had half concluded it Taft had picked him up bodily and flung him down with a bang on the pavement . He didn't deign to strike. He simply put one knee in the small of the blackmailer's back and began cheerfully grinding his face into the paving stones. Rose howled with pain and rage. "I'll let you up if you'll get out of town tonight," said Taft . Between howls Rose managed to make a promise to quit, and Taft let him up. "Now," said Taft, "I'll come down here again tonight, and if you are still here this is only a starter." But Rose had had plenty. He quit Cincinnati that night and his slander-monger never appeared again. In 1880 Will Taft graduated from the Law School, dividing the first honors with another industrious and ambitious student . He began the practice of law in his father's old firm but devoted a good deal of time to politics and took a firm stand against gang rule. He had been practicing law but one year when he was called to his first public service. A friend, Miller Outcalt, now a leader of...