Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1910 — HIS BAR EXAMINATION [ARTICLE]

HIS BAR EXAMINATION

By H. H. Hudson.

The state bar examination was In progress. The watchful eyes of the members of the examining committee wer eupo neach candidate. The applicants were ambitious in the best sense. Many would be heard from In the years to come. John Harding, Esq., was one of the examiners. Harding was a broad man. One candidate before him enlisted his sympathy. This back of Victor Hope. There ‘ was a story back of the young man Hope was a bank teller, and had maintained a widowed mother while pursuing his studies. He had studied in an "evening school. Another fact was also known to the examiner. Hope was in love with an attractive and deserving stenographer who worked in a busy law oiflcn. While some of Hope’s friends were somewhat skeptical, Myrtle Willow had never lost faith in him. The world did not understand. The examiner did. A hero sat before him. The Hon. John Harding observed the youth—a slave to ambition. Was it. a good thing for a young :nan to be ambitious? Still, from such material as this the world has ever derived its greatest benefits. The examiner stepped to the window. The squirrels, were playing about the lawn which surrounded the Capitol building. The autumn leaves were already falling. He reipembered his experience in the years gone by. Time was a precious asset. He again pictured the group or boys lie bad known. The eager scanning of questions; the waiting for the posted bulletin in the hotel which would seal their fate. Some of them were dead. The court records bore testimony to their zeal. The examiner realized the happiness which would come to the girl who had linked her future to the young man before him. Here was tragedy. Three years of patient study and anx’ety, a counting of dimes—then failure? A thousand times no. He might save him and still be true to his trust.

The Hon. John Harding sauntered down the aisle. Victor Hope sat wfth his legs twisted about bis chair. The tension of mind and body was apparent. Moisture stood on the brow of the courageous student. The exam iner inspected the paper. Question 13 was unanswered. Ten minutes alone remained. “And why don’t you attempt to answer question 13?” asked Harding. The eyes of the troubled student met his. “Because,” was the reply, “I don’t know whether to say yes or no." The examiner paced up and down the aisle. It was a-crftical moment. Might there not be some suggestion which could be given some hint which could be brought to bear without breach of trust on his part? He thought of the widow and the girl. How eagerly they would scan the-list of those who passed in the evening papers. His brow contracted. This very question might lose Hope his degree. He pictured the failure and discouragement.with months of furthei toil and anxiety. He glanced at his watch. Five minutes alone remained. He again stepped to the desk. “What don’t you attempt to an swer question 13?” he again asked. “I don’t know whether to say yes or no,” was again the reply of the desperate candidate.

“You don’t know?” repeated the Hon. John Harding. “Didn’t your girl know what to say when you asked her to marry you?” When Harding looked over the papers the next day he found that the question had been answered in the affirmative. It further appeared that the correct answering of this question alone saved the standing of Vic-* tor Hope. Six months later Hope was appointed assistant to the United States district attorney, but his wife doesn’t know to this day that she set the example which made her husband an honored and successail member of the bar.