Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1913 — ATTORNEY ELOQUENT IN COURT BRIEF [ARTICLE]

ATTORNEY ELOQUENT IN COURT BRIEF

Daniel Fraser Diverges From Cold Argument in C. L. Hensler and Fountain Park Discussion. A copy of the brief prepared by Daniel Fraser, as one of the attorneys for the appellees in the case of Christian L. Hensler vs. Fountain Park Association, has reached The Republican office. Associated with Mr. Fraser in this trial were Will H. Isham, of Fowler, and Frank Foltz, of>4sensselaer. Mr. Fraser digressed from the custom of presenting cold facts in higher court briefs and waxed eloquent in setting forth the high motives that inspired the organisation of Fountain Park and in appealing to the mental culture of the people as opposed to the greed of money getting. The Republican quotes from the brief the following: The influence for good in the community, of this Chautauqua Society, is a continuing one of the welfare of the public.

Its place is in the center of a rich and populous part of the state. Its teaching and influence are well calculated to raise the thoughts to higher things and to dedicate life to nobler purposes. The people of all the country, by the enterprise and unselfishness of the gentlemen who devoted their time and money to the upbuilding of this company, have been enabled for a time every year, to cast off dull care, and to dwell a little in that higher kingdom, and have the benefit of the thoughts and counsels of the wisest and most accomplished statesmen, scholars, artists and dreamers of the age. There under the shade of the trees thousands have seen in the

word pictures of Mr. Bryan; the sunset on the Bay of Naples; the walls of the Holy City were made to rise before them; the long ways of the world were brought near with all their wonders; the gray desert stretched before their eyes from the Nile—past the Pyramids—until its purple shadows mingled with the clouds; from Mount Tabor where the Savior once stood with his friends, they saw the Vailay of the Jordan people again; the dome of St. Peter’s and the Gold Cross of St. Paul’s glistened in the setting sun and the frescoes on the walls gleamed in their undying luster.

By gifted travelers, the old world was brought to the new and every hope and aspiration of the soul was voiced by silver tongues. The kindly Bishop and Jean the Strong Convict, Were made to live again by magic words; these people saw the landscape of France; the chill moonlit night; the gendarms with their muskets; the Convict with his knotted staff and the sliver candle-stick; they heard the glorified falsehood of the priest: “I gave it to him—here is the other he forgot.” The people there learned the lesson from this most striking scene in fiction, by the genius of Mr. Dolliver.

Many will long remember his appeal for the awakening spirit of man’s humanity to than: “O man, who ever thou art, thou wast named at thy birth my brother; O man, wherever thou art, thou art In my heart.” This enterprise realized in a mensuse, for the toilers in the rich corn land, the inspiration of James Martineau who sought to make men understand that the mind could be made a kingdom, with treasures rich and rare. In a strain of unrivaled elevation of thought and purity of language, he says:— “He that cannot leave his work shop or village, let him have his passport to other countries, and find communion in a distant age; it will enable him to look up into those silent faces that cannot deceive, and take the hand of solemn guidance that will never mislead or betray. The ground—plot of a man’s own destiny may be closely shut In and the cottage of his rest small; but if the Story of this Old World be not quite strange to himif he can find his way through Its vanished cities to hear the plead Ings of Justice or watch the worship of the gods; if he can visit the bat-tle-fields where the infant life of nations has been baptized in blopd; if he can steal Into the prisons where the lonely martyrs have waited for their death; If he can walk in the garden or beneath the porch where the lovers of wisdom discourse; if the experience of his own country and the struggles that consecrate the very soil beneath his feet are no secret to him; if he can listen to Latimer at Paul’s Cross, and tend the wounded-Hampden in the woods at Chaigrove, and gaze upon familiar faces, at the pop traits of More and Baxter—he consciously belongs to a grander life

than could be given by territorial possessions; he venerates an ancestry auguster than a race of kings; and is richer in sources of character than any prince or monarch.”— (The Friendships of History.) These gentlemen believe that life ought to hold something more than toil and suffering; that its rewards should not altogether be measured in lands and goods. They knew that many eould not journey to far off lands; that many had not the leisure to spend in libraries and galleries of art and they sought to Widen their horizon and to bring things from afar to their own place.