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The Green Bag

Government of the United States is well up in the hundreds, with the result that in ninety per cent of the cases his con tentions have been upheld and affirmed by the courts. In addition to his success as Assistant United States Attorney in charge of the prosecution of Charles W. Morse under the National Banking Laws, and more than a score of railroads and large shippers for giving and receiving re bates in violation of the laws regulating interstate commerce, he has made con tributions to the federal procedure in brushing aside much of the purely con ventional which clings to the federal practice. While a friend of ex- President Roose velt and a party man in a strict sense, having fought his way to a position high in the counsels of the Republican organiza tion in New York County, with its power ful influence for the asking, which one of his most intimate friends urged him to solicit, when his name was under con sideration by the administration for the position of United States Attorney his reply was characteristic: "I appreciate the favorable attitude of the Republican organization and shall be very glad if President Taft appoints me, but it must come as a promotion and in recognition of my services in this office rather than upon any political identification I may have." To those who study him at a distance and observe his red hair, flashing eyes and strong features, he might seem to lack Portia's quality of mercy, but those who know more of him think differently, and their faith is well founded. While firm and aggressive in the enforcement of the laws as he finds them, in his private and social life he is mild and gentle, and retiring to the degree of diffidence. Born in Richmond, Virginia, at the

high tide of carpet-bag rule in that state, educated at the Virginia Military Institute, the West Point of the South, where he not only attained distinction in the academic work, but acquired no mean reputation for decision and aggres siveness upon the football field, a good horseman, a sportsman who knows the merits of a gun and dog, a soldier, and sufficiently skilled in politics "to see around the corner," he is indeed an interesting character. He is a busy man, yet no one need present a card to see him. None appreciate this more than the Assistant United States Attor neys who seek his advice when con fronted with perplexing propositions of law. An amusing incident is related by a fellow officer in Wise's regiment in the late war between the United States and Spain. During the early weeks of the war Wise was appointed Judge Advo cate to a military court by the late General Fitzhugh Lee, and subsequently was commissioned to organize a civil government in the province of Bayamo, Cuba. One day while sitting quietly in his office he received a report that one McCarthy, a private in his company, enlisted from the Five Points section of New York City, and having spent most of the time since mustered into service in the guard house, had captured a supply of aqua diente, an intoxicant to which many of the natives of Cuba are addicted, and was then demoralizing the discipline of the entire Fourth Regi ment. Reading the report hastily, he directed one of his subordinates to give McCarthy the following message: "Mc Carthy, go lock yourself in the guard house." Ordinarily this would have been sufficient to quiet McCarthy, but not so on this day. For immediately upon the receipt of the above he became worse, and giving the messenger a cuff which