have dissolved the relationship as long as we both remained in the country. His name, wherever he is known, is the synonym for honesty and personal integrity; his legal ability is of the first order, and as a safe and reliable counselor he has no superior, and but few equals of his age and experience, His caution is, perhaps, too fully developed to insure for him the reputation for brilliancy as a practitioner.

We were reasonably successful during the seven years we remained together and accumulated some money. He began saving up and investing his part of the net proceeds of the business much earlier than I did, and, as a consequence, was many thousand dollars ahead of me in a financial point of view when we dissolved our co-partnership. I attribute it, to some extent, to the fact that he married soon after we went into business together, and I didn't, for reasons not necessary to mention.

Not long after I began to practice my profession at Kaufman, I was engaged for a nominal consideration to write occasionally for the local columns of the Star, a weekly paper published by Messrs. Clark & Walker, who were at that time quite friendly towards me, and in the spring of 1880 I took charge of the editorial management of the Sun, succeeding Mr. L. R. Brown, well known throughout Texas as "Hightone" Brown, and who ranks among the most brilliant and accomplished journalists of the State.

My short career as editor of the Sun was fraught with many amusing incidents and adventures, but I can only relate one, which is, perhaps, above an average sample in point of interest. About the time I retired from the editorial chair, an article, or rather a communication, appeared in the columns of the Sun, which was anything else than complimentary to a certain tonsorial artist of Athens, a little town about forty miles from Kaufman and in our judicial district. A week or so after the article was published I went to Athens to court,

and, as was my custom in those days, I never neglected an opportunity to give annoyance to the fair ones, who would give me a chance; and having an engagement to call on a lady friend, and in order to appear to advantage, I went around to the barber shop to get shaved and otherwise "done up" for the occasion. As soon as I seated myself in the chair I noticed something very peculiar in the appearance, tone of voice and general manner of the barber. He appeared very nervous in every movement he made, but I attributed it to a slight touch of " temporary insanity," which at that time was very common among barbers and some other classes of people. As he whetted his razor he set his eyes, glistening with fierceness upon my face, remarked in any other than a pleasing tone of voice: "You are from Kaufman, ain't you ?" I assented as politely as I knew how. "Your name is Grubbs, I believe." Thinking perhaps that he might be desirous of paying me a compliment, such as that he had often heard of me before, I promptly replied that that was my name. Said he: "You are the d-d fool editor of the Sun, I have been informed." To that question I was instinctively as silent as the tomb. Indeed I was so embarrassed by the nature of his language that I could not reply. Having lathered my jaws sufficiently, he began to draw the razor carelessly about my face. He then halted suddenly, and, standing majestically before me as he waived the cold steel over his head and all around him, he says: "You have published a d-d lie on me, and I am going to have satisfaction." He cursed out the paper, and swore that he could whip any man who would acknowledge that he originated the scandal. He said that he had been wanting to see the editor of the paper, and that he would make it hot for him if he did'nt take it back and set him right on the matter. I never was so completely, "cornered" in all my life; I felt that my earthly pilgrimage was drawing to a close, and that something would have to be

done in the way of scientific lying, or I would be a mutilated corpse almost in the twinkling of an eye. I was not guilty, but I was so badly embarrassed that I was not certain whether I was or not. I tried to reason the matter with him, and finally told him upon my honor as a lawyer and a truthful man that I had never written a solitary line for the paper. That, while it was true that my name appeared as editor and proprietor, it was only done for the benefit of the true editor and proprietor who was a very ordinary man; and that the reason he wanted my name as editor was, to give tone to and increase the circulation of the paper. I finally reconciled the irate barber, but I did not tarry very long when I escaped from the horrors of the awful situation. I filled my engagement with my lady friend, but my mind was so completely distracted by the recollections of my desperate adventure that I could not enjoy myself. The thought of having lied to the barber troubled me sorely, as I was not used to lying, except in the legitimate discharge of my professional duties. Since that day my ambition to swing my euphonious name to the editorial masthead of a paper has not been so strong as it had been before.

In the year 1884 I became a candidate for district judge of the eighth judicial district. My opponent happened to be more popular than I, and the result can be easily conjectured. My own county gave me over fifteen hundred majority, and my vote in the other counties of the district was, I think, creditable, considering the huge jokes that were told during the canvass. It would be folly to go into the details of that good humored canvass, or to attempt to unveil the secret impulses which prompted the actions of some men of my own county in conspiring to defeat me for the office. As soon as the result was ascertained I promptly decided to abandon Kaufman county, the scene of my early professional struggles, forever, and on the first day of January, 1885, I moved to

the city of Greenville, where I have since resided. During the first year of my residence in Greenville I was associate editor of the Herald, and contributed regularly to its columns. In July, 1885, I formed a co-partnership with T. D. Montrose, Esq., under the firm name and style of Montrose & Grubbs, with whom I am at this time associated in the practice of my profession. On the first day of January, 1886, I voluntarily severed my connection with the editorial department of the Herald, and have since devoted the whole of my time and énergies to the practice of law, the results of which have been reasonably profitable and satisfactory to myself and partner. In politics I have ever been a democrat of the Jackson type, although at times I have broken over the traces and gone into business on my own hook, politically apeaking. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that I have to this good day been permitted to enjoy the quietude and otium cum dignitate of private life, so to speak. I have always voted for any and all sorts of prohibition, whenever an opportunity presented itself. In doing so I have not burdened my conscience with the slightest doubt of the constitutionality of the measure, nor have I stopped to consider seriously whether it was democratic or undemocratic. I have long since satisfied myself on the only question that could possibly unsettle my mind upon the subject. I have decided that it is right.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

POPULAR ERRORS AND DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF REFORM.

When a physician is called to the bedside of a patient, the first thing he will do, provided he understands his business, will be to make a proper diagnosis of the case. Before he can safely administer a dose of medicine he must not only know what disease his patient is suffering from, but he must understand the nature of such disease, and of the causes which operate to produce it. When he has fully satisfied himself of these by the use of the means afforded by the symptoms and such other information as he may be able to obtain relative to the temperament, habits, etc., of the patient, he is prepared to begin the course of treatment adopted, and can anticipate with reasonable certainty the effects of such treatment and the progress of the disease, and its cure. This is equally true of every character of remedial effort. Any other course necessarily results in failure, and the wonder is that such failure is not oftener foreseen by those engaged in finding out and applying the remedies for the multiform evils in every department of our political, moral, and social fabric. In no other cause, perhaps, have there been more mistakes made by the moulders and leaders of public sentiment than in the methods adopted for the prevention of drunkenness and its concomitant vices and the ultimate suppression of the liquor traffic. While there are some engaged in the work who have taken