Would it be possible to get
him a place on some ranch for six or eight months? Yes, it was
possible. An acquaintance was glad to take him.
At the end of his time he returned, still "quivering" with ambition.
He was going to make a lawyer, that's what he was going to make--the
very best lawyer that ever mastered Blackstone. He already had a
clerkship promised in one of the great legal establishments in the
metropolis. This clerkship paid him enough to live on, and gave him
the chance to do the very work which is necessary to the making of a
lawyer.
Splendid thus far. But observe the next step. In about twelve months
this young man came to me again. Would I help to get a certain man who
held a Government position paying him $150 a month promoted? This last
man's record was admirable; he deserved promotion on his own account.
But why the interest of the would-be lawyer, who was "quivering" with
ambition?
It developed that if the other fellow was promoted, this embryo
Erskine could, with the aid of influential political friends, be
appointed in his place. But why did he want this position? Well,
answered the young man, it would enable him to take his law course at
one of the law schools of the Capitol and get his degree, and all that
sort of thing.
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