these gentlemen awarded the prize to the company commanded by my appointee.

The two companies were marched to the office or quarters of Admiral Worden, and drawn up in line for the presentation ceremonies. The young and beautiful daughter of Admiral Worden was selected to present the flag. The duties were performed in a most graceful and impressive manner. While this was being done the Board of Visitors were gathered about the Admiral. He said, "That girl (meaning his daughter) was born while I was at sea, and I never saw her until she was five years old." This speech was a simple but wonderful tribute to the loyalty of the man to his country, to his ship, and to his flag. The Government required his services in distant seas, and he gave up home, the companionship of wife and the cooing and pratter of his baby girl, to serve his country and to keep its flag flying.

The presentation of the flag and the circumstances surrounding it made a deep impression upon those who were fortunate enough to be there. This one recital by the Admiral was not all that he said upon that occasion. In a modest way, while tears stood in his eyes, he told of the visit of President Lincoln to him after the battle between the Monitor and Merrimac had taken place. In this battle Worden was painfully wounded in the face, and it was thought for some time that he would lose his sight. He was taken by Lieutenant Greene to Washington and rested at the old Kirkwood Hotel. His head was bandaged and his physical suffering intense. He could not see and his physicians were afraid that his eyes would eventually slough out. While in this con

dition he directed Lieutenant Greene to go to the White House and make a personal report of the battle to the President.

When Greene entered the President's room, the Cabinet was beginning to assemble. Mr. Lincoln at once asked Greene, "Where is Worden?" When told, he picked up his hat and said to the members of the Cabinet, "Keep your seats, gentlemen, I am going to see Worden." The description of that visit by Worden was beautifully eloquent and touching in its simplicity. The President and Greene came to the door and Greene said, "Worden, here is President Lincoln." Worden put his hand out from under the covers, grasped the hand of Lincoln and said, "Mr. President, you do me great honor in coming to see me when there are so many more worse off than I am." "No," said Mr. Lincoln, "I came to thank you in the name of every loyal heart for the great service you have rendered the country."

If this little recital (true in every detail) can add the slightest interest to the blessed memory of one of the greatest and sweetest characters the world has ever known, I will be glad.

X

THE WHISKEY "RING"

Appointment as U. S. Attorney-The Saint Louis Bar-The "Ring's" Methods - Evidence and Prosecution-President Grant's Secretary Implicated -The Bristow-Grant Episode.

In May, 1875, I was appointed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri by President Grant to succeed William Patrick. At the time of my appointment I was a resident of Louisiana, Pike County, where I had lived since 1862. The notice of my appointment came in a telegram from St. Louis signed by Honorable John B. Henderson, which I received while engaged in the trial of a case in the Louisiana Court of Common Pleas. I had no intimation whatever of this and consequently was greatly surprised when I received the message from Mr. Henderson. I never knew and do not now know what influence brought about the appointment.

I had an acquaintance in General Grant's Cabinet, General W. W. Belknap, whom I had known while he was Collector of Internal Revenue at Keokuk, Iowa. He had made a seizure in Keokuk of a large tobacco factory owned by parties who had their homes in Pike County, Missouri. I was employed by them to represent their interests in certain proceedings

then pending before Judge Love, then United States District Judge. This was an interesting case, involving questions arising under the revenue laws of the United States. I was successful in the defense and a decision by Judge Love restored the property seized to my clients. The United States attorney took the case to the Supreme Court where the decision of Judge Love was affirmed.

This was my introduction to a trial involving the revenue laws of the United States. I always believed it was the trial of this case that induced General Belknap to recommend my appointment. Whatever the fact may have been, I determined to accept the position and my commission came along in a day or two when I went to St. Louis and qualified.

In that city there were many able lawyers in active practice at that time. Among them were Samuel T. Glover, John R. Shepley, Fidelio C. Sharp, James O. Broadhead, John B. Henderson, John W. Noble, Henry C. Hayden, Henry Hitchcock, G. A. Finkelnburg, Britton A. Hill, John M. Krum, Chester H. Krum, George A. Medill, George P. Strong, John C. Orrick, Samuel Knox, D. T. Jewett, Amos M. Thayer, and E. B. Adams.

Of all these, only one remains - Chester H. Krum. No city in the whole country could boast a greater Bar than St. Louis from the years 1865 to 1880. The men composing it were indeed lawyers. This was before the day of getting rich at the expense of professional honor, before the day of money grabbing, before the day when ambulance chasing became a part of a lawyer's undertaking, before the day when get-rich-quick concerns held the board, before the day

when the courts' calendars were loaded down with nauseating divorce cases, before the day when women drank high-balls, smoked cigarettes, wore dresses short at both ends and displayed long stockings of bright colors, before the day when money was the controlling factor in obtaining place and position in good society. Aye, at that time intelligence, integrity and moral worth were the recognized requirements for admission to homes of culture and refinement.

It would be far better for the good of the community if the habits of that day were the habits and customs of the present.

There was much excitement throughout the country and especially in St. Louis at that time, over reports that a great conspiracy existed between revenue officers, distillers, rectifiers, liquor dealers and prominent and influential persons to defraud the United States out of its revenue upon distilled spirits.

Previous to my appointment the United States had made seizures of the distilleries in St. Louis, and were proceeding to condemn and sell them for alleged frauds committed by their owners in violation of the revenue laws of the United States. The law at the time provided that a tax of seventy cents on every proof gallon of whiskey made should be levied and collected. The mode of collecting this tax was by the sale of revenue stamps.

The spirits when made were first run from the still into receiving cisterns where no one but a Government storekeeper was allowed to enter. These spirits were drawn off from the cisterns into barrels, and were taken to the distillery warehouse. When the distiller desired to remove this from the warehouse, he was re