his pocket. Here he had just become able to keep his head above water, when the "Herald" destroyed his budding prosperity by the cruel article in question. The speech is perfectly coherent and logical, and exhibits a considerable degree of vigor, tact and adroitness, although an erratic and unprin cipled idea crops out here and there. For example : one of the " Herald's " charges was that he had collected money for clients and appropriated it to his own use. Guiteau defends himself against this accusation by explaining that he had written to his client
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gives the Bennetts a vigorous scoring. Of the elder he says : "He blackguarded every body and everything. He held nothing sa cred. He ridiculed God and man. He filled it with sensations. The grosser elements in society bought the ' Herald,' read it, and circulated it. Little by little it gained power, fame and wealth. Mr. Bennett left six mil lion dollars, and the largest circulated and the best paying newspaper in America, to his son, this defendant, every dollar of which he made out of the ' Herald.' He grew rich by ruining private reputations, by
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as follows : " All respectable lawyers retain one-half for such collections. I have col lected my half, and therefore nothing is due to you;" but he promised that just as soon as he could collect his client's half he would remit it! This is a traditional jest in law offices, but Guiteau seems to consider it seriously and with no apparent sense of its absurdity. The court, it seems, did not agree with his view, and granted an appli cation for an attachment against him for the non-payment of half of what he had col lected, and it was a report of this proceeding that constituted the " Herald's " article in question, headed : "A Profitable Collecting Lawyer"— " sarcastically meaning plaintiff," adds Guiteau. He complains that the " Her ald " did not publish his letter explanatory of the circumstances as above set forth. He
poking fun at decent people, and the ' Herald ' has been at it ever since. The ' Herald 'of to-day is run as it was forty years ago: like father, like son. A sensation, or something to make people laugh, is the ' Herald's ' demand. ' We will libel any man we please, we will make fun of him, we will call him a fool and a thief (sic), and take no chances. If pursued, we will pay one hun dred thousand dollars, but we make no re tractions.' " The result of this promulgation by the " Herald," Guiteau says, was the ruin of his business, and his incarceration for thirty-six days for an unpaid board-bill. This " paralyzed my ambition." " Were you ever in that position, Mr. Juryman, and you, and you, and you, Mr. Juryman?" he in quires. " I had no money, and no relatives in the city, and I languished in prison for over
