up all
sorts of defences, move for an examination of the plaintiff and of
his books and papers, secure a bill of particulars and go through
all sorts of legal hocus-pocus to show how bitterly I was contesting
the case as a matter of principle. Before the action came to trial,
however, I would settle it for one thousand seven hundred and fifty
dollars, telling my client that we had brought the other side to
his terms, and charge him seven hundred and fifty dollars for my
services--thus netting five hundred dollars in fees.

Often, when the amount sued for was small--say, fifty or one hundred
dollars--and where my client had absolutely declined to pay anything,
I paid the claim in full, simply for the satisfaction of leading
him to believe that he had been successful in resisting what he
regarded as an unjust or excessive demand.

This went on for several years, until, quite by chance, one of his
creditors, with whom I had settled over his head, either out of
forgetfulness or an evil wish to do me a bad turn, wrote him a
letter thanking him for his generosity. The next day he appeared,
purple with rage, and for some unaccountable reason, instead of
"commending" me, denounced me for a shyster. And this in spite of
the undoubted fact that my pacific methods had probably saved him
hundreds of dollars!

It was about this time that Gottlieb devised a truly brilliant
scheme, which had to commend it the highly desirable quality of
being absolutely safe.

There is a very wise provision of our law to the effect that, where
a wife desires to bring an action against her husband for divorce
and is without means for the purpose, the courts will allow her a
counsel fee and alimony _pendente lite_. The counsel fee is to
enable her to pay a lawyer and prepare for trial, and the amount
usually varies from one hundred to one thousand dollars.

One morning my partner came grinning into my office and showed me
a very soiled and wrinkled paper.

"What d'ye think of that?" he laughed.

The document, which turned out to be an affidavit executed in
Chicago, read as follows:

"STATE OF ILLINOIS )
"COOK COUNTY, CITY OF CHICAGO ) ss.

"LIZZIE YARNOWSKI, being duly sworn, deposes and says that she is
over twenty-one years of age and engaged in the employment of making
artificial flowers; that in the year 1881 the defendant induced
her to leave her home in New York and journey with him in the West
under a promise of marriage, repres