was obviously
no time, with the pressure of other business, to get it through.
But it was thought best by a majority of the Republicans not
to take it up. Some of them thought it was likely, if passed,
to have a very serious and perhaps disastrous effect on the
country. So far as I know, nobody in either House of Congress
or in the press has pointed out why such a result would be
likely to follow.

On the whole I was very well satisfied. The interests concerned
are vast. A rash or unskilful remedy might bring infinite
trouble or ruin to lawful business. The work of restraining
the trusts is going on very well under the law of 1890. It
is a matter which must be discussed and considered by the
American people for a great many years to come, and the evils
from the trusts at present are rather in anticipation than
in reality. So I am very well content, for the present, with
what has been accomplished.

CHAPTER XXXVII
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE WORCESTER BAR

The Worcester Bar, when I came to it, was much like a class
of boys in college. There was rivalry and sharp practice
in some cases, and roughness of speech toward each other and
toward witnesses and parties. But in the main, the lawyers
stood by one another and were ready to help each other in
trouble, and the lawyer's best and most trustworthy friends
were his associates. The Judge and the jurymen, and the lawyers
from out of town used to come into Worcester and stay at the
old Sykes or Thomas Tavern, opposite the court-house, and
at another one known as the United States Hotel, further south.
The former was kept for a good many years by an old fellow
named Sykes. He was a singular-looking person--a large head,
stout body, rather protuberant belly, and short curved legs
and very long arms. He had large heavy eyebrows, a wide mouth
and a curved nose and sallow complexion looking a good deal
like the caricatures of the Jewish countenance in the comic
newspapers. He had two sons who looked very much like him
and seemed about as old as their father. One day the three
were standing in front of his tavern when a countryman came
along who undertook to stop with his load at the front door
of the tavern. Sykes was standing there with his two sons,
one on each side of him. He did not like to have the countryman
stop his load in that spot and called out to him rather roughly,
"Move along." The fellow surveyed the group for a moment
with an amused look and co