y to the National Bar Association, member of
several important committees in that organization, and now is at the
head of that branch of the National Bar Association organized to secure
a more strict interpretation of the Federal Constitution, as a bulwark
of commercial liberty. Judge Van Dorn also has been selected as a member
of a subcommittee to draft a new state constitution to be submitted to
the legislature by the state bar association. So much for the
recognition of his legal ability.

"As an orator he has won similar and enviable fame. His speech at the
dedication of the state monument at Vicksburg will be a classic in
American oratory for years. At the Marquette Club Banquet in Chicago
last month his oration was reprinted in New York and Boston with
flattering comment. Recently he has been engaged--though his term of
service has just ended--in every important criminal action now pending
west of the Mississippi. As a jury lawyer he has no equal in all the
West.

"But while this practice is highly interesting, and in a sense
remunerative, the Judge feels that the criminal practice makes too much
of a drain upon his mind and body, and while he will defend certain
great lumber operators and will appear for the defense in the famous
Yarborrough murder case, and is considering accepting an almost
unbelievably large retainer in the Skelton divorce case with its
ramifications leading into at least three criminal prosecutions, and
four suits to change or perfect certain land titles, yet this kind of
practice is distasteful to the Judge, and he will probably confine
himself after this year to what is known as corporation practice. He has
been retained as general counsel for all the industrial interests in the
Wahoo Valley. The mine operators, the smelter owners, the cement
manufacturers, the glass factories have seen in Judge Van Dorn a man in
whom they all may safely trust their interests--amicably settling all
differences between themselves in his office, and presenting for the
Wahoo Valley an unbroken front in all future disputes--industrial or
otherwise. This arrangement has been perfected by our giant of finance,
Hon. Daniel Sands of the Traders' State Bank, who is, as every one
knows, heavily interested in every concern in the Valley--excepting the
Independent Coal Company, which by the way has preferred to remain
outside of the united commercial union, and do business under its own
flag--however dark that flag m