Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/666

 CHARLES E. HUGHES goes in for American insurance under present conditions knows he is walking blindfolded into the other fellow's game. In unfolding the inside workings of the insurance manipulators, Mr. Hughes dis played, first of all, unlimited patience; no point was too small for his attention, no road too devious, if only it led toward the end in view. He would retrace, over and over again, his questions to an unwilling witness, seeking by each new line to weave a net from which there was no escape; and finally the witness, whether he was a president or a clerk, would be forced to yield at least a part of the information desired. The questions could not be expected, of course, to draw out confessions of criminal guilt, but he did manage, where there had been an approach to such guilt, to convince the audience that the witness had been negligent of his duties. It is not going too far to say that in many cases he produced plenty of moral proof that a crime had been committed. Had he been a prosecutor instead of a mere legislature's investigator, detailed to discover reasons for remedial laws, he might have sent some of his victims to a cell instead of back to their now pre carious fiduciary positions. Patience was not the only trait he displayed as an exami ner. He was both quick to seize upon new clues and remarkable in his ability to com prehend complex financial transactions be yond the grasp of most men who are un trained in such matters. His "poise," too, was conspicuous — this by the way is the possession of what his friends say he is proudest — and there was not a moment when he lost his temper or forgot his good manners, no matter how annoying or recal citrant the witnesses might be. From first to last he was alert, concise and polite. Nor did he ever seem to tire, and the stenog raphers said he was as "hard to take" after four o'clock in the afternoon, as he had been when the hearing opened in the New York City Hall at half-past ten o'clock in the morning.

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Mr. Hughes is a worker "from the word go. " Ever since he was a boy — he was born in Glenns Falls, New York, on April n, 1862 — he has been noted for his indus try. When his father, the Rev. D. C. Hughes, a Baptist minister, took him to the family's new home in Newark, N. J., he studied more than his parents thought was good for him in the primary grades of the public schools. When he attended a High School in New York City, after another move of the family, he became known as a youth of unusual ability and of depth beyond his years, and he was ready to enter The College of the City of New York a whole year before he was old enough to matriculate. After a period under his father's tutor ship in 1875-76, he changed his plan of attending college in the city and went to Madison (now Colgate) University, at Hamil ton, New York. There he remained until 1878, when he transferred his allegiance to Brown University, joining the Sophomore class. In 188 1, he was graduated with honors, having been one of five members of his class eligible to the scholarship society of Phi Beta Kappa. For a year after his graduation he taught school. He experienced some difficulty in securing a position, because of his youthful appearance, but finally persuaded the prin cipal of the Delaware Academy, at Delphi, N. Y., to let him try his hand on the greek and mathematics classes. The prin cipal, outgrowing his misgivings, was dis gruntled when the young man left him to study law in 1882. Two years at the Columbia University Law School, where he won a prize fellow ship after his first spring term, fitted him for a clerkship. He was employed at a nominal salarv by Chamberlain, Carter and Hornblower. Previously, while a student, he had been registered in their office as well as with Gen. Stewart L. Woodford, then United States District Attorney. As a salaried clerk, quickly growing in favor with