Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 25.pdf/138

 Circumstantial Evidence the most remarkable coincidence within his observation. By the time the last tale is told he of the most besetting wonderlust is sitting appeased and aston ished. In some respects the story in "The Upas Tree" is no more remarkable than some of the odd coincidences connected with its preparation. After a born itch for scribbling had taken the form of rhymes, short stories and a couple of impossible plays, I con ceived the ambitious idea of producing another lawyer's novel. "Ten Thousand a Year" was then practically the only distinctive story of the legal profession, and it was the sole answer customarily made to the repeated question, "What novels portray the every-day life of the lawyer?" During the first years of practice a member of the bar has ample leisure for book-writing and in the spare time of my "starving period" the second lawyer's novel, as it was hoped, was written, with the plot substantially as in the now finished story. But the early years are not ripe in knowledge of life nor full in experience either in letters or in the world. They do not count for much in ability to write fiction. Few novelists have achieved success, but fewer still among those who are on the near side of forty. The result in my case was merely a disappointment. The task of rewriting to meet friendly criti cism was indeed an opus, rendered more difficult by a law practice sufficient to absorb all the day-time strength, so that months at a time would elapse before any attention was paid to the manuscript. The plot of my story ends in 1887 and it was originally completed about that time. Long periods of in difference, subsequent rewritings, the expunction of errors of youngness and modifications of detail, carried the work

125

through a generation into the summer of 1912. When the galley-proofs came at last they were forwarded to a New York lawyer, formerly an assistant of District Attorney Jerome, to be sure that no slip had been made in setting out crimi nal procedure in a foreign state. With the returning proofs came an ominous note, "I advise you to consult the Patrick case!" There was the reality, in many re spects stranger than the fiction, and in a number of essential details it proved to be identical : — Both cases (the actual and the fanci ful) arose in New York City. In each case a lawyer was tried for his life. In each, the deceased had no imme diate family and left a large estate. In one, the dead man was poisoned; in the other, it was claimed that poison had been attempted. In each case a will made the lawyer trustee of the estate, although in the real case the will was claimed to be a for gery. In one, a codicil provided for crema tion; in the other, a letter so provided, although it, also, was alleged to be a for gery. In both cases cremation was in fact consummated. Other similarities between the two cases may be noted by comparing my novel with the majority and dissenting opinions — in themselves a novel of over ninety pages — People v. Patrick, 182 N. Y. 131. Nor is this all. Another circumstance, lately noted in the newspapers, but not mentioned in the opinions, runs parallel with the novel; Patrick's wife, whom he married while in the Tombs, throughout all his long confinement, remained faith ful to him and devoted to a belief in his innocence.