The Omaha Sunday Bee
PART TWOr
EDITORIAL
PAGES OITE TO SIX
PART TWO
MAGAZINE
PAGES OJTE TO SIX
L
VOL. XLV-NO. 21.
OMAIIA, SUNDAY MOKNIXO, NOVEMBER 7,. 191$.
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
7
inis
Judge
Though Handling
Over $10,000,000
of Other
Peopl
e's
Wealth in His Job,
T..j " r i
juuge vrawiora is
Cheerful, Contented
and is Not Looking
for Anything Else
By A. R. GROH.
D
ID YOU ever see a contented man, gentle
reader?
No? Then gaze upon the features of
Bryce Crawford, Judge of the county
court for Douglas county, for his Is con
tented. ,
"I am satisfied with my Job," he says. "I want
to hang onto It as long as I can. I think It is as
big a Job as I can fill."
Not only contented, you see, but "not puffed up,
aunteth not himself.".
Allowing, or the sake of argument, that it is as
tig a job as he can fill, he has filled it for two terms
overflowing. Though the volume of business
ncreased by one-third, Bryce Crawford has dis
pensed justice with a hand at once Just nd en
ergetic. A well-known "law's delay" was given a swift
punch in its loggy old carcass when Bryce Craw
ford imported businesslike methods from the police
court to the more august county court. Attorneys
soon found that there were ways of bearing cases
besides the long-winded ways in which each lawyer
seemed to try to outdo his opponent in the amount
of verbiage he could add to the record. The new
Judge didn't drowse over their oratory. He pinned
them down to cases. He asked one side what con
cessions it could make and he asked the other side
vhat concessions Jt would make, thus, shortening
the trials both in time and expense and not Inter
fering with Justice, but only facilitating it i
ThatOa but-one count on which Judge Crawford
and his methods move the cumbersome and en
cumbered machinery of the county court to grind
faster, and even finer. i
He works hard; he has the co-operation of his
cfflce force and runs things on a scientific and
efficient system all the way through. The county
court is a busy place. People must call there at
two out of the three most important events in life
marriage and death before the former and after
the latter if there is an estate to be settled.
Since Judge Crawford has been In charge 1,796
estates have been settled in the court, aggregating
amount well over 110,000,000 and varying in
,ze from one estate of over $1,000,000 to estates
with a few hundred dollars in savings accounts.
He has appointed guardians for 798 persons
laving property varying from 11,600,000 down to
a few dollars each.
Besides this, 2,698 civil cases have come Into the
court. .
He has. collected over $67,000 In Inheritance
taxes. One estate paid $14,816. Another paid
$9,903.24 and the rest were for considerably
smaller amounts. '
To 9,390 couples he has issued licenses to wed
rnd live happily ever afterward, if possible. He
also holds preliminary hearings on crimes com
mitted in the county, but outside of Omaha.
The earning of the court paid all salaries and
expenses and yielded more than '$7,000 besides,
which went to the county treasury. This was the
largest surplus ever returned by the office.
"It was due," this modest Judge hastens to add,
' entirely to the increase in the business of the
office."
To look at Judge Crawford, good people, you'd
rever in the world think he was a Judge. Remem
ber how Friend Shakespeare painted the judge in
his famous '"Seven Ages of Man:"
And then the Judge
Tn fair round belly, with good capon lined.
With eyes severe and beard of fornzT cut.
run ui wiser Bama aiiu uiuuoru luvutaces.
And bo he plays his part.
Judge Crawford doesn't answer to a single one
of these characteristics. His figure is rather small
and slender. His eyes are not severe, but blue and
friendly. Hla beard is not of formal cut or of any
cut at all for he is clean shaven. He is not full of
vise saws and modern instances.
He is full of stories and modern Jokes and he
likes to tell 'em and make people laugh, and be
usually tells 'em well, too, even if he is a Scotch
nan by descent on both sides of the house.
He is a good conversationalist and a good lis
tener. He has the rare quality of making the per
ton with whom he is talking feel that be is inter
ested sympathetically in his affairs. He believes
there is a time for laughter and a time for tears.
The Judge might wear a long-tailed coat as a
sort of badge of bis judicial dignity. But he
doesn't. Ordinary sack suit Just like other men
.ear is good enough for him. He couldn't decide
rases better in a long-tailed coat than in a sack
coat. Therefore why the long-tailed variety?
Unassuming and genuine are adjectives hon
estly bestowed here. He treats the employes of his
cfflce as equals. He fixes no Argus eyes upon
them. He doesn't bring them no "on the caroet."
e simply expects them to do their work. And
they do it. And when he hears a good story (or
vhat a man with a Scotch sense of humor thinks is
good story) he tells It to the boys la his office.
va 'rf&fkyj vq; :. --r
vAi -t, 11 fT ' :-.:iv, v-.-. v, "... J
r-J. - , :: f-n
I ' ' -' 3ryze Crawford I
Ask Wilson to
GREAT hopes are held in San Francisco that
President Wilson and his bride will be
able to visit the exposition. Indeed, the'
president has , already given assurance
to the special commission sent to present
the Invitation that be will do so if he possibly can.
This commission, headed by Mrs. Oalllard
Stoney, secretary of the Women's board of the ex
position, accompanied by the Misses Esther Bull,
Altha McEwen and Dorothy Starr, presented to
President Wilson a monster roll of names of many
thousands of Callfornians, Including those of the
school children of California,- Inviting President
Wilson to visit the exposition. The president was
delighted at the spirit shown, and with the gift
so
tnougbtrully prepared, and said that it was
earnest wish to be able to visit the exposition.
his
Hope for the president's visit has by no means
been abandoned, and it is thought that if Mr. Wil
son does not visit the exposition before its close on
December 4,' he may be able to pay the visit during
the Christmas holidays, in which event, it is pointed
out, that, the exposition would be reopened during
the period of the president's visit. The step would
permit the fulfillment of a long expressed wish of
the chief executive to see the fair as a part of a
Journey to the west.
While In San Francisco Thomas A. Edison and
Henry Ford were so Impressed with the earnest
ness with which the exposition officials and San
Franciscans are looking forward to a visit from
Mr. Wilson that they sent the president a telegram
urging that he accede to the invitation of the Cal
lfornians. As an Important exposition official said,
tiirornia does not wish to be importunate
In
urging the president to visit the eoast. hut
now
that the stress of his position has somewhat
re-
lazed, his visit would be esteemed as the greatest
possible distinction that could be conferred upon
the people of the west at this time, and an appre
ciated recognition of the deep interest which it Is
realized that President Wilson feels In the exposi
tion. Should President Wilson and his bride visit
San Francisco, they would undoubtedly make their
headquarters in the New Jersey State building,
which was built with the presidential visit In mind,
and Is equipped with a presidential suite. Ths
buldlng reproduces the famed Trenton Barracks,
and is delightfully situated in the central portion
of the section devoted to the state and national
pavilions.
akes Charge of All Dea
g
. J-is..??-J KiX , i
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i. :!
;-
r i wa
few Jersey
D . " t
ZuamQ , reproducing
trie Trenton Ssrracks Ay
W e7tiippe wt'M rres- J
tJeniia Suite.
Brin
W 8 .
Men's
Bride to
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Teleot&m
Senf
Oy I nomas
a. Ed 'son axtfeny
4fm villi- Jai'a
rotd usff n?y
identW.lso fc
r visit enerjtron
A is Aoneymoon
n
Property
Xvil, wouldn't you stretch a point to laugh at your
bobs' " story t
Though he gets through with a great amount
of work, he has that faculty possessed by most great
accomplishes of appearing to have nothing to do.
Calm and deliberate, his movements are never hur
ried. But all the time he is going straight to the
objective point by the shortest route. Let us see If
that poor, overworked word is too tired to appear
here. No, it can appeai "efficiency."
Judge Crawford was "raised" in Omaha, He
Has living with his parents in Kansas City when
le decided to investigate the works of Blackstone
rt al. So he went to the University of Kansas,
where he slaked his thirst at the legal fountain for
several years and was admitted to the bar in 1892.
He began to practice law In Omaha. After sev
eral years he became Interested in politics and ran
for police Judge. He was "yoTi honah" and "Jedge"
for five years and then it occurred to him that he
vould be a mighty good man for the people to have
up In the county court. He mentioned this convic
tion to the people and they elected him by a hand
some majority. In fact, he ran far ahead of his
ticket.
So thore he Is, contented with his "Job," ex
ecuting it well; and the people contented with htm.
He's moving the wheels of Justice and giving no
chance for such cases as that told of la the old
poem:
For sixteen years the cam was spun,
And then stood where It first begun.
"Flat Justltla, mat eoelum." A bit of Latin
doesn't go bad In a writeup of a lawyer, eh?
Ills favorite pastimes are smoking and playing
Colt. He says he smokes too much and smokes
"anything that'll burn."
As for golf, he goes twice a week out to the
Happy Hollow links. He can go around in 96, which
entitles him to membership In the "dub class."
He is decidedly a home man and spends most
of his time at this "club" with his wife and two
sons. He helps the boys to get their young ideas
to shooting, for they are in the high school. They're
foot ball players, too. His daughter Is in the state
university, and we have her happy father's word
for it that "she - is of the yellow-haired, pink
cheeked kind that the boys like." Bo he fears she
won't get to teach French, In which she is special
izing. By the way, the Judge is the sixth of his name
In the generations of hit family; and he has a son,
Bryce Crawford, the seventh.
Hello, who's this putting his head in at the
door of the Judge's private office. Oh, It's Joe
Sherry, file clerk.
"All right, Joe, I'll be with you In one minute,"
says the Judge.
Joe 8herry Is the proud possessor of an auto
mobile. Most people admit they're automobiles,
anyway. Tee, It's a Ford. And every noon Joe
takes the Judge home In his machine to lunch be
cause Joe lives within a couple of blocks of Judge
Crawford. After they're both lunched he calls tor
him and takes him back again.
'Frisco Fair
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