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Show Lights of New York l!l STEVENSON Met Clifford W. Hartridge as he was hurrying along West Forty-third street. The name isn't familiar? A little more than a quarter of a century cen-tury ago it was on first pages all oyer the world. Twice a day he held conferences con-ferences with newspaper men. the dean ' ished. He not only still plays but writes about it After a short chat with Mr. Hartridge, Hart-ridge, I continued along Forty-third street and at Eighth avenne met a friend familiar with the weys of the underworld. The depression has hit those who live without the '8W as well as others, he said. Employees of racketeers rack-eteers no longer get the wages they did in the past. For instance, they will commit a petty theft for $5 ; wreck a place and beat np anyone handy for $25, and "put the arm on" (kidnap) for $100. A beating so severe se-vere that there is risk of a murder charge is done for $150, and a bomb Job calls for $100. These prices are per man, the total cost of the job, of course, depending on the number engaged. en-gaged. . 1933. Bell Syndicate. WNU Service. of which was none other than Irvin S. Cobb. Whatever he had to say was carried by wires across and up and down the nation and under the sea He was quoted directly and indirectly Newspaper men lay in wait for him. When he appeared on the streets, he was stared at In an overcrowded courtroom, eyes never left his face and his every move was noted. Clifford Clif-ford W. Hartridge was the attorney of record in the first trial of Harry K. Thaw, charged with the slaying of Stanford White. Not a head turned as Mr. Hartridge continued along Forty-third street. His appearance, according to those who knew him then, has not changed greatly since those exciting days when he faced William Travers Jeiome, who was trying to send the young Pitts burgh millionaire to the electric chair But Mr. Hartridge is no longer in the public eye. He was one of the tragedies trag-edies of that famous case, which caused so much furore at the time. Because of that case, he was disbarred and has never been reinstaled. After the case, Mr. Hartridge brought suit against the Thaw family for his fees and money expended. He had been paid some on account but claimed that approximately $90,-000 $90,-000 was still due. He started the suit in the state courts, but on petition of the family, It was transferred to the Federal court Mr. Hartridge introduced intro-duced proof that the fee, out of which he was to pay his law partner who had died before the case came to trial, was not all for legal services but Included In-cluded also about S30.000 of his own funds which he had spent in Thaw's behalf. He lost the suit and the matter mat-ter was taken up with the Bar association. associ-ation. That body held that his bill of particulars had not been ethical, and so he was barred from practice. Before taking the Thaw case, Mr. Hartridge had been a successful New York attorney, his income at that time, so it wao said, having been about $25,-000 $25,-000 a year, not a bad figure for 1906. Fate took a hand In his entering the Thaw case. Through his interest in bridge, Mr. Hartridge knew Thaw So when Thaw was confined in the Tombs, after that tragedy on the old Madison Square Garden roof, he went to see if he could do anything for him. He was at once engaged as Thaw's attor ney. Others came into 'he case, in eluding Delphin M. Delmas. but Mr Hartridge was the attorney of record Thus he became known over thr-world. thr-world. And now he goes about New York unnoticed. Curiously, to me at least his interest in bridge is undimitv |