Our reputation grew, and in the course of a few years the terror of us stalked abroad through the city.
Our staff was well organized, however disordered may have been the physical appearance of our office.

In the first place we had an agent in every police court who instantly informed us whenever any person was arrested who had sufficient means to make it worth our while to come to his assistance.

This agent was usually the clerk or some other official who could delay the proceedings in such a way as to give us time to appear upon the scene.

We also had many of the police in our pay and made it a practice to reward liberally any officer who succeeded in throwing us any business.

In this way defendants sometimes acquired the erroneous idea that if they followed the suggestion of the officer arresting them and employed us as their attorneys, they would be let off through some collusion between the officer and ourselves.