EDWARD FRANKLIN, LAWYER Edward Franklin had taken up his law studies in the office of Judge Bradley, the leading lawyer of the little village of Bloomsbury, where Franklin was born, and where he had spent most of his life previous to the time of his enlistment in the army.

Judge Bradley was successful, as such matters go in such communities, and it was his open boast that he owed his success to himself and no one else.

He had no faith in such mythical factors as circumstances in the battle of life.

This is the common doctrine of all men who have arrived, and Judge Bradley had long since arrived, in so far as the possibilities of his surroundings would admit.

His was the largest law library in the town.