THE LEGAL SIDE OF JOSEPH W. FOLK ing at you, looking to you to vindicate the law and show to the world that St. Louis juries will punish corrupt officials. A con viction will do more good for St. Louis than anything that could happen in a hundred years; an acquittal would do irreparable harm. A conviction means the end of offi cial corruption in St. Louis and its death knell. An acquittal means a carnival of corruption. It would be a thousand times better that bribery be undetected than not to be punished when detected. You can by your verdict, gentlemen, either send the boodlers a message of encouragement, of cheer and approval, or you can send them a stern and terrible condemnation. Gentle men, I ask you in the name of the State and of this great city, I ask you in the name of every law-abiding citizen, of every man, woman and child, I ask you in the name of all that is holy and good to vindicate the law and set the stamp of your disapproval on such conduct, with such force as will put an end to official corruption in St. Louis for years to come. Be true to your State, be true to the law, be true to yourselves; — to each of you I say: be true to yourself, 'and it must follow as the night the day, that thou canst not then be false to any man' or to the community in which you live." In the trial of Edward Butler at Columbia, Mo., Folk found inscribed over the entrance to the court-house the words: "Oh Justice, when expelled from other habitations, make this thy dwelling-place."
77
Those words were his theme and made the iron-nerved millionaire wince. In closing, Folk sent a thrill through his hearers with his appeal: "Missouri, Missouri, I am pleading for thee, pleading for thee." Folk is not a loud speaker. His voice is as soft as a woman's and goes straight to the heart of his hearers. He believes in a con versational tone in addressing a jury and not in the bombastic flights a great many lawyers so readily affect. He relies fur ther on the intelligence of his jurors and in every one of the boodle trials has invoked the special jury law which commands the Jury Commissioner to summon veniremen of "More than ordinary intelligence." In the second Butler trial which resulted in an acquittal, the only acquittal by jury in the history of these prosecutions, the court over ruled a request for a special jury and a jury of ordinary class was readily befuddled by the oratory of the legal talent at the com mand of the defense. Folk is one of the gentlest of men. He never becomes excited, and never fails to take advantage of any sudden anger shown by an opposing lawyer. He is distinctly a man of dignity and equipoise. Honor, ability, and industry were his three powers in his fight against boodle, and his success is due above all else to his de termination to perform his official duty according to his oath of office. ST. Louis, Mo., Dec., 1904.
