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A reprint from Irving Harris' book, Breeze of the Spirit about Yager Cantwell

 

A Chicago Lawyer Sees Sam

In the early fifties, at a time when national attention was focusing on the alarming increase in American divorces, 33 North La Salle Street, Chicago, used to be a highly satisfactory place for an Illinois plaintiff to go for action. The firm of Cantwell and Cantwell had their law offices there and L.Yager Cantwell, a thirty-three- year-old bachelor and junior partner, had already become a seasoned practitioner of the exacting art of courtroom procedure. Wary of institutional Christianity and suspicious of clergymen, he nevertheless possessed a private brand of sturdy Christian faith. Also, rather well-concealed behind his law practice lay a creative interest in poetry. Unknown to most, he had created dozens of short lyrics of his own.

One morning our poetic attorney woke up with the startling conviction that his literary efforts might well be as marketable as his legal services. Thus it came about that, at the end of a ten-day legal trip to New York City, he arranged an afternoon hour with an editor of E. P. Dutton & Company. He also had a dinner date coming up with a statuesque blonde model, after which he planned to take a late nonstop flight back to O’Hare.

The business conference took place at 300 Park Avenue South where Louise Townsend Nicholl had her editorial office. He had never seen Miss Nicholl and she in turn knew nothing whatever about him beyond a few samples of his poetry. For forty minutes the two talked business most pleasantly. Then the editor paused a moment as if in deep thought, looked intently at the lawyer and asked, “Do you know Sam?”