TX BIOS:  O. H. Cross
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   FOLKWAY
   
   Wm. V. Irvin, P. W.
   
   McLennan County
   
   District 8 [Folks?] [Tales?] Life History Duplicate
   
   No. words 1456
   
   File No. 240
   
   Page No. 1 REFERENCE CONSULTANT: O. H. CROSS, WACO, TEXAS; FORMER
   MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM MCLENNAN COUNTY, 11TH TEXAS CONGRESSIONAL
   DISTRICT
   
   "After I had left the law school of the University of Alabama I went
   to New Mexico in 1893," said Mr. Cross, "and worked on a newspaper at
   [Deming?], published by Governor Ross of New Mexico. I was admitted to
   the bar in New Mexico and to build up a law practice, but New Mexico
   had been so hard hit by the panic of 1893 it was dead. I decided I
   would starve to death if I stayed there any longer, so I wrote my
   brother in Alabama to send me some money. He mortgaged an old cow he
   had, and sent me the money, When I got it I picked out a spot on the
   map about as far away as I thought my money would take me. I picked
   McGregor, Texas, as it was a small place near a larger place, Waco. I
   thought I would go to the smaller place, live there for a while, get
   acquainted in the county and then move to the larger place.
   
   "When I got to McGregor I looked around for a place that would do for
   a law office, and I found one, a little room up on a second floor. I
   went to the man who owned the building and told him I wanted to rent
   it an a credit. He asked me what I wanted it for, and I told him I
   wanted it for a law office, He said, "My God, you'll starve to death,
   but I admire your nerve. Go ahead and take the room." I went around to
   a secondhand furniture dealer and got a table and a couple of chairs
   and a cot on credit. I put the cot in one corner of the room and put a
   curtain up before it, and that was my bedroom. I got six loaves of
   bread for a quarter at a bakery, and a bucket of syrup at a grocery.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022I set the bucket of syrup in a trunk I had, and I would dip the
   bread in the syrup and eat it, and that was what I lived on. I had a
   law office, but there was not a law book in it. I sat up there day
   after day waiting for a case. There were three other lawyers in
   McGregor.
   
   "At last one day the constable brought a man to me and said the man
   wanted a lawyer. One of thelawyers in McGregor had gone to Waco and he
   couldn't get back as it was raining and the road was impassable. The
   man who wanted a lawyer showed me the corner of a five dollar bill in
   his pocketbook, and said, "You see that? If you win, you get it. If
   you don't win the case, you don't get a thing." I got all the facts on
   the case, and I lay awake nearly all night studying the case from
   every angle. The next day when the case came up, and I did my best,
   and won it. The man I was employed by praised me, and paid me the five
   dollars. As I left the courtroom I heard people say, "Who is that
   young fellow? He sure is a good lawyer." Well, I certainly felt proud
   of myself.
   
   "Hadn't been in McGregor when the city election came up. Some of my
   friends urged me to run for city attorney, though I hadn't been in the
   State long enough to have a vote. Two of the other lawyers were
   running, and I didn't think I had a chance, but I entered the race,
   and won it, I held the office about a year and moved to Waco, in 1896.
   
   "In Waco I was appointed assistant county attorney under Cullen F.
   Thomas. The next term he didn't run, and myself and two other entered
   the race. I made some speeches, and people got to calling for
   00033that fellow Cross. When election night came I was so worried
   about how the race would come out I couldn't keep still. I left my
   room and walked around, and directly I heard them yelling down where
   the returns were coming in, and I thought one of the other men had
   won. Then I heard my name. I had carried all the boxes in Waco, and
   when all the returns were in I won the race. Some of my friends
   grabbed me up and carried me around on their shoulders, The office had
   been changed and was now known as rhe district attorney. I held the
   office two terms, from 1902 to 1906.
   
   "While I was in the prosecutor's office as assistant I saw one of the
   most exciting scenes in a courtroom I suppose there ever was. A doctor
   was charged with the killing of a girl by an illegal operation. Thomas
   and myself and Jim Ferguson and another lawyer who were acting for the
   doctor were sitting around a table in the courtroom. The doctor was
   sitting inside the railing with his back toward the crowd in the room.
   A brother-in-law of the doctor was inside the railing. A brother of
   the girl slipped up and shot the doctor in the side. The doctor tried
   to pull his gun, but he didn't have the strength to do it. The
   brother-in-law of the doctor began shooting at the girl's brother, who
   dropped down between the seats and was not hit. The crowd got down
   between the seats. If they hadn't, some of them would have been
   killed. Everybody was trying to get out of the way. The judge was
   waving a gun around and threatening to shoot, but he didn't. I ran to
   the county clerk's vault to get in there, but it was already full of
   lawyers. The windows were full of people trying to get out. Jim
   Ferguson came to me and asked to get his arm back in 00044socket. He
   had jumped over a railing, and slipped, but hung on to the railing
   with one hand, which had jerked his arm out of joint. I told him I
   wouldn't put anybody's arm back who would desert his client when the
   client was shot. This, of course, was in fun. The doctor died. Nothing
   was ever done to the girl's brother.
   
   "When I went to Congress there were myself and two other men there who
   had all been in the same graduating class of Alabama University. The
   other two were Senator Bankhead of Alabama, and Kenneth D. McKellum,
   congressman from Tennessee, The class numbered thirty-five. Graduating
   classes were rather small in those days.
   
   "I was up making a speech one time, and when I was through a man came
   up and asked if I was kin ti the Crossess in Arkansas. I said no, I
   certainly was not kin to them. The man said, "By God, brother, I can
   tell you they are some of the best people there," and he went off mad,
   and I saw I had lost his vote. I decided that if anybody else asked me
   if I was kin to the Crosses in Arkansas, I would tell him I was. So
   later when a man asked me if I was related to a certain man by the
   name of Cross in Arkansas, I said yes, and he was one of the finest
   men there. The man who asked looked sort of embarrassed. I asked him
   what about that Cross in Arkansas[.?] He said, "They just hung him the
   other day."
   
   "I had made a speech, and a Bohemian came up to me on the platform and
   said, "I have heard lots about you, Mr. Cross, but I didn't 00055know
   before you were such an ugly man."
   
   "Coming back from Washington I drove through in my car. I stopped at
   Nashville, Tennessee. In the lobby of the hotel there was a fine
   looking woman around middle age. It turned out that she was raised in
   the same place I was, but she was a little girl at the time I was a
   student in the University of Alabama. [We?] students all wore uniforms
   then, and she admired me very much, and thought I was very
   goodlooking. As I came on I thought I'd tell my wife about that. I
   stopped at a little place in Arkansas for gas, and I saw a little boy
   walking around looking at me. He said, "You sure are a fat, ugly man,
   ain't you, mister?" Well, that ruined me. I couldn't believe in my
   good looks any longer.

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