DISTRICT-ATTORNEY WICKSON
the Y. M. C. A. building, where they put him in a room with another of Harris's protégés. And this second protégé was Jack Arnett, the sculptor of the Wickson Memorial, then a young waif who had come into the hands of the Purity Defense League because he had been hanging around barrooms, making a living by drawing caricatures of celebrities in the sawdust on barroom floors. Harris was supporting him and paying his tuition in the local art-school.
"I remember," Arnett says, "that before Wickson went to bed that night he sat down and wrote a letter to his mother and sent her back one of her own dollars on account."
5
Wickson proved to have a brain as hardy as his body. He worked and studied methodically, thoroughly, and without the effort of a frown. He became chief clerk of McPhee Harris's office by virtue of a mechanical efficiency that was the first expression of his basic integrity of mind. On that efficiency Harris came more and more to rely. Wickson shared in Harris's prosecutions of the venders of "picture post-cards," the proprietors of "nickelodeons," and the managers of "variety shows" who offended against the League's standards of public purity. Arnett, having an artist's views of nudity, often quarreled with Wickson about these prosecutions.
[ 309 ]
