Well known in Illinois was Lee O'Neil Browne, able lawyer, long a member of the Legislature. His friendly neighbors in Ottawa, Ill., would point out his fine early-American brick mansion, standing proudly on the bluff that overhangs the Fox River.
Lately, Mr. Browne achieved new prominence as defense counsel in a case of matricide. But not his legal abilities, not his services as lawmaker for the farmers around Ottawa, were what the press of the nation remembered last week about Mr. Browne.
"He came to national attention," said the press, "during the Lorimer election to the U. S. Senate in 1909. Four Representatives confessed that they had received $1,000 bribes from Mr. Browne to vote for Lorimer. Mr. Browne was tried twice for bribery but was finally acquitted."
Such was the epitaph awaiting Lee O'Neil Browne when, last week, stooping to avoid a low branch, he made a misstep on the narrow stone path at the edge of his bluff and plunged 50 feet into the Fox River, whose muddy waters whirled along half a mile (to their junction with the Illinois River) before"yielding the body.