[3] In 1893 he was appointed a notary public,[17][18][19] and purchased property from his parents for $1,000;[5][note 1] an 1894 newspaper notice stated that he was "steadily building up a lucrative practice, making a specialty of collections and commercial law", and that his offices were located in the city's Masonic Temple.

[25] Brady had been involved in the Governor's Guard as early as 1896;[26] during the war, the regiment initially drilled at Camp Mabry in Austin, before being sent to Mobile, Alabama, in mid-May.

[28] Nonetheless, Brady suggested that "[t]he great majority of the Texas boys are made of the right stuff, and they are animated by an intense desire to see actual service in Cuba".

[28] The Governor's Guard finally received uniforms on the 5th;[29] by the following week they also had guns, if still no pay,[30] to go with "the big box of good things" sent by "the ladies of Austin", for which they sent the paper separate "Resolutions of thanks".

[31][32] The Governor's Guard left Mobile for Jacksonville, Florida, at the end of June,[33] but despite a belief that he might be sent to Puerto Rico,[34] Brady, who was honorably discharged in September,[35] made it no closer to the Caribbean.

[36] "One thing that has disgusted the men," he said, "is the grand, austere air assumed by some of the officers who have straps on their shoulders", and who "treated the privates just the same as if they were hired laborers".

He also noted that "at times the men would go hungry for a week or ten days", and claimed that the "great majority" of them "are dissatisfied and want to come home".

[41][42] In 1903 Brady was made an honorary member of the Austin Rifles,[43] and in 1912, he joined a newly formed veteran's group, taking part in a committee to gather data and create by-laws.

[59][60] Months after his defeat, Brady and other board members were removed by Governor Sayers from their roles at what the papers called the "colored deaf and dumb asylum", over their attempt to install a new oculist.

In October 1901 he gave a presentation speech at a "competitive cake walk",[68] and the next month showed up at a meeting of the city council to oppose its plan to purchase the plant of the old water company.

[70] Brady made several speeches over the intervening months and won handily,[83][84][85] 3,737 votes to 1,798, as did his brother Will, who ran uncontested for county superintendent of public instruction.

In January 1903 he had some involvement in a grand jury, convened a month before his election and discharged two after, that recommended relaxing an order restricting the circumstances in which police were allowed to enter saloons to enforce gaming and Sunday closing laws.

[94] He again spoke out against gambling as a delegate to the convention of the Austin Democratic Party the next month,[95] where such opposition was adopted as part of the platform.

In August, he visited the Chicago World's Fair with his wife,[122] in September he filed around 1,000 suits for delinquent taxes,[123][124] in November he attended a dinner honoring judge James R. Hamilton,[125] and in December he went on a hunting trip to Yturria,[126][127] warned about adulterated bran,[128] and filed his year-end report.

[132] Arriving drunk at her boarding house around midnight on the 9th, he got into an altercation with those there, and then stabbed Highsmith to death when she turned up escorted by another man.

[135] He was escorted into the courthouse by the sheriff and the jailer, where he met his wife and sister Helen, and was said by The Austin Statesman to be dressed "immaculately" in a gray suit, with his left pinkie still bandaged from where it was cut two months before.

[142] With the pool dwindling, the court summoned an additional 200 veniremen to appear on Wednesday;[142][164] on this day none were selected, however,[165] with The Austin American calling a matching Nile green shirt and tie worn by Moses "[t]he high spot" of the proceedings.

[145][167] Moses, who selected the first three of these and had conducted the previous three days of voir dire, left at the noon recess for his bed at the Driskill Hotel with the flu.

[154][168] With Moses still in bed, the final four jurors were selected on Friday; the last, the 176th individually questioned that week, was picked near the end of the day.

[140] The first trial ended after four days of deliberation in a hung jury, with nine jurors reportedly favoring the death penalty, two life imprisonment, and one acquittal.

[175] Brady returned to his house in Austin after his release from prison, where he continued to live with his wife, and engaged in legal research.

[180] The couple had an adopted daughter, Margaret Butler,[132][181][182] who was born in Austin on July 4, 1901;[183] she married Sam E. Pondrom of Houston on January 18, 1923, in what newspapers described as "one of the most prominent society events of the season".