KC, this link in Post # 5 …
http://www.antiquesimagearchive.com/items/D9710556.html ….. was simply to show how the top was made and not the lengths of the legs cause the length/height of the legs is immaterial.
If the desk was made for use in a “busy” place where there was normally a line of patrons “waiting” to be clerked, …. then yes, it would have long legs and a stool so that the clerk could sit … and look the patron straight in the eyes to do his/her “clerking” business.
But during the 19th and early 20th century there were thousands of RR depots, land offices, makeshift courtrooms, etc., that had need of a “clerk’s desk” but where never once did a “waiting” line of patrons form, …. except on rare occasions when “homestead” or “mining” claims needed to be “filed”. Thus, with only a few patrons per day, or per week or even per month, a sit-down desk was more practical. And the “lock” on it a necessity.
And that is just my logical opinion because I can’t prove it to be a fact. But I do spend my afternoons and nights watching those old movies and TV series (Gunsmoke, etc.) on the “Western” cable channel that have “clerking” scenes in them every now and then.
