Page images
PDF
EPUB

66

The old negro was not impressed with the stranger, but he called at the tavern, and asked the keeper if an old gentleman had left anything there for him.

a judgment or a summing-up which is not slipshod in his pocket for some change, but he did not have and commonplace. Where are the successors of the any. Cockburns, the Coleridges, the Bowens in the Never mind, old man," he said, "I shall stop present generation? The English of Lord Alver- at the tavern and leave some money for you with stone, C. J., whether written or spoken, is homely the landlord." and direct, but nothing more; nobody would accuse the master of the rolls of constructing polished periods; and Lord Macnaghten alone in the house of lords is able to draft a pleasing sentence. Lord Bowen, whose English was of the choicest brand, suffered a good deal in the Court of Appeal. "There is a distressing nudity about A. L.'s language," he once remarked to a sympathetic friend. The same absence of style may be observed at the bar. There are plenty of good talkers, but very few whose speeches would bear reporting. Probably Sir Edward Clarke, K. C., Mr. Lawson Walton, K. C., and Mr. C. W. Mathews stand, as well as any, the horrid test of the shorthand writer.- Daily Telegraph.

Mr. R. C. Lehmann, who has succeeded Mr. E. T. Cook as editor of the Daily News, has had more than a mere nominal connection with the legal profession, says the Irish Law Times. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1880, and a few years later collaborated with Mr. Dale in the compilation of that useful work, A Digest of Overruled Cases, which bears their joint names. It is, however, by his work in Punch that he is best known outside the domain of law. Three other of the editorial chairs of great London journals, it may be interesting to add, are filled by members of the bar, the Times being under the editorship of Mr. G. E. Buckle, who is a member of Lincoln'sinn; the Pall Mall Gazette, under Sir Douglas Straight, a member of the Middle Temple, and an

ex-Indian judge, and Punch, under the genial Mr.

F. C. Burnand, who belongs to Lincoln's-inn.

THE HUMOROUS SIDE OF THE LAW.

A Georgia coroner's jury brought in the following verdict recently: "The deceased came to his death from a railroad in the hands of a receiver, and the same is manslaughter in the first degree."Atlanta Constitution.

One day Judge Marshall, engrossed in his reflections, was driving over the wretched roads of North Carolina on his way to Raleigh in a stick gig. His horse turned out of the road, and the sulky ran over a sapling and was tilted so as to arouse the judge. When he found that he could move neither to right nor left, an old negro, who had come along, solved the difficulty.

"Oh, yes," said the landlord, "he left a silver dollar for you. What do you think of that old gentleman?"

The negro gazed at the dollar and said:
He was a gem'man, for sho'; but ". - patting
his forehead" he didn't have much in here."-
World's Work.

An incident in Mr. Justice Wightman's career might have been recalled by the correspondents of a contemporary who have been trying to find a definition of gentleman," says the Law Journal (London). A witness, describing a certain person connected with the case, said: He's an independent gent." An independent what?" said Mr. Justice Wightman. "A gent, my lord," repeated the witness. "Oh, I understand," replied the judge, 'that's something short of a gentleman, isn't it? "

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The days of long ago were the theme of talk at the January meeting of the Lawyers' Club at The Genesee last night.

One of the wittiest speeches of the evening was made by D. N. Lockwood. One of his best stories was of Squire Murray, who weighed 300 pounds and who was born in Ireland, was in the whiskey business here, and held his court on The Terrace.

The court-room was like a court-room in Ireland.

The bench was five feet from the floor, with a chair, whose back reached to the ceiling. The trimmings of the room were all green. Mr. Lockwood and Judge Beckwith were trying out a case before the squire. There was no jury. At the close the squire paused.

"Do you wish to sum up?" he asked.

"I leave it all with your honor," said Mr. Lockwood, who advises young lawyers with a ticklish cause and friendly face on the bench to do likewise." "I'll sum up," said Judge Beckwith.

66

"Very well," replied Squire Murray. "While you're at it, I'll slip down in Murray Bros.' and have a drink with Lockwood. But I'll be back before you finish."

The squire and Mr. Lockwood went out. The squire was in search of the spirit of the law at the root of the law. Mr. Lockwood thinks they had a drink. On the stairs, halfway back to the court-room, with the echo of Beckwith's voice

My old marster," he asked, "what fer you sounding in their ears, the squire stopped. don't back your horse?"

"That's true," said the judge, and he acted as advised. Thanking his deliverer heartily, he felt

[ocr errors]

Lockwood," said he, "you've won your case." Then they went in and heard Beckwith finish summing up.- Buffalo Express.

[graphic][ocr errors]

While he makes a forcible ar
Law Journal.

The Albany
Albany Law

A Monthly Record of the Law and the Lawyers.
Published by THE ALBANY LAW JOURNAL COMPANY, Albany, N. Y.

queries or comments, criticisms on various law questions, addresses on legal topics, or discussions on questions of timely interest, are

proceedings.

[All communications intended for the Editor should be addressed

simply to the Editor of THE ALBANY LAW JOURNAL. All letters

ating to advertisements, subscriptions or other business matters ould be addressed to THE ALBANY LAW JOURNAL COMPANY.] Subscription price, Three Dollars per annum, in advance. Single

umber, Twenty-five Cents.

ALBANY, N. Y., MAY, 1901.

argument before a court, he is not a jury pleader, and never has posed as a public speaker. His work as a lawyer has been chiefly as a counselor and

Contributions, items of news about courts, judges and lawyers' adviser, and in this he has been eminently successful. Mr. Knox has never before held solicited from members of the bar and those interested in legal public office, save that of assistant United States district attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania, to which he was appointed shortly after being admitted to the bar. He resigned the following year, to devote his entire time to his private practice. The new attorney-general is a member of the Duquesne Club, of Pittsburg, the Pittsburg and the Pittsburg County clubs, of the same city, the Union League and the Lawyers' Club, of New York city, the Lawyers' Club, of Philadelphia, and the Cataline Club, of Sandusky, Ohio. For three years he has been president of the Duquesne Club, and in 1897 he was president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Knox has had a pleasant home life. He married Miss Lillian Smith, daughter of Andrew D. Smith, of the Labelle Steel Works, and they have four children, the eldest a daughter, twenty years of age.

Current Topics.

Mr.

Philander C. Knox, of Pittsburg, Pa., who succeeds John W. Griggs as attorney-general of the United States, is the eighth attorneygeneral from the State of Pennsylvania. The first was William Bradford, who was born in Philadelphia in 1755, and who, in 1794, succeeded Edmund Randolph, by appointment of President Washington. Mr. Knox is still comparatively a young man, having been born in Brownsville, Fayette county, Pa., on May 4, 1853. His father was David S. Knox, a banker at that place. Young Knox was The fact that not long ago no less than fifty averse to becoming a banker, and was sent to new women lawyers were turned out by the Mount Union College, at Alliance, Ohio, New York University, as one of our esteemed where he first met William McKinley, Jr. A contemporaries put it, "at one fell swoop," strong friendship sprang up between them, directs attention to the fact that the weaker which has continued, and which led to the sex are making substantial progress in their president's inviting Mr. Knox to become a invasion of the legal profession. It is only member of his cabinet. After his graduation within the past few years that the feminine from college, in 1872, Mr. Knox immediately attorney has made her appearance to do duty went to Pittsburg to begin the study of the battle with her male co-laborer; but it seems law. He has since made that city his home. from the fact that no less than half a hundred In January, 1875, Mr. Knox was admitted to are graduated in one class from a single instithe Allegany County Bar; two years later he tution, that the female attorney soon will have formed a partnership with Judge J. H. Reed, to be reckoned with seriously. The class in which continued until recently. Mr. Knox law at the New York University was founded succeeded in his profession from the start, and by the Women's Legal Education Society his ability as an attorney is attested by the eleven years ago, and has met with great favor fact that he has been chief legal adviser for and success. Since the law emancipated them Andrew Carnegie's steel interests for many from the legal control of their husbands, years, and was also counsel for a number of women have been entering many fields of very large and powerful corporations. He endeavor, both commercial and professional. has the reputation of being a very close stu- Undoubtedly, the legal profession presents the dent. Mr. Knox makes no pretensions to most serious obstacles to their success, not being an orator or after-dinner speaker. only because of the natural and time-honored

VOL. 63.- No. 5.

conservatism of its members and of the public, but by reason of the peculiarly difficult and trying nature of the work demanded of the lawyer. In purely counsel work, of course, the hindrances are much less numerous and serious, and it would seem that in this branch of the law lies her greatest hope of success.

public, for republics and dictators cannot co-exist and Aguinaldo declared himself to be a dictator. He was at the head of a military despotism and a pretty harsh one, and it was only by the help of natives of the islands, and of former officers of Aguinaldo's army, that Gen. Funston was able to capture him.

Men who kiss other men's wives, and mar

Through the intrepidity and cunning of ried women who accept the kisses of men Gen. Funston, aided by the friendly natives, other than their husbands, will undoubtedly who are the ancient enemies of the rebellious be interested in a ruling recently made by Tagals, in the Philippine Islands, the governMr. Justice MacLean, in Special Term, Part ment of the United States have finally cap- III of the New York Supreme Court. The tured the rebel leader, Aguinaldo, but what to learned judge refused to grant to Philip G. do with him, now that he has been captured, Springer a decree of absolute divorce from his seems about as difficult a proposition as was wife, Olga M. Springer, on allegations that the capturing of him. True, he has been she had been guilty of improper conduct with technically in rebellion against the authority Edgar A. Mayer, at 41 West Twenty-seventh of the United States, but he has been doing no street, during the months of June and July, 'more than thousands of other patriots before 1900. Springer and the defendant were marhim have done fought for the freedom and ried on April 16, 1898, in the city of New independence of his beloved country. The York. On the trial, a woman who testified land really ought to belong to the natives, although it is ours by conquest of and purchase from Spain. While Americans, as a rule, have no feeling of animosity toward the captured Tagal leader, and, in fact, openly admire his courage and steadfastness in the cause of independence, not only of Spain, but of the United States, it is undoubtedly true, as has been remarked, that they would have more respect for him, and a higher appreciation of his professed love of liberty, if it were not for the fact that he probably never dreamed of a Filipino republic until the United States had broken the power of Spain; of his long-time rulers, the Castilians, he only demanded relief from certain oppressive acts, and when that was promised, as is well known to students of history, he stopped fighting and left the country. As a contemporary truly remarks:

Fighting was resumed because Spain did not keep her promise, but it was only after the United States showed the ability and disposition to drive Spain out of the islands that Aguinaldo discovered that his soul and the souls of his associates longed for political independence. Five thousand of these associates signed a memorial offering the sovereignty of the islands to the mikado of Japan if he would drive the Spaniards out. We have driven

them out and offered the Filipinos a good deal more than they asked of Spain. In the second place, there could never have been a Filipino re

[ocr errors]

that she had called at Mayer's apartment "at his bidding for articles of the defendant (Mrs. Springer), to be laundered," said she saw Mayer kissing the defendant. In his decision, Justice MacLean said the fact that a man had kissed another man's wife might occasion the husband of the woman who had been kissed to make an inquiry and entitle him to an explanation, but did not warrant the court in granting the husband a decree of divorce from the woman who had received the kisses. We think there is no doubt the learned judge is perfectly right. It all depends. A wag once remarked that he knew why kisses were such shocking things, and when pressed for an answer, replied that it was because they were full of electricity. That depends, too. Kisses have various uses and meanings. An offhand classification might include the kiss of formality, the kiss of friendship, the kiss of affection, the kiss of love, and the traitorous, or Judas Iscariot, kiss. As we said before, it all depends.

[ocr errors][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »