Part 23 (2/2)
”Yes, Hadlai, cuency _he will himself be a candidate,_ and Moore of Adams writes me that _he is a candidate!”_
It may not be out of place to supple an incident that illustrates the fact that a man wholly devoid of any sense of humor himself may at times be the unconscious cause of amusement in others
Imprimis: The Doctor, while a member of the General assembly, voted for a measure known in local parlance as ”the Lake Front Bill” The criticishteous soul, and he patiently awaited the opportunity for public explanation and personal vindication
Now it so fell out that at the time whereof rite there was much exciteton, over a change in ”readers” recently ordered in the schools by the Board of Education After much discussion on the streets and at the corners, a public indignationat the east door of the Court-house Meanwhile the indignation against the offending Board intensified, and there was some apprehension even of serious trouble At the appointed tianized by the selection of a Chairan for well-known orators at the bar and upon the hustings ”Ewing,” ”Fifer,” ”Rowell,” ”Prince,”
”Lillard,” ”Phillips,” ”Kerrick,” ”Weldon,” were heard fro spirits froiven, no orator appeared; and, as is well known, an indignationwithout an orator is as impossible as ”Hah--
”Fortune sos in boats that are not steered”
At the auspicious er called out, ”Doctor Rogers, Doctor Rogers!” The hour had struck
Without waiting further call, the Doctor pro the forratified to have this opportunity to explain to my fellow-citizens who have known me from my early manhood my vote upon the Lake Front Bill,” _and a two-hour vindication i e of school-books, of which the Doctor knew as little and cared as little as he did of the thirteenth century controversy between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, with the waning hours the excitee of readers beca was restored; and to this blessed hour, except in a spirit of mirth, _the school-book question has never been mentioned_
XX A LAWYER OF THE OLD SCHOOL
JUDGE ARRINGTON, THE IDEAL LAWYER--EULOGIZED BY OTHER JUDGES--BOOKS HIS EARLY COMPANIONS--BECOMES SUCCESSIVELY A METHODIST PREACHER, A LAWYER, AND A JUDGE--WRITES SOME SKETCHES OF LIFE IN THE SOUTHWEST --HIS APOSTROPHE TO WATER RECITED BY GOUGH
In the old Supreo, I saw and heard Judge Alfred A Arrington for the first time For two hours I listened with the deepest attention to hise amount involved The dry question of law under discussion, ”as if touched by the enchanter's wand,” was at once invested with an interest far beyond its wont As I listened to the arguton, and witnessed the manner of its delivery, he appeared in the most comprehensive sense the ideal lawyer He seemed, indeed, as he probably was, the sole survivor of the school of which Wirt and Pinckney were three generations ago the typical representatives His dignified bearing, old-ti counsel, all strengthened this ihly attractive appearance, and as was said by a contemporary, ”to crown all, a ive the world assurance of a e he stood, With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear The weight of htiest ht Or summer's noontide air”
Since then I have listened to advocates of national renown in our great court and in the Senate sitting as a High Court of Impeachment, but at no time or place have I heard an abler, e Arrington in the old court-rooone by
The ists of Judge Arrington when he passed to his grave, near the close of the great Civil War Judge Wilson, in presenting resolutions in honor of the deceased, voiced the sentiments of his associates when he said:
”For more than thirty years at the bar and upon the bench, I have been associated with the legal profession; and I may say without offence that of the ton, take hie Drummond said:
”I have rarely heard a man whose efforts so constantly riveted the attention fro to the close of his discourse For while he trod with firination was constantly scattering on each side flowers of fragrant beauty, to the wonder and delight of all who heard hiest sense of the ter, in the vigor and acuteness of his reasoning, and in the power of his eloquence”
The Hon Melville W Fuller, the present Chief Justice of the United States, said:
”When he arose to discuss a question, he exhibited a perfect knowledge of every phase in which it could be presented; and ument involved Constitutional construction, in which depart the aal attain, the coic, and the majestic flow of his eloquence, and more than all, that firmness and breadth of mind which lifted him above the ordinary contest of the forum
”It is a source of the deepest consolation that he found peace at the last; that the grand spirit, before it took its everlasting flight, reposed in confidence on the Book of Books; that its departure was illuht which ever renders radiant the brief darkness 'twixt ht and immortal dawn”
And yet, alas, his name has now almost passed from the memories of e is recalled by the estive this, of the ephereat lawyer:
”Swift as shadow, short as any dreaht”
Words long since uttered by an enificance:
”There is, perhaps, no reputation that can be achieved ast reat advocate
The very wand that enchants us is ical Its effects can be felt; it influences our actions; it controls and possesses us; but to define it, or tell what it is, or how it produces these effects, is as far beyond our power as to imprison the sunbeam In the presence of such majestic poe can only stand awed and silent”