Page:Bench and bar of Colorado - 1917.djvu/41

Rh courteous, but who would spring with the quickness of a leopard at an antagonist off his guard; Tom Macon, primal man from Missouri, who never willingly ate any diet more civilized than corn pone and bacon, who could beat the devil quoting Scripture, who described a contemporary orator as placing all his emphasis on his prepositions, who could grill a witness until the lid of Satan's cook stove seemed cool to the touch.

While we have no Westminster Abbey for their sarcophagi, the cold, dull marble of the tomb is theirs. Splendid even in ashes, they rest quietly under the murmurings of many and mighty conquests, in that temple of silence and reconciliation which affords, at last, a quiet repose to those whose minds and bodies have been shattered by contentions, struggles and adversary blows in the defense of the rights of others.

Judge John F. Dillon sat with Judge Dundy the second and third days of the term, and many times afterward, and Judge McCrary and Judge Brewer frequently presided during their respective terms as circuit judges.

The late Justice Samuel F. Miller, of the Supreme Court, frequently came here, in the old days, when the judges of that august tribunal were generally appointed with some reference to the circuits, and made periodical visits to the one to which assigned.

The Union Pacific Railroad, under some one of its many corporate aliases, was a party in Cause No. 1 on the docket; No. 2, and several thereafter, were bills brought by the United States to set aside alleged frauds against the government in respect to public lands. Nothing changes, in forty years, but men! The grand jury—and I think the late Dennis Sullivan was the last survivor of the panel—returned numerous true bills, principally against Mexicans. The court seems to have taken up their cases under the maxim: First in time, first in right. Manuel Vigil, having drawn the lowest number on the docket, was tried first, and acquitted by a jury of Gringoes. The others followed.