Page:Bench and bar of Colorado - 1917.djvu/43

Rh the apex side was espoused by Senator Teller, then in the very zenith of his power and influence.

C. J. Hughes first attained prominence in these Aspen apex litigations, through his association with Senator Teller, and laid the foundation of his fortune and subsequent senatorship.

On the day this court opened Colonel Edward F. Bishop, who had been a gallant soldier of the Union, in the conflict between the states, and who bore scars of that conflict, was appointed clerk of both the Circuit and the District courts, and his brother, Charles W., then a fat and chubby boy, occupied a desk in the little room where its meager records were to be written.

William A. Willard succeeded Colonel Bishop, when the latter resigned. On the death of Mr. Willard Capt. Francis W. Tupper, a one-legged veteran of the Civil War, was appointed by Judge Hallett clerk of the District Court, and Circuit Judge Caldwell appointed Capt. Robert Bailey, who had been his companion in arms, clerk of the Circuit Court.

Mr. Charles W. Bishop became clerk of the District Court on the death of Captain Tupper in 1900, and clerk of the Circuit Court on Captain Bailey's resignation in 1906. He held both places until the merger of the two courts, December 31, 1911, and still he serves, less changing than the law itself, immutable and inscrutable, but still believing:

"Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy."

The incumbent is the eighth marshal. His immediate predecessor, Dewey C. Bailey, served more than twice as long as the average term in this office.

Judge Moses Hallett took his seat on this bench January 23, 1877. How different the surroundings from those in which we are assembled! The venue of that day is laid in a poorly lighted, illy ventilated room, in a dilapidated building. The condition of the furniture is illustrated by a story which Judge Hallett told me, not long before he died.

It was shortly after Judge Hallett took his place upon