Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 10.djvu/62

36 ^e HARVARD LAW REVIEW. the County Clerk and Register, for their very important official returns, or else pay extra for what were called accelerated searches. This disposition for extras on the slightest pretext, and even for direct tips, prevails throughout the County Court House and Reg- ister's Office. It abates somewhat when reform is in the air, but it is humored continually by the big law firms, who by virtue of it, as against the smaller firms or beginners, are a privileged class. The public records in the Register's Office are inestimably pre- cious. The building and the conduct of the office, speaking calmly, have for years been disgraceful. The building has, as we hear, served formerly as a church and as a prison. It is an antiquated barrack, without proper light or ventilation anywhere, while in some of the murky ground-floor rooms the unsanitary plight sug- gests typhoid. The light and air grow worse, but the Health De- partment has lately somewhat suppressed the odors. The libers show various stages of dilapidation, and every species of hand- writing. Bad inks have been used, and sometimes have wellnigh faded out. It has more than once been the privilege of the writer, on opening a liber, to see a beautiful specimen of the cirnex lectu- lariiis transgress all the covenants in a full warranty deed, tresp:ss upon the description of valuable real estate, and retire with an air of seisin and further assurance within the binding. Theoretically, deeds and mortgages are recorded at once. In fact, the work always is months behind, and one seeking to inspect a recent deed will be told it is in Mickey Dooley's bundle on the top floor. When he approaches one of the numerolis scriveners on this top floor it may prove to be Moses Polenski, who will tell him Mickey has just gone out and left his papers with O' Flaherty over there. The latter gentleman will, when spoken to, adjust his quid, and then say, " Dem dere is Mickey's papers. Yer kin find what yers want, and be sure to stick it back jist where yers gits it." A sensitive nature must not be shocked if, in addition to the above, this motley crew of copyists breaks forth in cat-calls and clumsily veiled personalities. But since this office has been visited by the Reform administration, the behavior of the scrive- ners has improved. In near-by Newark the deeds are well re- corded by courteous, well-dressed women, who work silently in a secluded room, sunny, carpeted, and clean. The legislature has required the block system of indexing in the Register's Office. If this is a step towards simplifying real estate records, it is the step that costs, for in four years it has