Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/264

 Court, and soon afterwards, at the death of Chief Justice Sewall, was appointed to succeed him.

He made an admirable judge. His mental processes were clear, comprehensive, quick, and sagacious. To his natural love of justice and fair play the hard school of experience had added a strong measure of plain practical sense, and an utter aversion to legal quibbling of every kind.

In person, Parker was heavily built, full-faced, blue-eyed, very bald and florid; he finally died of apoplexy. His manners reflected his origin, simple and unpolished, and he was a perfect slave to snuff. Two invaluable aids to his career were his iron constitution and his buoyant gaiety of disposition. In twenty-four years of circuit-riding throughout the state (which then included Maine) he never missed an official appointment through illness. He was most approachable, kind-hearted, and genial, and the best of companions. Knowing that he was always ready for a joke, two waggish lawyers, calling upon him for the first time, introduced themselves solemnly as Mr. John Doe and Mr. Richard Roe. “Gentlemen,” cried the judge, “I am delighted to meet you! I have heard and read of you all my life, but had begun to despair of a personal acquaintance.”

In filling the Royall Professorship, Harvard had made