Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/407

 he determined to enter the field in New York City. But the sensitive, spectacled student found at the very outset of court work that the acutest legal mind, unsupported by practical legal experience, is no match for the tricks of the legal sharper. A quick succession of discomfitures from such gentry was too much for his pride. He flatly and finally withdrew from the courthouse and gave himself up to office work and research. Again he lived all by himself, in a room above his office, and (as was derisively said at the time) “pulled the ladder up after him.”

Constantly in the law library, he there made the acquaintance of members of the bar, who, though acknowledged leaders, were not quite at home on various theoretic or historic points they happened to stand in need of. Quickly they recognized his profound acquaintance with the reports, his unerring application of legal principles, and his almost startling foresight. As quickly they began to employ him for the preparation of briefs, opinions, and pleadings. He worked largely for the Honorable Charles O’Conor. He was unheard of by the rank and file of the bar; but when the triumphant advance of opposing counsel was turned to rout by a sudden pitfall in the pleadings or an unexpected ambush in the argument, the well-informed would mutter, “D&horbar;n it, Langdell’s at the bottom of this somewhere!”