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 The New York Court of Appeals. times touch with tender fingers the failings of others." But he probably does him no more than justice when he speaks of him as a " ready and unpaid adviser, a discreetly generous helper, a most lenient creditor," and of " shades in his character there will be where there are great prominences to cast them." His judicial manners were always bad. There is no doubt that Grover's cir cuit was frequently a

circus so far as he was concerned. He was often personal, even to the extent of abuse. He would purposely mispronounce a law yer's name to annoy him; " Mister Lorrykew," for Larocque, is a well known ex ample. Sometimes he got better than he sent. One such in stance I once versi fied as follows : — A Western New York judge of sterling mental stuff, Of shaven upper lip, of manners coarse and rough, Disdaining all such fop pery as clean ap parel, WILLIAM Once with a young attor ney sought to pick a quarrel, And with ill-timed severity in court did lash Th' offending youth because he sported a mus tache, — Saying, " Young man, that dirty hair about your mouth You didn't wear till you from Buffalo went South. And left plain folks like us for the metropolis." The bashful but deserving youth blushed deep at this, But held his tongue, and bowing low to the rebuke, Waited till summing up, when thus revenge he took : "The point is, gentlemen, whether a custom 's proved, With reference to which these parties are supposed T' have contracted, — one, 't is said, to Buffalo,

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Peculiar and unknown as farther south you go. Such case may easily be, for from his Honor's talk You learn what 's strange to you is common in New York., With us they let the beard grow on the upper lip • But this subjects one here to a judicial nip. No custom's universal, but customs vary With each degree of latitude in which you tarry: A New York judge takes pride in keeping free from dirt; Not so with judges here, — look at his Honor's shirt!" The bar, with loud ap plause greeting this pithy one, Acknowledged Grover met his match in Fithian. I think he affected something of rusticity; and there are those who affirm that when at the bar he would come into court with a wisp of hay in his hair which he had placed there to win the rural juror. To his latest day he had a trick of brushing his head with his hand as he entered court, and I have often wondered if he did not do this to divest himself of a possible hay-seed. He wore F. ALLEN. square-toed boots to the day of his death, — nicely blackened, to be sure, but that was probably because he could not keep them away from the hotel porter; and broad cloth always sat uneasy and wrinkled upon him, and his trousers were always as short as his temper sometimes was. On the bench of the Court of Appeals, being among gen tlemen, he was forced to restrain his wonted antics; but his mind was fertile in devices, and he found shrewd ways to worry counsel. He would yawn, or look around and smile (not to say grin) satirically, interrupt, and as sume to " run the court." Nobody but a Chief