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HUSTLING IN THE LAW. By Percy Edwards. SHADES of Bacon and Blackstone! Do you get the full force of the expression "hustling " in this connection, my brethren? Can you evolve from out the dust and dry rot of the past any protoplasmic origin of this species? I am, my brethren, at a loss as to whether this condition is a natural effect of some first cause in the science of the Law, or an empiricism. We have be come but recently familiar with the expres sion " hustling." I know not just the origin of this word, or rather the origin of the pe culiar meaning we give it. One would easily conclude, however, that it must come from the verb intransitive to " hustle," which Web ster says is " to move hastily and with con fusion, to hurry." Since the introduction of this stranger into our diction we have be come familiar with the " hustling grocer," the " hustling clothier," the " hustling poli tician " who is a "rustler" and hails from '• git thar Eli " country. In fact, we make use of the expression ad libitum. We give it a somewhat different meaning than our musty old compilations, that do not change fast enough to keep pace with the added in novations of these brisk times. The only part of the Webster definition which seems to fit is the first part, which re fers to moving hastily. That " hustlers" move hastily, must be conceded. But " hus tlers " in the accepted sense of this expres sion do not " confuse " at all. To be sure, he helps to raise the dust which confuses others, but he does not take part in the confusion. He is the sly fellow who turns this to his ad vantage. He is the lively vulgar fraction in the great problem of life. Very " loud " in advertising himself, "he blows his own horn," and he does it indefatigably- He is a selfstyled " hustler," and lets the people know it by hanging out a big sign six by nine. This condition of things we have come to

regard with equanimity in all mercantile pursuits. It is not the purpose, my brethren, to consider this condition of things outside the profession of law. That the term " hus tling" is now applied to the practice of law by laymen and lawyers alike, in the same sense as that we have accepted in its appli cation to mercantile pursuits, there is no room to doubt. This hustling characteristic partakes large ly of the tone of character of the individual concerned. One will talk incessantly, loud and long, of the business he is doing, the cases he has, and he will employ others to do the same. Another will, with even more ardor than manifested by the junior member of the firm of " Quirk, Gammon, and Snap," run down a " scent " of some new case, and then soon afterwards appears the announcement in the local papers that " ' Mr. Buzfuz ' has been retained in the famous case of ' Bardell vs. Pickwick,' which will be hotly contested at the next term of court," while another fills the weekly papers with squibs referring to the number of cases he or his firm has in court, and the number of victories wrested from an unwilling opponent. And still an other has been known to insert a notice in a local paper to the effect that " those intend ing to apply for divorce should do so before the act passed by the last Legislature takes effect, etc.," over his signature. Your " hustler" in court is a burden to the life of the judge. In theatrical parlance, he "plays to the gallery.'" It is from them he gets his sympathy. They term him hustler. He insults counsel opposed to him, severely taxes the patience of an indulgent court, and wearies the jury. With him the end seems to justify any means he can employ, and dark suspicion at times hangs its murky folds about him.