Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/478

 Rh

Vol. VIII.

No. ii.

BOSTON.

November, 1896.

COUNT JOHANNES. By Irving Browne.

ONE of the most remarkable figures that ever appeared at the bar in this country was that called by its proprietor the Count Johannes —lawyer, litigant, actor and author, and not a striking success in any depart ment. He was born plain George Jones, in England, in 18 10, and came to this country about 1828, but of his antecedents and of his general personal history there is very little recorded, and it does not matter very much. He seems to have been originally an actor, and drifted into the other avocations. It is said that his title of Count Johannes was con ferred on him by a company at a convivial dinner, at London, evidenced by a solemn parchment. (Mr. Willard in " Half a Cen tury with Judges and Lawyers," says this was proved in a libel suit brought by the Count for being called "a soi-disant Count.") Others say that he actually bought it from a petty German principality — one of those which a century earlier furnished soldiers for hire to put us out of existence, and then were willing to ennoble us for our success. (After his death it was reported in the newspapers that he had conferred this voucher on Mr. Fairbanks, of New Jersey, to whose daughter he was reported to have en trusted his MS. autobiography.) It is prob able at all events that he was regarded as a fit subject for a mock title. He is accorded something more than an inch in Allibone's Dictionary of Authors. He published, early in the decade between 1840 and 1850, a "History of Ancient America, "and a volume composed of a "Life of General Harrison," "Tecumseh, a Tragedy," and an "Oration

on Shakespeare." His name does not ap pear in the Century Cyclopaedia of Names, except as "the parricide" of the 13th cen tury. Of the merits of his historical essay there are conflicting opinions. Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick was of opinion that he had fully proved his theory of the Tyrian origin of the ancient temples in Central America; but the London Athenaeum regarded him as " a shallow writer," and Chief-Justice Daly thinks it entitled to no more considera tion than his title. At this" time, however, he was treated seriously. President Pierce gave Hawthorne the consulship at Liver pool for writing a campaign life of the Pres ident, but the Count seems to have got noth ing from the last President Harrison for writ ing that life of his ancestor. He made his debut on the stage about 1833, and for some years resided and managed a theatre in Rich mond, Va. During the last years of his life he trod the stage at his own financial risk, with companies of amateurs, and generally his appearance was the occasion of what Americans call "circuses," in which the au dience and not the actor took the part of clown. The Count seems to have been a per son of respectable talents and of some schol arship, but of an overweening vanity, nearly allied to madness, and reminding one of Malvolio. He had no legal education, but he claimed to be a member of the Massachu setts bar, yet apparently his clientage was chiefly in his own person, for he was continu ally suing for slander and libel of himself. As wisdom is sometimes born of foolishness, so at least two of the leading cases on this 435