Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/149

 124

not silent in the midst of arms. (16 Wis. "359-) An example of Judge Paine's incisive style is found in State ex rel. Field v. Avery, 17 Wisconsin Reports, 672. The case was one involving the legality of an election on the question of removing a county seat, a con test in which frequently fraud, and sometimes violence and bloodshed, are incidents in our western life. In commenting on the point before the court, the Judge says: "The material question of fact involved in the issues was whether the frauds were com mitted in the election at New Lisbon, on the county seat question, as alleged in the rela tion. With other evidence to show those frauds, the relator offered the deposition of one Holden, who testified directly that a large number of spurious ballots were fraudu lently placed in the box containing the votes on that question. This deposition was ob jected to for several reasons, and among others, the respondent offered a subsequent deposition of the same, tending to show that he had been tampered with, and was intoxi cated at the time his first was taken. Judg ing the character of this witness from his two depositions, it is perhaps probable that the second sufficiently explains how he hap pened to tell the truth in the first, /и vino venías." One of thememorablc casesin which ChiefJustice Dixon and Judge Paine " locked horns" is reported in the 25th Wisconsin Reports (p. 167). The question was whether a county could raise a tax to give a "bo nus " to a railroad company. The majority of the court ruled that the tax was void, unless the municipality subscribed for stock. Judge Paine dissented, taking the view now more generally prevalent, that the railroad was of such public utility that a tax to secure it was for a public purpose. In the dissenting opinion he used these words often quoted : "Railroads are the great public highways of the world, along which its gigantic currents of trade and travel continually pour — high

ways compared to which the most magnifi cent highways of antiquity dwindle into in significance. They are the most marvelous invention of modern times. They have done more to develop the wealth and resources, to stimulate the industry, reward the labor, and promote the general comfort and pros perity of the country than any other and perhaps than all other mere physical causes combined. There is probably not a man, woman or child whose interest or comfort has not been in some degree subserved by them. They bring to our doors the pro ductions of the earth. They enable us to anticipate and protract the seasons. They enable the inhabitants of each clime to enjoy pleasures and luxuries of all. They scatter the productions of the press and of literature broadcast through the country with amaz ing rapidity. There is scarcely a want, wish or aspiration of the human heart which they do not in some measure help to gratify. They promote the pleasures of social life and of friendship. They bring the skilled physicia.. swiftly from a distance to attend the sick and the wounded, and enable the absent friend to be present at the bedside of the dying. They have more than realized the fabulous conception of the Eastern imagi nation, which pictures the genii as transport ing inhabited palaces through the air. They take a train of inhabited palaces from the Atlantic coast, and with marvelous swiftness deposit it on the shores that are washed by the Pacific seas. In war they transport the armies and supplies of the government with the greatest celerity, and carry forward, as it were, on the wings of the wind, relief and comfort to those who are stretched bleeding and wounded on the field of battle." The whole opinion is in a similar vein, and is "mighty interesting reading," as Horace Greelcy would say. It is related that when this opinion was announced, and the above sentences attracted much attention, Harlow S. Orton, then at the bar, indulged in this comment: