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 Recorder John IV. Goff. time for consultation and preparation." His honor, now finding himself in a dilemma, became willing to take a recess until the morning, when Goff promised to resume duty. On the following day the then re corder came into court with a written order for Counsel Goff to show cause why he should not be prosecuted for contempt of court, and filed the usual interrogatories for the accused to answer, and postponed argu ment until the ensuing day. Leading mem bers of the Bar Association agreeing with Goff in his constitutional views that had precipitated the contempt proceedings coun seled him to resist. Messrs. Choate, Robert Sewall (now recently deceased), and James C. Carter volunteered, without fee, as Goffs counsel; but the client availed himself only of Choate's services, who, as regards the alleged contempt of advising his client to a resistance of a compulsion to make him a witness against himself, as well as of with drawing from further trial without leave of court, made an argument of exceptionable learning, power and eloquence. But inef fectually; for Goff was adjudged guilty and a fine of two hundred dollars imposed. The culprit had already provided himself with a Gladstone bag containing toilet articles and apparel, expecting to be sent to the county jail, and was intending to submit to impris onment instead of paying the fine and as a protest; but Choate objected, saying that he owed it to the dignity of the profession not to be personally demeaned, and so the fine was paid, while a score desired to con tribute towards it. Not a member of the bar was found who supported the judge in these rulings. In 1893 New York police scandak had become so rife and rampant that the legis lature sent from Albany an investigating committee, with an eminent lawyer from Buffalo, named Sutherland, as counsel. But the Citizens' Association and the Chamber of Commerce, which had sympathizingly taken part in preparing the investigation,

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claimed that Mr. Sutherland lacked knowl edge and experience in city affairs and met ropolitan life, and therefore suggested Goff as counsel to the committee, and the latter accepted the proposition, the Chamber of Commerce providing the fee. Accord ingly, through weeks of investigating police wrongs — mainly involving charges of brib ery and blackmail of bagnio keepers and liquor saloons — Goff devoted his whole time to seeking witnesses, serving them with subpoenas and conducting their examina tions. The proceedings are reported in a bulky volume; and these resulted in the ap pearance of a political reform ticket at the November city polls in 1894, which elec tion, among other results, placed Mr. Goff upon the bench as recorder for a term of twelve years and a salary of $i 5,000, against the minority vote for his opponent, and the very incumbent who had prosecuted him for contempt. That result seems to have been a vindication of the Buddhist law of compen sation in lifetime for injuries incurred during life. The writer knows of only one other instance of similar compensation, and that was when Senator James O'Brien of New York City sat as member of an impeaching court at the trial of Justice George G. Bar nard, who, when as recorder years previ ously, and when Mr. O'Brien was a young lad, had sentenced him at the manifest behest of politicians to a short term of imprisonment for what was really only a boyish freak of disorder, and at the utmost deserving of only a fine. Thus a whirligig of time brought the traditional revenges in these instances of Judge Barnard and O'Brien, or Goff and his vanquished old prosecutor. It was said that the impeached justice keenly felt the vote of O'Brien, and the ex-recorder the victory of his successor recorder. During the past two years of Recorder Goff's term on the bench he has presided over several CAUSES CÉLÈBRES, all widely re ported over the Union. One was known as the Barbieri case — of a young Italian girl,