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 Washington Letter.

20 I

WASHINGTON LETTER. SEATED in the centre of the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, the mere fact of position would make conspicuous the man who is at the head of the judicial branch of our government. Above his head is poised with outstretched wings an eagle—in front of him is the desk at which counsel stand—to him primarily are addressed their arguments. But were it not for these circumstances the personality of Mr. Oiief Justice Fuller would attract the attention of an observer, however casual. The luxuriance of his hair is accentuated by the absolute baldness of his immediate as sociates; its whiteness is intensified by the sombre robe upon which it falls. Born in Maine, his collegiate education was had at Bowdoin College. Born into a family of lawyers, the current of his inclina tions flowed naturally into legal channels. He studied his profession at Harvard and prac tised it for a time in his native State, with both paternal and maternal uncles. Leaving in 1856, after three years of practice, he went to Chicago, where he remained, until appoint ed by Mr. Cleveland in 1889 as the successor of Mr. Chief Justice Waite, who had died in March of that year. He has evidenced the possession of those traits of mind and char acter which are essential to the successful and acceptable administration of his judicial duties. His courtesy and consideration hnve frequently been as oil upon the troubled waters of an attorney's embarrassment, and the attention which he devotes to the argu ments of counsel tends, in a large measure, to offset the apparent indifference of other members of the Court. The case of The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York v. Eliza Maud Hill and others, defendants in error, has recently been argued and submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States for the second

APRIL, 1904. time. This action was commenced in the United States Circuit Court for the District of Washington, Northern Division, on the 191!) day of October, 1895, to recover the sum of $20,000, with interest, from January 3d, 1891, claimed to be due on a policy of life insurance issued in 1896 by the plaintiff in error to one George D. Hill, the father of the defendants in error. Hill paid the first premium, but failed to pay the second or any. other subsequently accruing, and ulti mately surrendered his policy to the agent of the company. The company failed to comply with the provisions of the laws of the State of New York requiring the mailing of a notice to the insured of the intention of the insurer to cancel the policy, and it is mainly, if not solely, upon this ground that the defendants base their right to a recovery. The case was submitted to a jury, and a verdict was accordingly rendered against the company. The equities of the case outweight the verdict of that body of men for whom indi vidual litigants clamor, and against whom corporations so justly inveigh. Enter Joseph F. Smith, "President" of the Church of Jesus Christ and The Latter Day "Saints;" President also of apparently every other association and corporation doing business in the State of Utah; President, also, of five of the weaker sex, whose aggregate contribution to the already innumerable family of Smith has been, up to the present writing, forty-five. This patriarch was induced to forego the performance of his priestly, presidential and parental duties in order that his voice might be diverted temporarily from the exposition of the words and will of Joseph S¿nith. Jr., —and God, and devoted to the telling of "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," for the enlightenment of the Sen