Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/293

 266

THE GREEN BAG

living in France : if they wanted his money they must come and settle in Louisiana, and give some evidence of willingness to work for themselves and of ability to care for his hard-earned fortune after it should have become theirs. Some time before 1830 he induced his nearest living relative, a brother, Paul Barthelemy Martin, to come to Louisi ana. This brother, many years his junior, was yet an old man, a childless bachelor who had himself accumulated a modest compe tence as a merchant in Naples and retired from business. Yet to Judge Martin, who had never seen him since childhood and could in the physical sense not really see him now, this brother seemed always a mere boy, and was called by the childish nickname, Mimi. He was fond of him and indulgent to him though perturbed by the thought of the wasting of his substance in riotous liv ing when Mimi insisted upon some modest improvements in his mode of life, keeping a decent table, having wine with his meals t and occasionally some friend to dine with him. But for all his misgivings about the extravagant tastes of this wilful boy, he had confidence that Mimi would know how to keep his property, would be "un antre luitneme." About 1838 or 1839 Judge Martin became so blind that he could no longer read or write. His retentive memory and great stores of learning, however, enabled him still to formulate and dictate his opinions, while he could sign orders of court, licenses, and the like, if the pen were put in his hand and he was directed where to sign. His praiseworthy habit of making his opinions as concise as possible made his blindness less of a handicap, and his method of pre paring opinions, if Gayarre" is to be under stood literally, might enable him almost to dispense with books. He was, accord ing to all testimony, an adept in logic and in the Socratic method; in consultation with his colleagues, says Judge Bullard, he would lead on from question to question till he had

entrapped the unwary answerer between the horns of a dilemma or refuted his reasoning from his own answers. When a peculiarly knotty point perplexed him, he would, says Gayarre", make a tour of the offices of certain lawyers not interested in the case at issue and in whose judgment he had con fidence. To each he would, as if merely in the course of conversation, propound the question. Whichever side was taken by the man interrogated, Martin would take the other, and argue for it till he had pumped his man dry. Then with grunts of satis faction at having, perchance, defeated this antagonist, he would grope his way to the next office, and repeat the process on an other victim, perhaps with sides changed. Having thus satisfied his doubts and sharp ened his wits, he would make his decision. Sometimes, when the authorities seemed to warrant either of two views, he would present to his colleagues two opinions, one for the appellant and one for the defendant, and then debate these in the same keen fashion with his colleagues till a decision was reached. And it is said that on one occasion when this had been done and the judgment of the court had been decided upon, the other judges were horrified to hear the chief justice, who had got the opinions mixed, calmly delivering the rejected one from the Bench! However much these anecdotes may be beside the mark, Judge Martin did continue to perform his duties, and in no perfunctory manner. It is true that he once wrote an opinion partly on the paper and partly on the table, whereof the clerk could make nothing at first, but happily remembered the table, put the paper back in its original position and found the whole thing then intelligible.1 But usually he dictated his opinions, and worked as conscientiously and withal as efficiently as any of his clearer sighted colleagues. When the new con stitution of the state went into effect the 1 La. Annual Reports, II., p. 669.