Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/695

 THE GREEN BAG the community concur with the recorded impressions of his two local biographers — one, Alexander H. Hood, his devoted friend and political ally, the other, Alexander Harris, his inveterate antagonist. Th'ey agree that as a lawyer he showed marvelous early training. His power to remember and accurately repeat testimony without taking notes was unrivaled. In the famous Jack son land title case tried at Hollidaysburg, reported in 13 Penn. St. R., 368, which lasted many days, Stevens was not observed to have taken a single note; but his sum ming up of the testimony was such a marvel of accuracy and voluminousness that it re mains to this day a vivid tradition of the Blair County Bar. His illustrations were apposite, his speeches were effective, never flowery, never tedious; his citations were few, but directly to the issue; his attacks were sharp and always concentrated on the weak point of his adversary. His hand-writing was il legible, and he was often unable to read it himself— a characteristic of greatness which, I believe, has come into modern vogue. Intuition, education, and experience com bined to endow him with that most valu able acquirement of a trial lawyer — the ability to wisely select a jury. When he could not get one to suit him, he would often make zealous effort to continue the case. One time, it is related, under such circumstances in a case of his own, he found his antagonist just as' anxious to continue, of which disposition he was quite willing to take advantage. The counsel for each, how ever, professed disinclination and insisted on the other paying the costs as a condition of the case going over. Stevens, apprenhensive lest there might be a miscarriage, stepped forward and said to his counsel, "Mr. H. and I will settle the question of costs between us," and while counsel were adjusting the motion Stevens and his antago nist went to the nearest tavern and decided the liability for costs of the term by a game of "seven-up."

In his earlier forensic efforts there is not lacking evidence of classic reading; and his style then had much of the florid rhetoric and historical allusion so characteristic of the popular oratory of that day. For ex ample, his speech in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, March 10, 1838, in favor of the bill to establish a school of arts in Philadelphia and to endow the col leges and academies of the Commonwealth, teems with references to the commerce of "Ancient Tyre or modern Venice," the "Appian ways of Rome," "the deserted plains of Palestine," "the eloquent example of Troy," "the learning of the Grecian bard," "the once proud, populous, and powerful capital of Edom," and her "rock built ramparts," "the poverty of Sparta," "the silken Persian with his heaps of gold," "the victors and victories of Marathon and Salamis," "the law giver of Sparta," "the mighty captain of Thermopylae," "mighty ocean of Pierian waters," etc. Unlike many others who in later years disdain their earlier florid style, Mr. Stevens recalled this highly decorated speech with some fondness; for as late as 1865 he republished and widely cir culated it among his local constituents. Not the least valuable of the lawyer-like gifts he possessed was the faculty of know ing when to quit, and of not going on after he was done. I have noted his effective, rather than his copious, citation of authori ties, and his directness rather than tediousness of speech. He was unexcelled in the management of witnesses. In one exciting trial he greatly disconcerted his client by refusing to call his strongest witness. Stevens had just apprehensions that his ultra-positiveness would prejudice the jury, and risked the chance of dispensing with him — very wisely, as it turned out. -Un like many men with ready wit, he never resented and always appreciated a keen shaft turned upon himself, and some of the old court criers and interpreters tell amus ing stories of retorts by witnesses under cross-examination whom Stevens quickly