Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/676

 Reviews of Books

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direct and more human species of oratory rather than to that of the more austere and stately kind. He has produced a volume of much interest, so distinctly readable as to be swallowed readily in one or two sittings, and it may be retained on the library shelf with the sense that it is perhaps not an un worthy companion of treasured volumes. As an illustration of its character, we may quote a passage from the remarks of Assist ant District Attorney Edgar D. Peixotto, in the Dun.ant murder case at San Francisco a few years ago:— The brilliant counsel for the defendant in his opening statement challenged the prosecution to answer the questions, where Blanche Lamont was murdered, by whom she was murdered, and what the motive was? We are now ready to answer these questions. "Where was she murdered?" In the belfryof the Emanuel Baptist Church. "When?" On the afternoon of April 3, 1895, between the hours of 4.20 and 5 p. m. "By whom?" By this defendant, Theodore Durrant. "What was the motive?" Un bridled passion—that same motive that has ruled and governed the world, made nations totter and decay, brought men from the highest pinnacles in life down to brutish beasts; that same motive that has filled our histories with black pages; that to the Roman Empire such characters as Nero, SOME NOTABLE FORENSIC ORATORY gave Tiberius and Caracalla—whose delight and pleasure "Classics of the Bar: Stories of the World's it was to see men, women and children slaughtered Great Jury Trials and a Compilation of Forensic before their eyes to satisfy their beastly desires; Masterpieces." By Alvin V. Sellers. Classic Pub that same motive which inspired Gilles de Rays, lishing Co., Baxley, Ga. Pp. 314, four illustrations. who was executed in the year 1440 after confessing to the murder of some eight hundred chi'dren in (»2.) eight years to satisfy his perverted nature: that THIS most readable book illustrates the same motive that actuated Catharine de Medici perennial abundance of legal eloquence. to have women flayed before her eyes to satisfy Most collections deal with the efforts of the her perverted passion; that same motive that brought out in the revolutionary period the mon more noted forensic lawyers of history, but strous baseness of Marquis de Sade, from which the present volume is unlike them in that no the term sadism is derived, a term meaning passion Erskine or Mansfield, no Webster or Choate and lustful murder added to villainies, that same is represented in its pages. The compiler motive that prompted and made into a monster the Ripper, the Whitechapel murderer, who has rather chosen some recent oratory of Jack went about week after week and month after which we read but yesterday in the news month in that quarter of London known as White chapel and there killed fallen women by strangling papers, and some of that of an older genera tion of American lawyers, whose reputation them, and left them murdered and dismembered; same motive that was the foundation of that deserves some measure of permanence. There that wonderful work in fiction of the late Robert Louis was, for example, Sergeant S. Prentiss of Stevenson—the portrayal of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mississippi, than whom Mr. Sellers thinks Hyde; that same motive that made Mr. Hyde "the world has seen no greater orator," and satisfy his inhuman feelings, his perverted passion, his uncontrollable desires, by killing simply for Senator Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana, the pleasure of killing and then satisfying his who was one of the foremost criminal lawyers lustful desires after the killing had taken place; of his day. Of more recent times, the author the motive, insatiable passion, the fire that con deems Mr. Darrow and Senator Borah in the sumes, the abyss that swallows all honor, fortune, everything. . . Haywood trial, and Mr. Delmas in the Thaw well.being, Blanche Lamont had not learned the character trial, sufficiently eloquent for extended of her companion, and so, unsuspecting, she entered the little gate of the church, which, un quotations. The compiler has proved that he is a good known to her, Was then the portals of heaven. She disappeared forever from the gaze of mankind judge of what really constitutes forensic elo until her corpse was found as you have heard it quence. His selections belong to the more described. What happened within that church pensated suretyship known as commercial and judiciary insurance, is important is shown by the vast amount of litigation upon it in all parts of the country. It may have been supposed that Mr. Frost would treat the topic from the point of view of New York state laws, but his handling is national rather than local, and decisions from every juris diction are brought together without dis crimination. Now, as in the original edition, the amount of material included is con siderable but is well arranged, and any topic is easily found with reference only to the excellent table of contents without con sulting the full index. The work in its new form is an' admirable example of a carefully prepared, complete treatise, such as reflects the greater credit upon the author because of pressing demands of legal practice which make such an achievement difficult. The appearance of such works as these in America can scarcely fail to command in foreign countries increased respect for the American bar.