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The Editor's Bag might readily have felt himself bound by them. Instead, he applied the principle of the merit system to the Supreme Court, making what was dis tinctly a merit appointment, and the merit system is necessarily independent of precedents and dispenses with red tape in determining the qualiﬁcations of candidates. Doubtless the hands of

future Presidents will be left entirely free. Even if the promotion of Associate Justices should become the usual mode

of selecting the Chief Justice, the con sequences of honorable rivalry among aspirants for the honor are not to be

your grievances. If you have proposi tions that answer your opponent's po sitions and are full of your case, you

will soon make the Court see what those propositions are. “There are some superstitions con nected with appellate practice.

There

isa superstition that sometimes appel late courts go to sleep during an oral

argument. But do not let this dis concert you or deter you from your argument. It is a mere fanciful pleas antry. The Court does not sleep. If

a judge settles back in his chair and closes his eyes he is not asleep.

He

is but indulging in a spell of philo

feared, it is only the clandestine activity

sophical

of judges willing to stoop to petty intrigue that is to be dreaded. And

if the countenance of the good judge

under the merit system there is always a

diminishing possibility of judges of the sort likely to make improper use of

their position ﬁnding themselves on the bench of the Supreme Court.

introspection.

Furthermore,

whose eyes are closed assumes a placid expression of benign and settled repose,

he is still not asleep in a vulgar sense. What you see is but the outward ex pression of the inward judicial grace

of calmness.”

..-_,?_§7_‘f_1 _‘r v a‘: qun’

LOOK THE COURT IN THE EYE OOD suggestions, particularly help ful to young lawyers in the prepa

OBITER DICTA}, "their"
 * ‘m" z

' use‘;

ration and conduct of their cases, were

HE Justice of the Peaoein aGeorgia town was a universal favorite and was noted for the amount of his pro

offered by Mr. Justice Larnm of the

fanity and the very original character

Supreme Court of Missouri in a recent address. To quote:—

of his oaths. It was said that while he swore in almost every sentence he‘ut bination tered, he of never cuss-words repeatedmore the same than once. com~

"Avoid reading your statement if long and complicated. Most men read you can

While fox-hunting last fall he fell

rest with some degree of assurance on the proposition that most judges on an appellate bench can read for themselves. Stand at the counsel table and look the Court in the eye. If you are timid at the start take courage from the fact that, if you are full of your case, that fullness of lmowledge is bound to come forth as you go on. If you have real complaints to make of the rulings below

under his horse and was seriously in

indiflerently well.

Besides,

you will soon tell the upper Court of

jured, and that evening several of his neighbors called to inquire as to his condition. When they saw the physician and the clergyman coming from the sick room together they were apprehensive

and hastily asked for news of the in valid. It was the minister who replied: "Hush! don't make any "Olsei he is