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The Green Bag

But I thought him a quite ordinary bore. He had a cheap wit, a self-satis ﬁed way of taking the jury into his

trouble is there is no vent for the gas; it stays in the courtroom, near the jury box.

conﬁdence by a sidelong glance after a

particularly irritating question to the witness. I could have killed him before that case was done. In his argument

When you consider that in almost every case the lawyer can decide whether or not it shall be brought to court, the

he indulged in school-of-expression elo quence. I was moved. I wept tears of vexation and weariness. He ought

quite patent. What cases they bring in! How righteously convinced they are

to be sent to Congress for life.

If there

is such a crime as contempt of counsel, I owe two million dollars in ﬁnes.

of the truth of things they know aren't so! Judge Pierce said in a recent de cision: "It would be a waste of time

The Wessex County Court House is beautiful. It cost the taxpayers about four times what it is worth, but it is worth a great deal. All the panels,

to analyze the testimony; much of it on either side was not commendable;

rails, chairs, tables are carved in the same design from oak that is a joy to

look at. In front of our jury box was a

not intended for the elucidation of truth, but for victory.” Did any jury man ever hear a case in which the law

bar as thick as a steamer rail, twelve or

yers tried to elucidate the truth?

fourteen feet long.

a lawyer ever think of anything but victory? Is not the whole profession of law, which makes a poker-game of the quarrels of life, essentially damaging

(On the witness

stand I should not say it was twelve

feet; I should say it was as long as from here over there.) How the lawyers pounded that rail! They are going to wear out that ﬁne piece of oak, and then the county will have to put in a new one and taxes will go up. Cannot lawyers learn that they must not thump that rail? — that they are offensive when they protrude their faces into a juryman's

face and simulate an earnestness which the facts of the case do not warrant? If I were a prejudiced man, as preju diced as other jurymen, I should have decided each case in favor of the lawyer who refrained from assaulting that

oak rail. But unhappily the lawyer would not have paid the penalty. It is the clients who suﬁer— both clients

it was false in spirit, though perhaps true in fact.

It was diplomatic; it was

Does

to the character of the lawyer? I cannot

indict a whole profession, and so I am forced to conclude that the lawyer who remains an upright man must have great

character (and probably good home inﬂuences), to have resisted the corrup

tions of his daily business. It is the legal brethren who stimulate litigation, aggravate quarrels and

keep law a

muddle-tongued mystery in order that it may seem difficult and learned and make people walk into the attorney's

little parlor. The courthouse at Mortville is main tained chieﬂy for the purpose of de termining how much money shall be

in some cases.

paid to injured and uninjured individuals

Carlyle says: “Law courts seem noth ing; yet in fact they are, the worst of

by The Elevated Railway Company,

them, something; chimneys for the deviltry and contention of men to escape

pany and The New York, New Haven

by.”

II

selﬁshness of the legal profession is

Well, maybe so, old sage; the

The Old Province Street Railway Com & Hartford Railway Company (a cor poration doing business in East Mill