Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/557

 Some Law Clerks That I Have Known a mystery to me to this day.

He was

always the perfect gentleman around the oﬁice and might have stayed with us if he had only had the slightest brain power. I remember one characteristic bit of work that well illustrates his attainments. I asked him to prepare a complaint, or a declaration, as you

519

corporation, where his job was to orna

ment the outer office at a rich mahogany desk on a soft green carpet and greet the customers. He is no doubt of con siderable money value there and I understand he is doing very well. In the ordinary law office your good looks,

ﬁne clothes and elegant manners will help some, but to hold your job very

might call it, in an action against the New York Building Company. When long you have got to show up some in the ﬁnished complaint came to me it telligence and a good deal of energy. contained an allegation that the de Neither good looks nor ﬁne clothes nor fendant New York Building Company elegant manners “produce the goods" was a corporation duly organized and around the ordinary every day law existing under and by virtue of the laws office. of the state of New York. When I asked The next clerk that an almighty and how he knew it was a New York corpora austere providence sent to us for our tion he was much injured and said sins was Mr. Shirk. He came from the it was perfectly obvious from the name. same law school as Mr. Gay, but whether Well, one glance at the Corporation or not he was gifted with an equal learn Directory showed that the New York ing we were never able to discover. Building Company was a New Jersey His powers, whatever they may have corporation. But Mr. Gay probably been, were restrained and impenetrably never looked beyond the name or out hedged about by a great and consuming ward appearance of anything. His best guess was that by their looks ye shall know them. Good looks and good clothes, however, are not to be jeered at for they really

fear. A good, strong, vigorous fear is all right in its way, provided its way is all right. Somewhere in the Scriptures

looks and manners, and he was really an ornament around the oﬁice. More over he always made a great hit with

I believe it says "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and anyone who has ever employed prominent attorneys can tell you that a fear of the law saveth the pocket book. Probably we all of us have some great consuming

the lady clients, and if we had only had enough of that semper mutabilissime

fear though few of us can aﬁ‘ord to ﬂatter ourselves that we have more than a

are a help.

Gay got his job on his

sort of clientele, I believe we would have

beginning of wisdom.

kept him and made him secretary of our Ladies’ Department. Unfortunately, however, we had no more lady clients than we could possibly help-but I will have to tell you about women at law some other time when I am feeling

of my college friends who had a large

stronger and when the occasion is more

suitable for violent expression of feeling. Anyway we ﬁnally let him go and he got a place as secretary or something

of the sort with a great and elegant

I remember one

and terrible horror of ever ﬁnding him self so situated as not to have enough to cat. As a result he was constantly

eating while he could. So too, I, myself, am constantly consumed with a fear of

growing so stout that I cannot cross my legs or successfully run for a trolley car. Owing to that fear and the slender

rewards of real legal ability my trousers have outgrown me and I have to wear