Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/129

 intervals in the courts. George M. Wharton, a small, wiry and acute man, had a good clientele. Henry Wharton, round and robust, gave opinions upon real estate titles, there being then no real estate title companies. Eli K. Price, in his canny way, was heaping up a fortune. David Paul Brown, trim in a blue coat with brass buttons, rather fluent than wise, seldom appeared. The real leaders of the Bar were George W. Biddle, to whom I have before referred, and Richard C. McMurtrie. McMurtrie, pure and sincere, perhaps excelled in case-learning any other lawyer at the bar. In temperament he had the simplicity of a child, and in his mental conduct he suggested an overgrown boy. Whatever thought came to his head found its way to his tongue. He really felt that no one else knew much about the subject and he gave utterance to the thought. Once we had a case together and he inquired in which common pleas court it had been docketed. When I named the court he said: “Oh, those poor, helpless creatures!” At another time he said to me: “If I raise some shellbark trees for you, will you plant them?” I promised to take care of them and some time later he brought them in a basket to my office. He once told Judge Fell that a certain lawyer was a fool. Some days later he came in a penitent mood to say: “Judge, do you know it is I who was the fool.” He was a most unsafe adviser for the reason that he was ever constructing theories to which the affairs of the world refused to conform, but he was a lovable character and his steadfast adherence to the truth aided him much in the trial of causes.

At the criminal bar Lewis C. Cassidy and William B. Mann stood foremost, until succeeded by James H. Heverin and Charles W. Brooke. When the Republicans were successful William B. Mann prosecuted the causes and Cassidy defended them, and when the Democrats were successful the situation was exactly reversed. Cassidy, a tall, dark, handsome man, possessed real eloquence. I Rh