Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/255

 of character were depended upon to attract rather than the gaudiness of scenery or the legs of the ballet.

On the 21st of December, I met the President, Benjamin Harrison, at The Union League and heard him make an address—a short man, pallid, precise, and with his wits about him, but he gave the impression of selfishness and of one who could feel that the Lord had intervened specially in his behalf.

In 1894, Judge Fell went to the Supreme Court and for a year Theodore F. Jenkins took his place. Jenkins was a Democrat, who began his career as a boy in the Law Library, and who, turning his attention to the books he carried to the lawyers, became later a skilled lawyer himself and made a success in his profession. While he sat on the bench there came before us “Melon Street,” a novel and complicated land damage case, which before it was finally decided had the unique distinction of having been heard before seventeen judges, and another case, which I called my “Slam-bang” case. The plaintiff stood on the platform of a railroad station; about a hundred yards away the railroad crossed a public street. A woman, walking on the street at the crossing, was struck by the train and killed. The locomotive carried her body as far as the station and there, throwing it on the platform, struck the plaintiff with it and broke his leg. He brought suit for negligence. I entered a non-suit upon the ground that the consequence was too remote to be reasonably anticipated as a result of the alleged negligence. Both Judge Hare and Judge Jenkins were against me, but I stood my ground and was affirmed in the Supreme Court. There is no other case like it in legal annals.

Judge Jenkins, being a Democrat, only remained on the bench for a year and, following the next election, was succeeded by Mayer Sulzberger, a Republican. Sulzberger was a Jew, born up the Rhine in Germany, and holds high rank among his people over the world, being learned in letters and a strong influence. Small in stature, with shoulders Rh