As a lawyer he easily ranked as a leader, not only at his own bar, but in the several counties in Virginia and West Virginia, in which he practiced.

In his preparation of cases he was careful and diligent. A great part of his practice was in a jurisdiction where the trial courts were strongly influenced by "case law." But he never departed from the Minorian method in his preparation. His mind was well stocked with the principal leading cases, but he was not content until he had firmly grasped the underlying legal principles involved. So much of his adversaries' case as he could honorably obtain was in his possession before trial. In the examination of his own, and the cross-examination of opposing witnesses, he was at his best. He seemed to know what not to ask and when not to cross-examine, and intuitively avoided the pitfall of asking that "one question too many." In the presentation of his cases, whether to a jury or the court, he always selected the few essential points in the case and confined his argument to these. Only once does the writer remember to have heard him devote more than thirty minutes to the argument of a case; usually twenty minutes sufficed. These few minutes were, of course, used most effectively. Few men equalled him in lucidity and compactness of statement of facts, or in the persuasive presentation of them. He seldom followed his cases to the Court of Appeals. I, however, remember his arguing an important case in Staunton, before the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, in 1897, in which was involved the title to 41,000 acres of land. He completed his argument in less than half an hour. More than half-seriously the judges of that court then chided him for not oftener appearing before them, and by his example setting a precedent in the way of presenting cases and in the length of time consumed in doing so.

To observe him conducting his cases was a legal education in itself to the younger members of the bar, and his readiness to aid, counsel and advise them was a quality most characteristic of him.

His was a character in which simplicity and naturalness united with great strength. He was wholly indifferent to applause. What he accomplished was done by quiet methods, and in the

most unassuming way. To him the accomplishment was everything. He cared not to whom the credit was given.

No complete sketch of him could omit a reference to his companionable nature that power of diffusing an indefinable sense of nearness-and his keen sense of humor.

He had a ready and warm sympathy for his fellowmen. As was said of him: "He was everybody's friend, not in the political sense of being all things to all men that thrift may follow that sort of fawning, but in the nobler way of helpfulness and of burden-bearing." This drew to him a host of true and ardent friends. Just before his appointment to the Board of Visitors of the university, and wholly without his knowledge, a friend of his wrote to a number of prominent men in different parts of the State suggesting the advisability of his being appointed to that position. Their replies were filled with terms of affection which are seldom used with reference to a person while alive.

He thoroughly enjoyed life, and was noted for his quaint Lincolnian stories-stories whose atmosphere was as clean and pure as his native air.

In the reasonable limits of a sketch of this kind I must leave untouched the period of his legislative services, during which his district was never more ably or conscientiously represented, nor by any who measured more fully up to the standards of a

statesman.

In 1898, Mr. Jones was appointed a member of the Board of Visitors of the university, and in the same year became its rector. It was in this year there began the effective agitation for a change of government of the university. This was a time of nervous apprehension, and many were the solemn protests from the alumni. It was no small thing, after following for three quarters of a century the plan of Mr. Jefferson, to depart from that feature of educational government inaugurated by him, and in making this change, to select a man who would so administer the office of president as to depart as little as might be from Mr. Jefferson's plan. To Mr. Jones, the rector, and those great Virginians who served with him on this board, the friends of the university owe a great debt, for the supreme skill with which

they guided and controlled this movement and effected this change. Upon his retirement from the board, the president and faculty of the university sent him a letter dated April 13, 1906, which read as follows:

Eight years ago you were appointed a member of the Board of Visitors of this university, and at the first meeting of the new Board your colleagues chose you as their Rector. The university was just emerging from the supreme ordeal of her corporate life, and the years of your rectorate have been the critical period of her history.

It has been your happy fortune and your distinguished merit so to guide the deliberations of the visitors, that dignity and propriety have characterized all their acts; so to order the relations between the Board and the faculty that sympathetic co-operation and harmonious effort have marked your period of office; so to mold the attitude of the university to the State that this great school stands more than ever before firmly rooted in the affections of Virginians.

more.

We recall with gratitude to the Providence which governs all the affairs of men, that under your administration, the university has been blessed with a prosperity which has grown and will continue to grow from more to We shall not forget either your sagacious control of her finances or the generous personal support given by you and your colleagues to her monetary credit. Nor will the sons of the university fail to remember that while you were the rector, the office of President of the University of Virginia was first created, and then worthily and wisely filled.

On this the natal day of our great Father and Founder, we congratulate you on this happy consummation of a long period of public service, unrewarded save by the affection and approbation of your fellow citizens. In the name of the university, which claims our united love and united service, we thank you for your effectual and unselfish labors in her cause, and bid you farewell with warm assurances of exalted esteem and abiding confidence and respect.

Having served bravely, efficiently and unselfishly in all the relations of life, and having discharged his duty fully in the religious, civic and social life of his community and of his State, he wrapped the drapery of his couch about him and laid down to pleasant dreams.

Hot Springs, Va.,

February 3, 1915.

J. T. MCALLISTER.