lawyer feels that his place is precarious, and that his talents are not appreciated, and that everything is against him, let us exhort him to brace up, take courage and be firm; for conditions will change, and probably get-worse. And my dear young friends, let me admonish you, in the melancholy hour and whatever may betide, to think always of the nobility and dignity of your profession. Keep well in your own mind the fact that you are a lawyer; and some day, perhaps, the community will discover your secret.

Stepping from the sublime to the didactic, the young lawyer should bear in mind that genius and hard work are not the same; and, lacking the former, he should acquire a great capacity for the latter. He should cultivate patience, perseverance, and resignation, and study close "Fox's Book of Martyrs." He should supplement this with frequent meditation over the episode of "Robert Bruce and the Spider"- so suggestive of the young lawyer's-activities. Many are his tribulations-few his trials. But let him never forget, in his restless quietude, that the Constitution proclaims "due process of law" and guarantees him "a day in court."

Make yourself agreeable to the old practitioners. Keep in touch with them. Impress them with your significance, and with the fact that you have a college education. Let them know that you are a "coming," as well as a "going concern." Tell them how well you are doing; that you fight cases to a finish and never let up. Blow-even as the four windsthey admire enthusiasm. Do equity by them; withhold not the worst, when you have lost a suit go to them, pari passu. Regale them with the law of extenuating circumstances; cover the subject to the point of exhaustion. Try the case all over in unctious detail for their refresh

ment. You may get another trial—if their opinion of you has theretofore been good, they will probably,-set aside the judgment.

Shun as you would the pestilence, the evil spirit of commercialism in your professional conduct. Be not money-driven hirelings of a trade. I have heard that in some sections of our country, lawyers have yielded to this sinister influence, and have trailed the priceless standard of our calling in the golden dust; and have sacrificed our lofty traditions upon the altar of Mammon. Reluctantly though I confess it, I am reliably informed that lawyers in the large cities of the North and East have reduced the profession to a business; that they boldly receive money for legal services, and actually earn from this source a comfortable livelihood. And some, more daring than the rest, are said, in this doubtful manner, to have acquired fortunes. Coming as I do from a distant State, whose professional atmosphere is chaste and undefiled, I hesitate to believe the accusation. And I may add, with pardonable pride, that never in my personal experience at the Texas Bar has such an ominous condition of affairs been known to exist. My own observation has been that in Texas the rich lawyer is a paradox; and my conjecture has been that in other states, he was a "legal fiction." Yes, my friends, in good conscience I may aver that in the imperial state from which I come, the Law like virtue, is its own reward-at least I have found it so. And to me it is sweet to know that from the bar of my own beloved state there comes the voice of austere protestation, and the hushless cry for better things.

Esteem the Law, thy mistress: guardian angel of blind justice, and by men's unthought appointment through the ages, her majestic voice and dread inter

preter. She sits aloft upon the rockribbed Mount of Right, a peaceful virgin, frowning chaos and disorder down throughout the world. To stay the hand of reckless might and turbulence, she reacheth forth; and higher yet to lift the blood-won standard of long-wak'ning man's humanity to man. From us she's hid, betimes, in mist; and from her dim retreat, 'tis sport to watch us climb, and stumble, fall, and then again essay the height. There leads no path of dalliance to her bower; to her favor, winds the stubborn royal road of honor, courage, and devotion. With the largess of content that on the faithful she bestows, nor gold, nor regal purple, nor the "wealth of Ind," nor argosy with precious stones deep laden,-e'en can vie; all these are but the greedy gew-gaws of a life misused, against the tranquil balm that waits the seal of her approval.

My friends, she is a stern mistress, "correctly cold"-and never to be completely subdued. None can hope to win her save through steadfast love-and only those whose love's requited. In the halting accents of my struggling muse:

Must be her bounty rare,

With single high intent pursued;
Although, like all the fair,

She best with "gifts" is wooed.

She scorns the vacillating heart divided; and flouts the flippant fool that would embrace her. To many men the courtship is a mere flirtation-an idle profession; and to them her charms are ever undisclosed. To the blandishments of the young man of wealth, she usually giveth the "marble heart." For a soft income turneth away resolution, and dulleth the edge of endeavor. My comrades, let me warn you; do not fall under the bandon't be a rich man's son. To the young lawyer, there is no predicament more

baleful and tragic; except to be a poor man's son.

Develop generous impulses. It is to my keen sense of gratitude that I chiefly owe my present business relations. When the world was apprised through the associated press that I had procured license to practice law, the clamorous demand usually made for the services of the young lawyer by interests in the large cities, was directed toward me. But my father, who had sent me to school, I felt had some claims upon me. So I took no account of any of the inducements offered me. I went to my father and said: "You have educated me-at least you think you have. I am grateful. You have an established practice. You need me." He replied "You are very thoughtful

thoughtful and considerate." And I proved it by taking him-into partnership. And I advise every young lawyer similary situated to follow my exampleespecially if he has any reverence for the three graces, food, shelter and raiment. Censure me not for paternalism. Each to his own; but, verily, my young friends, to depend on our fathers is silver; to depend on ourselves is "brass." And lest you have cause to lament with your client, I charge you fling away self-reliance, for "by that sin fell the angels."

May you always know the flush, but never the blush, of victory. And to this end remember that in our time under the statute de bonis asportatis you must be "caught with the goods."

You will no doubt make mistakes. The man that never makes mistakes never makes anything. And to the man of indomitable will nothing succeeds like failure. "Upon our dead selves as stepping stones we rise to higher things." I have traveled the road myself. I want to see you successful. You have my best wishes ever. In your adversity my heart

goes out to you; in your prosperity-my hand.

In conclusion-be your success, as men call it, what it may, bear in mind that change is the law of life. The watchword of progress is "move on;" and fixation is retrogression. And in this regard, doth justice ever grant fair and ample dispensation to her servitors of the law. Mindful of your solace, she hath wisely provided. And when the city's And when the city's "thick-coming" complications, and garish flare and turmoil, shall have palled

upon you, and you have overtaxed your "credulity in listening to the whispers of fancy;" and have pursued with vain "eagerness the phantoms of hope,"-you may still answer the plaintive call of the bucolic siren for her own-and take to the tall timber! And my dear young friends, as a prophet without honor in his own, or any other country, let me predict that I shall precede you there; and be the first to bid you welcome, in copious draughts of obscurity, back to nature and the simple life.

St

O you are about to graduate from the American Law School and would like to have me give you some information regarding law books, with special reference to the reporting of the decisions of the various United States Courts.

Well, this is an important subject for a lawyer, one which I should think would be fully treated in your course of study in the law school. Surely you don't mean to tell me that no instruction is given in your school on the subject of law books and the use of the law library?

No! Well, well! to think that a modern law school would devote day after day teaching subjects, such as "Roman Law," "Comparative Jurisprudence," "International Law," and the like, and make no effort to give the students some intelligent idea of the way to make use of the bewildering mass of legal publications they must practically live with when in practice.

You say that in school you have been required to prepare one or two briefs, but have received no instruction as to how to do the work, and you know nothing, or nearly nothing, as to the proper way to run down authorities.

What's that? You don't know how to use a digest! Why, my dear boy, a digest is the most useful and most constantly used tool the lawyer has. There is no more excuse for sending a student out of the law school without instruction in the use of the digest than in sending a student in engineering out of one

of our technical schools without instruction in the use of the transit. Not only is the digest a time-saver, but no lawyer can feel confident that he has safeguarded his clients' interests unless he has run down all the authorities, and that is possible only by a careful examination of the digest.

You say your trouble is that you don't know where to look in the digest for the law relating to your proposition. Of course you don't, and that is just what your instructors should teach you. It is like asking you to make bricks without straw to ask you to prepare briefs for moot court work without giving instruction as to the sources of information and how to use them. Instruction along those lines is just as important as instruction in the preparation of pleadings, and more important and practical than instruction on the Pandects of Justinian.

Well, I suppose, if these matters are neglected in your school, you must pick them up as best you can, either in a hitor-miss fashion in practice, or by systematic digging and study on your own

account.

In the first place, let me say that the subject of legal bibliography and the investigation of authorities, and particularly the latter, are not so easily mastered as one may at first suppose.

There are comparatively few avenues open to the average lawyer to acquire systematic and accurate information along these lines. Perhaps the lawyer who lives in a small town, at a distance

from a large law library, labors under the greatest difficulty in this respect, since, when he finds it necessary to make use of a first-class and modern law library, he is at a loss to know what books to look for or ask for that would answer his purpose best.

Now, as to the reporting of the decisions of the different United States Courts. Of course you are more or less familiar with the organization and jurisdiction of these courts? Yes, yes, I see that you have some idea as to the manner of publishing the decisions as well. In this connection, let me ask you a question. If the case of Potter v. Wilson should be cited to you as decided by the United States Circuit Court, Third Circuit, in the year 1874, to what set of reports would you go in order to find a report of that decision?

To the United States Circuit Court Reports, Third Circuit, you say.

Well, I rather thought you would say something like that, but it happens there is no such series as the "United States Circuit Court Reports," although some lawyers seem to have an idea there is. To be sure the decisions of the Third Circuit of United States Circuit Court were published for a while in various separate series of reports, but the last volume of the last of these series appeared in 1862.

What happened after 1862? Why, for many years nothing happened at all, and the decisions of that court were not published, except, perchance, when a more or less important decision would. find its way into print in some newspaper or legal magazine.

You say you thought all the decisions of the United States Circuit Courts had been reported and published? Well, so they have been, but not until comparatively recent years.

Now, let me give you a little history in regard to the early reporting of the decisions of the United States Circuit Courts that may tend to make the present situation more clear. After the United States Circuit Courts were established by Congress, various attempts were made by different parties at different times to publish the decisions of the different courts by circuit. All of these reports were fragmentary and disconnected. For example, in the Third Circuit ten volumes were published in all. The earliest volume became known as Wallace, and it contains the cases decided in 1801. Peters' Circuit Court Reports consist of one volume and contains the decisions of the Third Circuit from 1803 to 1818. Washington's Circuit Court Reports cover the decisions in the same circuit from 1803 to 1827 in four volumes. Baldwin's Reports in one volume contains the decisions from 1828 to 1833. Then for nine years (from 1833 to 1842) there was no reporting of the decisions of the courts of the Third Circuit.

From 1842 to 1862 (a period of twenty years) the only decisions that were reported for the Third Circuit are to be found in the three volumes of Wallace's (Jr.) Reports.

After 1862 no effort was made to publish a series of reports for the United States Courts of the Third Circuit. The history of the attempts made to report the decisions of the various United States Circuit Courts by circuit is practically a repetition of the account just given, of the Third Circuit-all failures.

These reports were not only inadequate and generally unsatisfactory to the profession, but they were very expensive a complete set covering all the circuits costing about $1,000.

What about the Federal Reporter and