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along and tumbled in he'd be around promptly wid his collar bone in shplints to ask the pardon av the proprietor for his thoughtlissniss.

"If ye left the hole open today six people ud tumble in before breakfast and the proprietor ud be out bright and irly takin' the names av the witnesses who passed the place the night before. Afther awhile the coorts ud be called upon unravel the maze av contradicshuns.

"Mane time the sthreet cars has put gates on all the cars so passengers can't fall out afther they get in and they can't fall in afther they get out. About the only pirsonal injury ye can suffer on the sthreet cars now is bein' deprived av yer pass or dislocatin' yer timper while hangin' to a sthrap. In such cases the coorts have held ye can recover for the mintil anguish to the extint av the jury's capacity for sthrikin' averages.

"In pirsonal injury cases the jury finds it aisy to fix the damages for the rayson that they have larned docthers to tell thim all about the nachur and extint av injuries. The midical min make iver

thing so clear ye can almost feel ye`re sufferin' wid the same ailmints.

"Docther," says the lier, "ye say the woman suffered a shock to her narvous system?"

"She sartinly did," says the docther. "What ud ye say's the matther?" says the lier.

"Well," says the docther, "the subjictive symptoms indicates a thraumerism av the posterior wall av the Multum-In-Parvo. This in thurn gives rise to a reflex action in the Posse Commetatis, bringing about a congischun av the red corpuscles in the Duodenum.

"Yis, I think that's clear to the jury,” says the lier. "Proceed, docther."

"The objective symptoms show a marked contusyon on the hypotenuse av the Lis Pindens which is followed be what we midical min calls fatty deginirashun av the Nunc Pro Tunc, wid slight palpitashun in the rajon av the De Bonis Non."

"It's all Greek to me," says Mrs. O'Soolivan.

"It's all Latin to the jury," says O'Soolivan,

Brief making is an art in which there are few masters. I have been amazed at the helplessness of law students, and even of lawyers when they go into a library to search for authorities. A good lawyer is one who knows where to look for the law; and after he has found it knows what to do with it. Law schools should teach their students how to do these things.

HORACE E. DEEMER, Supreme Court of Iowa.

Climbing the Ladder.

By HENRY B. BROWN, Yale Law School, 1856.

AM asked to write from my person

IA

al experience a few words of advice to such of the graduates of Yale as contemplate adopting the profession of law as their sphere of activity.

A few preliminary words may not be inappropriate. In choosing any calling, professional or otherwise, the graduate should rely largely upon his natural tastes and inclinations, which are usually developed with, or in spite of his studies, during his academic course, and should inquire earnestly of himself not only whether the law is congenial to his tastes, but whether he has within his own consciousness the qualities which make for success in that profession. These are industry, quickness of apprehension, ability to grasp a point and to hold the attention firmly to it. No indolent nor sluggish-minded man should aspire to be a lawyer. It is simply impossible. As well might one attempt to fly a kite without a string. The practice of the law demands an intellectual endowment superior to that of any other of the learned professions.

Second only to this, is integrity of character and fidelity to clients. Strangely enough there is a popular impression that the bar is weak in this particular, and that lawyers, as a class, are not scrupulously honest. The im pression is wholly misleading. A dishonest man may be a good and even a great lawyer, but a successful one-never. I have known more brilliant reputations ruined by the lack of this qualification even than by intemperance-so fatal to eminence of every kind. In fact,

there is no profession in which honesty is so absolutely indispensable as in those men to whom we intrust the management of our property rights-possibly even our lives and reputations. A single failure of this kind-a single betrayal of a client's confidence-is often fatal. If there be a general suspicion that the criminal bar is deficient in this particular, it is due to the prevalent idea that a man ensnared in the meshes of the criminal law does not stand upon the means used to secure his acquittal. There is possibly something in this, but it does injustice to many eminent men who have made criminal cases more or less a specialty.

Oratorical ability is doubtless of great value, especially in jury cases, but even there it is not indispensable. Some of the greatest lawyers I have ever known were not eloquent-some of the most eloquent advocates I ever knew were not great lawyers. Eloquence is one of those things to be admired, but it has not the persuasive force of a clear statement of facts, and a well knit argument.

The study of law may be satisfactorily pursued in a private office or a law school. As an oral lecture is more inspiring than a written essay, the words that fall from the lips of Gamaliel are a valuable inheritance to the student of the law, and are still "had in honor of all the people." The private office, too, lacks the spirit of emulation, the competition, the intellectual friction gained by association with other men of the same age and similar aspirations and talents.

But some study of the local practice in a lawyer's office is almost indispensable before undertaking the active duties of the profession. The trial of moot cases is an excellent prelude to the trial of real ones. In both classes the same qualities are called into play, and often foreshadow a victory or presage a defeat.

The most important question confronting a young lawyer just entering the profession is the selection of a forum for exploiting his abilities. A single proposition underlies all the difficulties of decision. To obtain business one must go where business is done. Great statesmen sometimes come from small villages, but a lawyer who settles there will probably find his practice limited to drawing deeds and mortgages, and trying cases before a justice of the peace. This is not a career. An ambitious lawyer must have courts, business, and men of substantial property among his clients. It may be said in general that the pecuniary rewards of practice are proportioned pretty accurately to the size. of the city or town; that a bare living may be earned more quickly in a small town, but the great prizes of the profession are only obtainable in the large cities. In this I am speaking only of young men who are depending alone upon their own exertions. If one is able to secure an interest in an established firm, or has influential friends who will aid him, this will be a strong, perhaps a decisive, consideration.

No time can be better spent than in acquiring a knowledge of local practice. and methods of trial. Justices' courts' are excellent schools for the young practitioner-police courts are bad ones. The procedure of justices' courts is practically the same as upon appeal; the consequences of blunders (and you will undoubtedly make them) less serious, as

the amounts are comparatively small. Police courts should be shunned. They are easy to enter, but hard to get out of. Hanging about them for business has wrecked the reputation of many a promising lawyer. If you care for criminal business at all, it is better to await its appearance in a higher court. Of course there are exceptions, but criminal business had better be treated as itself exceptional-more as a recreation than as serious work.

Do not neglect the social side of professional life. It is generally much underestimated. The ambitious young lawyer is apt to rely too exclusively upon his talents, and to regard every moment taken from his books and cases as so much time lost. This is a grave mistake. Every educated professional man of fairly pleasing appearance, whatever his birth or fortune may be, is sure to be a welcome guest in the leading social circles of his town, if he show a de

sire to enter them. sire to enter them. I do not speak in

this connection of barrooms, hotel corridors or even clubs, though these latter may be cultivated in a mild way by those who can afford them-but of the society. of refined ladies and gentlemen, of whom there are one or more "sets" in every considerable town. It may be difficult to see how this becomes profitable in a business point of view, but that it is often so, is beyond question-indeed a prominent rank in social circles is one of the best cards of admission to business houses; while low associates will sooner or later accomplish the ruin of professional character. If you place your social standard high enough, it is sure ultimately to be recognized. Every requirement is met by agreeable manners, neatness of apparel and the best possible. use of the conversational talents with which nature has endowed you. The

ability to interest others is the current coin of the realm of society. Reticence is the only unpardonable sin.

At some time or other in the professional life of every lawyer of pronounced ability he is sure to be beset by one or both of two temptations: (1) Politics; (2) The Bench. Both are to be respected-neither to be flouted or treated lightly. In the early years of professional life politics should be avoided so far, and only so far, as the discharge of one's duty as a good citizen will admit of it. Small offices especially are the bane of the young lawyer's life. There are a few in the line of the profession which may well be treated as exceptions-such as prosecuting attorney, or city councilor, which are perfectly legitimate prizes, and often bring the young lawyer into notice. Later in life, after a professional reputation has been acquired, it often becomes difficult to resist a temptation to enter public life. It is a serious question which everyone must answer for himself -always bearing in mind that it involves a temporary, if not a permanent, withdrawal from practice, and (such is the ingratitude of republics) that the quadrennial "ides of March" may relegate one to private life, without position abroad, and with a crippled practice at home. Any change of administration involves fearful possibilities of this kind. Many young men are naturally fond of public affairs, and never feel so contented as when involved in a political fray-to others it is exceedingly distasteful. To one the glamor of office is a powerful incentive-to another the greater emoluments of private practice are a superior attraction. I have observed, however, that advice to eschew politics is cheerfully acquiesced in-until the song of the siren is heard.

The Bench is the natural culmination

of a legal career. It is the bishopric of the profession. Of old, it was rarely declined by any lawyer, however eminent he might be. It is so in England today. But within the past century the Bench has fallen much in the popular estimation of the bar, not more by reason of the elective system, short terms and small salaries, than by legislation designed ostensibly for the protection of constitutional rights, but really to put the trial of cases entirely in the hands of counsel and the jury, to strip the judge of his proper magisterial functions, and reduce him to a mere presiding officer. The result is deplorable. The judges, owing their election to the members of the bar, become merely their mouthpiece, admit everything in the way of evidence, leave it all to the jury, and charge only the written requests preferred by counsel. Technicalities are raised to a science, time. is wasted, expenses enormous ly increased, the jury befogged, and a defendant with money to fight with, finds it an irresistible weapon, and goes unwhipped of justice; all this, too, without the slightest imputation upon the integrity of the court. It is in these trials that the vagaries of the "unwritten law" are thrust forward to stifle the conscience, and stampede the sympathies of the jury.

While the Bench is the natural object of a lawyer's ambition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain the leading men of the bar for judgeships, and in many states they represent scarcely more than the average talent of the profession, when they should stand only for the best. There is another difficulty in the fact that different qualities are called in play in the trial of cases, and in the disposition of them. The prime object of the advocate is the success of his client of the judge, to hold exact the

scales of justice. Of one, earnestness and zeal are demanded-of the other, the calm, judicial temperament-of both, a clear knowledge of the law. Hence it frequently happens that an indifferent lawyer makes an excellent judge, while the leaders of the bar are sometimes unsatisfactory upon the Bench. But notwithstanding all this, the great demand in this country is for independent, resolute and fearless magistrates, like the former Chief Justice Parsons of Massachusetts, and Judge Emmons of Detroit, who fear not the wrath of counsel,

and are not unwilling to encounter a temporary unpopularity for the ultimate appreciation of the profession.

The real greatness of a lawyer is most accurately measured by the opinion of his professional brethren. The esteem of the public is often delusive, and perishes with the man himself. But the great lawyers of history, the shining lights of jurisprudence, are such as have forged their own way to the front, and been raised to positions of eminence with the acclamation of their colleagues.

-From the Yale Shingle, 1909.

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