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barrassing position of a friend of mine last month.

"My friend when a certain case of his was called, rose and pleaded in a husky voice for an adjournment.

""On what ground?' asked the judge.

""Your honor,' was the reply, 'I have been making an address in another court all the morning and find myself completely exhausted.'

"Very well,' said the judge. And he called the next case.

"Another counsel rose and in his turn asked for an adjournment.

"Are you exhausted, too?' said the judge. 'What have you been doing?'

""Your honor,' was the answer, 'I have been listening to my learned brother."

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The increasing interest taken by the American public in South American affairs and the growing trade of this country with South American countries are beginning to be reflected strongly in various American Universities. Professor Shepherd, of Columbia University, New York, has planned an extensive visit, covering several months, to the different South American Universities. Professor E. G. Lorenzen, of the George Washington University, has just returned from a month's stay in Cuba, where he made a study at close range of the administration of Spanish-American law and the procedure in the Cuban courts. He also made some interesting observations upon the methods of legal education obtaining in the University of Havana. These investigations by Professor Lorenzen were made in preparation for the course in Spanish-American law, which has recently been inaugurated in the George Washington University.

Columbia University is to be congratulated in securing the services of Prof. Nathan Abbott as a permanent teacher in its school of law. For a number of years Prof. Abbott has been located at Stanford University, where, as dean of the law department of that institution, he has succeeded in building up one of the strongest and best law schools in the West. Mr. Abbott went to New York last fall for the purpose of spending his sabbatical year at Columbia, but it is only recently that he decided to resign his position at Stanford and to remain permanently at Columbia.

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"One of my Louisville lawyer friends," said Senator Blackburn, of Kentucky, "was exceptionally fortunate in winning his cases in the lower courts only to lose them ultimately by reversing decisions of the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth."

Mr. Blackburn met the lawyer on a train, poring over a huge volume. "My friend," said the Senator, "are you so busy that you have to read law even when traveling?"

The lawyer sniffed contemptuously. "This

isn't law," he said, "this volume, sah, contains the decisions of the Supreme Court of the State of Kentucky."

A young lawyer received a call from a farmer in need of legal advice. The lawyer looked up the statutes, and told the farmer what he should do. "How much?" said the farmer. "Well, let's call it $3," said the lawyer. The farmer handed over a $5 bill. The lawyer seemed embarrassed. After searching his pockets and the drawers of his desk he rose to the occasion and pocketed the bill as he reached for a digest. "I guess, neighbor," he remarked, as he resumed his seat, "I shall have to give you $2 worth more of advice."

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George Grafton Wilson, doctor of philosophy, for many years professor in Brown University, and professor of international law in the United States War College at Newport, has been appointed lecturer in the department of international law at the Harvard law school. Dr. Wilson will have charge of some of the courses formerly conducted by Prof. Edward Henry Strobel, who lately resigned to become legal adviser to the government at Siam.

James Whitcomb Riley says that he was a witness in a case tried in an Indiana court where one of the witnesses evinced some disinclination to state her age.

"Is-is it really necessary?" she asked, coyly.

"It is absolutely necessary, madam," the judge assured her.

"Well," sighed the maiden, "if I must, I suppose I must. I don't see how it could possibly affect the case, for you see”

"Madam," observed the judge, rather tartly, "I must ask you not to further waste the time of this court. Kindly state your age." "I am, that is I was-" she stammered. "Madam, I must beg you to hurry!" implored the judge, "Every minute makes it worse, you know!"

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THE AMERICAN

LAW SCHOOL REVIEW.

AN INTERCOLLEGIATE LAW JOURNAL.

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N discussing the official functions of the law librarian, it will be appropriate to first consider the present character of the law library, together with its uses and purposes. It is not intended to treat here of the law library which every lawyer must possess, although there are many such which in size, completeness, and efficiency compare favorably with those supported by associated interests or at the expense of the public. Professional law librarians, if such a term may be used, have to do with law libraries maintained and administered for the benefit of the bench, the bar, and the school, supported either by the public or by those whose interests they are to serve. These law libraries readily group themselves into five classes: (1) The state law library; (2) the court law library; (3) the association law library; (4) the law school library; (5) the law library maintained by private enterprise with privileges leased to lawyers at a fixed rental.

The state law library and the court law library are similar to each other in the purposes served. The former is institutional in its character, and is maintained for the benefit of the Legislature, state officers and departments, the courts, and the bar. This library is usually a public law library available for reference purposes to any one interested in law subjects. The court law library is restricted in its use to the court for whom it is maintained and those lawyers practicing therein. The association law library is supported and maintained by associations of lawyers, each member paying a certain amount for the privileges afforded. The use of the law school library is usually restricted to the students in attendance and members of the faculty. It is a part of the educational organization of the school, supported as an essential factor in carrying out the school's objects. The law library maintained as a private enterprise for the use of lawyers who pay there for a fixed rental

is more recent in its development than any of the other libraries. Such libraries are frequently found in large office buildings or in places conveniently accessible to lawyers. Each of these classes has its own purposes to serve, its own special objects to attain; but the character of the books collected does not materially differ. All of them have to do with the law, and the law, in its literature at least, is fixed and determinable.

The foundation of every law library is in the statutes and the judicial decisions. Every law book owes its existence to either one or the other or both. Statute law finds expression in codes, compiled statutes, and session laws; judicial decisions are contained in law reports, and catalogued and classified in law digests; while both are made the subject of discussion and treatment in encyclopedias and law treatises.

I have no means of ascertaining the exact number of volumes of American statutes, or how much they would cost. A fairly complete collection would comprise nearly 3,000 volumes. A recent purchase of American statute law by Yale University to be added to its law library consisted of about 3,000 volumes, for which $15,000 was expended. If a collection of the statute law of Great Britain and its colonies were acquired, at least 1,500 volumes more would be added. These collections are sought for by a number of libraries maintaining legislative reference sections. In libraries located in cosmopolitan centers extensive collections of foreign continental statute law are also desirable.

Law reports comprise the chief collection in every law library. The nucleus of this collection in every American law. library is the reports of cases decided in federal and state courts of the United States. In the year 1850 these cases were reported in 980 volumes. In 1865 there

were 1,820 of such volumes, an average yearly increase of about 55. In 1880 this number had grown to 3,230, there being an annual increase of 94. In 1895 the number of volumes of these reports had further increased to 6,300, at the annual rate of 205. In the years from 1895 to the present time the annual rate of increase has been 260, so that at the present time there are 9,300 volumes of American law reports. In addition to these reports law libraries are required to collect the reports of the courts of Great Britain and its colonies. The extent of this collection will vary according to the resources available. A complete collection of English, Irish, and Scotch law reports comprises about 3,400 volumes, more than half of which were in existence in 1866, since which time the law reports have been regularly published under the authority. of the council of law reporting, to the discouragement, though not exclusion, of special series of unofficial reports. A practically complete collection of Canadian law reports consists of about 800 volumes. This collection is desirable for law libraries in the states because of the similar conditions existing in the Canadian provinces. About 1,000 volumes of the law reports of the other British colonies have been published. The total number of law reports in Great Britain and its provinces thus approximates 5,200 volumes, which, added to the number of American reports already referred to, exceeds the grand total of 14,500 volumes of English written law reports. There may not be a single law library in this country which possesses all these reports. Indeed, some of them are now of little importance and have ceased to be of practical value. There are, however, a few law libraries which have nearly complete collections of them; many more have the reports of all the appellate

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