WASHINGTON LETTER. FEBRUARY, 1904. AS the hands of the clock point to twelve the crier of the Supreme Court of the United States raps with his gavel, the mur mur of conversation ceases, and attorneys, court officials, and visitors rise while the crier slowly announces "The Honorable the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States." The visitors, packed in the space between the wall and the rail which separates them from the members of the Bar, crane their necks and bend their bodies in the effort to see the members of the Court as they file from the anteroom. Robed in black silk gowns, they walk with slow and dignified steps toward the bench. Justice Brown and Justices Peckham and Holmes pause at the steps to the right of the bench; Justices White, McKenna and Day pass behind the bench to the steps at the left, and as the Chief Justice appears at the entrance at the rear they slowly pro ceed to their seats. As they do the prier cries, "Oyez, oyes, oyez, all persons having business before the Honorable the Chief Jus tices and the Associate Justices of the Su preme Court of the United States are admon ished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting. God save the Government of the United States and this Honorable Court." It is an imposing and inspiring spectacle, the mere witnessing of which increases the red corpuscles of one's patriotism. No man entering that dome-like court room may ч-rar his overcoat. No member of its Dar may appear before it in a coat of any color other than black. Such is the dignity and impressiveness of that tribunal that men to whom embarrassment has long been a stranger, evidence the renewal of their ac quaintance with it by a stammering speech,
a quickened breath, a nervous manner, when addressing the Court. The senior Associate-Justice occupies the seat upon the immediate right of the ChiefJustice, the next in seniority that upon his immediate left, and so on alternately through the entire Court. Upon the right of the Chief Justice sit Justices Harían, Brown, Peckham and Holmes—upon his left Justices Brewer, White, McKenna, and Day, in the order named. Diminutive pages with cherub-like faces stand behind the chairs of the Justices, or scurry back and forth upon errands. Yhen these pages outgrow the knickerbocker stage of their existence, other cherub-faced knickerbuckered youngsters are substituted for them. A case which has attracted national atten tion, and was recently argued before the Su preme Court, is that of the Northern Se curities Company, ct a/., v. the United States. The questions involved in that case are too well known to require mention here, but the marked physical contrast between Mr. John G. Johnson, of counsel for the appel lants, and the Attorney-General, is worthy of notice. The latter is much below the aver age height, clean shaven, faultlessly attired. In the presentation of the Government's case he rarely departed from the text of his argument, which occupied ninety-four pages of print. Mr. Johnson is more than six feet in height, big voiced, big boned, broad shouldered, his forcible mouth and chin par tially hidden by an aggressive mustache. I first saw him when he appeared here several years ago before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia in the "Sugar Trust Cases." Standing in his favorite attitude, with one foot upon the seat of his chair, he
