Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/558

EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE 535 garb and the authority of his high magistracy, he looks the student. The great face is becahned ; he literally personifies judgeship. Often he sits with his eyes shaded by his hand to keep out the light, and his bulky presence broods over the whole courtroom. At such times he may look as if he were asleep ; but that apparently sonmolent calm has misled more than one lawyer, for out of it there has suddenly been pro- jected a searching question that showed complete knowledge and understanding of everything that had been said and done. ' ' With all the dignity and learning that befit the first judge in the greatest of republics, Justice White, the man, is the em- bodiment of that spirit of democracy which is the touchstone of our republican institutions. His innate democracy, fla- vored with the rich grace of Southern charm, gives him a per- sonality peculiarly winning and attractive. From the White home radiates an atmosphere that is typically domestic and American in its graces of unaffected simplicity, mutual regard and true hospitality ; or, at least, that atmosphere that we like to think of as typically American. Unhedged by false form- ality, he greets his callers face to face in the spirit of '^A man's a man for a' that." This simplicity of attitude is further exemplified in his choice of exercise and recreation. His Honor is known as a regular and enthusiastic pedestrian, walking back and forth from his home to the Capitol, **just like an ordinary citizen,*' which he professes himself to be. As a further mark of his true Americanism, he is a devotee of baseball and while watch- ing an exhibition of the great American game has been known to hobnob with chance seat mates with the camaraderie of the typical fan. At the time of his elevation to the Chief Justiceship, Sen- ator Money of Mississippi said of him: ^^He is personally one of the most delightful men in Washington society. Built on a generous plan — brain, heart, and body — he is a man of universally good humor, relishing keenly a good story and telling one with good effect. I have never heard of his being angry with anybody. His charities are universal. His kind- ness of heart is so well known that it is a sort of proverb. In