seems universally acknowledged; and this inertness gave way only under a strong desire or necessity, such as fox-hunting at one period, and getting through with an opinion at another. Men of such enormous bulk as he can hardly escape a growing disinclination to exertion. Something has now been said of his various tastes and accomplishments, but they have not all been mentioned yet. Any one who has read many of his opinions will know that he must have been saturated with Shakspeare, from whom he occasionally takes a pertinent phrase or sentence. And he was much devoted to the stage and to actors. The fact that the monument of the elder Jefferson is due to him, whose friend he was, and whose art he greatly admired, is generally well known; also that the epitaph on this monument came from Gibson's pen, its conclusion revealing what the Judge's feelings about Jefferson were : "I knew him well, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, and most excellent fancy." The whole history of this monument, the unobtrusive manner in which it was raised, and the conduct of all most nearly concerned, is a touching and ex cellent instance of how well the kindness of Gibson's nature was linked with disinterested ness. It is also generally well known about him that he had a sound knowledge of medi cine, read French and Italian, and was some thing of a geologist; but these statements on cold paper are as easily made by the writer as they are discredited by readers who learn them for the first time. As Gibson's accomplishments are now under review, this is the place to speak of a feat which seems the most amazing ever recorded of a ChiefJustice. Besides painting, music, languages, and science, mechanics was also one of his gifts. This does not mean that he occasionally mended a picture-frame, or was able to make a door close that July heat had warped. He carried his handicraft into fields seldom ven tured into by the amateur; he tuned a piano perfectly, and he was a successful dentist when the notion took him! When seventy, he still had all his teeth, which were very
handsome. But now they began to loosen in obedience to the miserable law of the flesh. When the first one grew unstable, he manufactured a fine wire clamp for it, and so buttressed the shaky member against a firm neighbor. But next the neighbor weakened, and a further wire clamp was the result. Briefly, there came a day when the whole edifice trembled, and the Chief-Justice sought a dentist. He was minded to avail himself somehow of his still perfect, if tottering' teeth. This, the dentist said, was quite im possible. Neither science nor art had devised such a shift, and false teeth were the only thing. Hearing this, the Judge, not at all convinced, set to work in the dentist's office, borrowing his tools and occasionally his as sistance. The result of this in a few days was a plate adapted to Gibson's own teeth, which he wore comfortably to his life's end. After this, it became his custom during hours of relaxation to tinker at the teeth of animals and of human patients also. Was there ever in any man such a combination of qualities? A story told of him towards the middle of his Chief-Justiceship reveals incidentally that Equity Courts had at last become established in Pennsylvania. A lawyer applied to him for a mandamus to compel a Catholic priest to admit a woman to the privilege of the Eucharist. The Chief-Justice told him to take out a God-damn-us. It seems hardly worth while to attempt a demonstration that his very large vocabulary did not include strong language. Consider the average man, and consider the vigorous, many-experienced Gibson, — that he should not have sworn when it was appropriate to swear, seems scientifi cally unlikely. Few will believe you if you say he did not; still fewer will care if he did. Once, when on circuit, he was stopping at a tavern over night (it is supposed that he understood games of chance), and retiring somewhat late, was mindful of the near morn ing with its intellectual duties, hence or dered a cup of black coffee brought to his room when he should be called. The diffi dent youth knocked at the hour appointed,
