Ichabod Bartlett. myself. I think you 've got the very words." A former sheriff of Strafford County has said that he well remembers frequent in stances when the Judge on the bench would stop in the midst of a trial and address Mr. Bartlett, who was sitting within the bar, with the inquiry, " Pray what is the law on that point, Mr. Bartlett?." James W. Bartlett of Dover, a nephew of Ichabod Bartlett, has kindly sent me the following anecdotes. Of the first he says that his uncle, when asked about it, ad mitted that it had some foundation in fact : — A man was brought before the court for steal ing spoons. Having no counsel, Mr. B. was assigned to him. The other lawyers thought he did not relish being connected with so petty a case, as he sat, during the trial, with his eyes half shut, apparently paying little heed to the wit nesses. He declined to cross-examine, only asking two or three questions of the principal witness which served to make his story even stronger than ever. The other lawyers thought that the defendant was surely booked for prison. When, however, Mr. B. came to argue for the defence he was alert enough. He took the testi mony all to pieces, showed wherein the witnesses contradicted each other, and made such an elo quent appeal in behalf of the accused, that the jury acquitted him without leaving their seats, when Mr. B., turning to the fellow, said, " Now go, you old rascal, and don't steal any more spoons." The other was told me by one of the oldest Dover lawyers, now dead. During a term of court the lawyers were assembled at the old Dover Hotel and thought to have some fun over a traveling phrenologist. They told him the Democratic candidate for Governor (a very ordi nary kind of man) was in the parlor, and they wanted him to examine his head, and in order to make the experiment more striking they wished him to enter the room blind-folded. This he did, but Ichabod Bartlett was seated in the chair instead of the candidate, who had the pleasure of hearing the phrenologist, after feeling the head a moment, exclaim, " This is not the Democratic candidate, it is the head of a much more able
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man," then going on to describe Mr. Bartlett's character correctly. I am likewise under obligation to the Honorable Charles Levi Woodbury, of Bos ton, for a valuable letter of October 19, 1893, describing some of his impressions of Mr. Bartlett. He says: — "I have heard him try a cause in court. It was when I came home (to Portsmouth) on a visit in 1842 or 1844; and I was impressed with his skill and vigor in belaboring a witness, who was on the other side. His voice, as to which you enquire, was tenor in quality, not shrill, but full or round in tone and rather prepossessing than otherwise. His manner was easy, deliberate and frank. He was a caustic speaker, and -in that line of resources had imagination enough, and force also." Mr. Bartlett was the owner of a beautiful country seat upon the river, two or three miles above the town of Portsmouth. It was a farm that had originally belonged to President John Cutt. Here Madam Ursula Cutt (the President's widow) was killed by the Indians, in the summer of 1694. To this retreat Mr. Bartlett in his later years liked after dinner to drive on days when the weather was fine. He was specially fond of the company of young men. From 1845 onward Mr. Woodbury was more frequently at Portsmouth, where he formed one of a small circle of gentlemen whose society " the Colonel " (as Mr. Bartlett used to be called) was wont to enjoy. 1 It was a source of pleasure to the distinguished lawyer to take one or more of his young friends for an "outing" to the farm. Says Mr. Wood bury : — "Here we amused ourselves about the house and grounds doing nothing in particular until it was time to return home. The Colonel was much respected by all of us, and he felt and appreciated our modest deference. He was easy in conversation. Possibly it is the highest com1 Among others were Horatio Coffin, Dr. Edward Rundlet and Charles W. March, the author of Reminiscences of Webster, etc.
