amination of both English and American cases. Judge Virgin made frequent use of the authorities and precedents, and was a good illustration of the remark of Chancellor Kent: "The exercise of sound judgment is as necessary in the use as diligence and learning are requisite in the pursuit of ad judged cases." He gained early an enviable reputation as a nisi prius judge, dispatching that branch of judicial work easily with satisfactory re sults. His charges to the jury did not consist of general rules and principles with out sound application to the facts of the case, but on the contrary he applied ad mitted principles to the case, directing the jury to the main contentions of the parties, so that they would be guided to right re sults. His analysis of the evidence was absolutely fair, clear and strong, giving great help to the jury and requiring a high grade of judicial skill. Near the close of Judge Virgin's service upon the bench .his health became impaired with what afterwards was a fatal illness, and he grew sensitive to annoyance from noise that was out of place. He disliked some of the methods employed by advocates to em phasize their arguments, by slapping their hands loudly together, and would show oc casionally his impatience; but he rarely rebuked counsel, and never without good cause. The Judge was alert for other meanings in life than those purely judicial. He was a lover of nature, fond of hunting and fish ing, and withal a good story-teller. His life abounds in incidents of these things. A story of the Judge's love for fishing and shrewdness in gratifying it, is thus told : He was on the bench when word came that the trout were biting at Weld Pond, and he had a case on the docket for trial. It was a divorce case between an old couple who had lived together for forty years and now wanted to be released from the bonds of
matrimony. There were many witnesses, and the Judge foresaw that if the case came to trial it would be four or five days before he could get away; so he sent for the old couple and talked the matter over. He gave them good advice, and they finally agreed to try once more to live together in har mony, and went away happy. The next morning the Judge started for Weld, and soon he landed a twelve pound salmon. If our judges did less divorcing and more fishing, perhaps society would be quite as well off. Sitting upon the Hubbard House piazza at Paris the Judge was asked by a member of the Oxford Bar regarding the legal qual ifications of a practitioner in another part of Maine. His reply: "Mr. might sit in this chair while an elephant and a mouse passed up the street before his eyes; of the mouse he could tell you the length of the tail, the texture of the coat and the color of thethat eye,hebut hadit seen wouldan never elephant occur ! " to Mr. Here is a brief sketch by the daily scribe of the press : — "I stepped into the law court at Augusta, one day this week. Five judges were on the bench. Before each judge, refreshments to cheer them in their sleepy and tiresome audience were placed. These refreshments were simple, but indispensa ble, consisting of one glass of water and one bot tle of ink for every justice. "In the absence of the Chief- Justice, Judge Danforth of Gardiner, the dean of the court, pre sided. On the other side of the presiding justice, his chair tipped back and his hand to his head as if buried in thought, is Judge Virgin, second only to Chief-Justice Peters in fame as a story-teller and wit. Judge Virgin is one of the best looking and most carefully dressed of the judges, and excels them all as an elocutionist. In the administra tion of an oath he puts more force of expres sion than any man I ever heard." As Judge Virgin was looking over the docket of the Waldo County Supreme Court he noticed many old indictments for liquor selling undisposed of, and remarked," I have
