Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/296

Some Kentucky Lawyers of the Past and Present. A writer says : " Judge Harían is about the only man on the Supreme bench who strikes the beholder as being a jolly soul. He is a great story-teller, and when a tedious case comes up, he frequently leans over and whispers something to Justice Shiras that convulses Justice Brewer, who sits between them." He lectures several times a week at the

Columbian Univer sity upon public and international law. Like the great judge for whom he was named, he is fond of walking, and twice a day takes the walk of three miles from his residence to the Capitol. It is said, "The big Kcntuckian, as he swings along at his easy gait, looks as though he were at peace with all the world." He was appointed by Mr. Hayes in 1877. The opinions written by him since he has been upon the bench extend through more than sixty-six vol umes of the Supreme Court Reports. Former Solicitor-General Taft said : " His abundance of physical power and mental energy has led him to assume heavy labors on the circuit, composed of the States of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. No year has gone by in which he has not decided a number of important cases as a circuit jus tice, the principal one being the ' Lake Front Case,' involving the title to the land under Lake Michigan, in the harbor of Chicago. As much as any of the justices who have come after those whose lives were

265

contemporaneous with the making of the Constitution, he seems imbued with the spirit of the founders of the government. Like them, he is at the same time a jurist and a statesman, and it is not surprising, therefore, that we find so many cases involv ing constitutional questions assigned to him for opinion." A Louisville lawyer told the following an ecdote of him at a dinner given to the judges of the circuit court of appeals of the United States at Cincinnati, last year : — The news that Judge Harían had been confirmed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court came in the midst of an important jury trial in the circuit court, one of a series of cases brought by property holders along a street, in the middle of which a railroad was being operated, for dam ages to their proper ty. Judge Harían was engaged in the case, and the arguments were to be made the following day. Among the lawyers who gathered around to congratulate him was Judge Russell Houston, the Nestor of the Louisville bar, and a great coun selor. Judge Houston had been president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and was its chief counsel. Judge Har ían, who was always fond of a joke, with a serious air said to Judge Houston: "I am a little embarrassed as to what is the proper course for me to take in the argument of this case. It is probably the last jury case