New York court seems to be further away from this humane doctrine. It may be pardoned to the Chairman to guess that the writer in the " Harvard Law Review " is not a father or grandfather of boys. This seems to him an influential consideration, for in the " American Law Review," he said : "In conclusion let me suggest that the leaning of judges in this matter is probably much influenced by their obser vation of their own small sons, if they have any. Years ago I regarded the prevailing doctrine of the turntable cases askance, but since I have been blessed and bothered with a grandson, I have become quite reconciled to it. I recall that St. Paul, who studied law in his youth, when he was a child understood and thought as a child, and I own my allegiance to the Kansas judge who said : ' Every body, knowing the nature and instincts common to all boys, must act accordingly.'" In fact, he feels very much as a gentleman, who was a judge in New York (a few months), said he felt in an action brought by a widow against a rail road company, and who, in ruling on a point of evidence, said : " In such cases I shall always lean strongly toward the widow."
Last Words. — One of the most entertaining books that ever fell under the Chairman's eye is the "Book of Death," an account of the last hours and last sayings of many "distinguished and pious" per sons (including Rousseau, Voltaire and Tom Paine). The persons in question were real, if their alleged last words were not. In regard to the tradition that Addison summoned his dissolute step-son to his bed side to "see how a Christian could die," the gossipy Horace Walpole said "The Spectator" "died of brandy." Apropos of this subject, in a very late num ber of " Munsey's Magazine," Mr. Jerome K. Jerome, in an article specifying " David Copperfield " as his favorite novel, says: "Barkis' death, next to the passing of Colonel Newcome, is, to my thinking, one of the most perfect pieces of pathos in English litera ture." (Italics ours, and a very bad piece of writ ing.) The death of Colonel Arewco/ne is one of the most beautiful and one of the most frequently cited passages in English fiction, and yet the Colonel's last word is a clear plagiarism or an unconscious imita tion, probably, of course, the latter. The proof is evident and irrefragible. To put the weaker item of evidence first : the last words of Athos in Dumas' Bragelonne, were, " I am here," addressed to the spirit of his son and to God. It is well known that Thackeray was a fervent admirer of Dumas, and it is not difficult to imagine that he was familiar with this striking passage. But the absolutely conclusive evidence is this : the last word of Leatherstocking, in Cooper's Prairie was "Here!" as if answering to roll-call. Thackeray was a great admirer, also, of
the Leather-Stocking Tales, and set down Leatherstocking as "one of the prize men of fiction." Such a resemblance as the latter could not have been a mere coincidence, in the circumstances. If one did not know of Thackeray's familiarity with the Ameri can author, jt would still be regarded is a very significant coincidence, with the presumption against the great Englishman, but taking into account the circumstances, one can have no hesitancy in believ ing that if Leatherstocking had not said " Here!" the Colonel would not have said "Adsum! " Thack eray has improved the picture, but he did not origi nate it, and if he did imitate he was no worse than Shakespeare. By the way, although the Chairman is not disposed to accuse Mr. Jerome of plagiarism, yet he is gratified to see that he has published one of the Chairman's favorite and peculiar opinions in respect to Dickens, namely, that he was the greatest creator of character since Shakespeare. If it is urged that many of his characters were but types, the same may be said of the greater master.
Whitewash. — The Chairman has always been interested in the subject of historical Lampblack and Whitewash, or the decrying of good and the rehabil itation of bad characters by modern research and criticism. In view of the recent attempts to blacken Washington and whitewash Judas and Aaron Burr, one should not be surprised at an essay in England, by the dramatic Mr. H. B. Irving, to set up Chief Justice Jeffreys in good society. The Chairman has not seen the book, but he finds the following remarks upon it in the London " Law Journal " : — "To rehabilitate that ' monster ' (as even Lord Campbell calls him) Chief Justice Jeffreys was a bolder enterprise, even for Mr. H. B. Irving's dramatic genius. Perhaps rehabilitate is too strong a word. What Mr. Irving has aimed at is to help us toajuster appreciation of the notor ious chief justice. What the apology comes to is that Jeffreys was, like other men, heroes or villains, the product of his age, a man of violent and unscrupulous temper in a violent and unscrupulous generation; that he, like the judges of that and earlier periods, was condemned to be a mere piece in the royal chess game, and that at the time of the ' Bloody Assize ' he was suffering from a bad attack of stone and ought to have remained in the doctor's hands. If this last sort of plea is to be admitted, the administration of justice will resolve itself into a question of digestion. If there is anything in the judicial mind at all, it is in rising superior to these frailties of the flesh. Lord Justice James has told us that he sat by Lord Justice Mellish while that admirable judge was writhing with pain; but no litigant ever suffered from Lord Justice Mellish's inward pangs. Jeffreys was a disgrace to the bench and always will be; but Mr. Irving's book is none the less acceptable as a graphic picture of a picturesque and interesting period." Such essays may exercise the ingenuity of the
