636
THE GREEN BAG
Walter S. Carter, of the firm, he worked hard from 1884 until 1891. Then he accepted a professorship of law at Cornell University, much to the disgust of Mr. Carter, who had already rated him as one of those young men not to be let go. Mr. Carter was cele brated for his ability to surround himself with youthful talent of unusual quality. The reason Hughes took the professorship was that he had worked too much for his physical well-being. He needed a rest, and, besides, he liked teaching. With his wife, who was Miss Antoinette Carter, his em ployer's daughter, and whom he had married on December 5, 1888, he spent two quiet years at Ithaca, N. Y., where Cornell is situated. At the end of that time he was ready for an active life again. Leaving behind him a reputation that had caused him to be classed as one of the most scholarly men in the university faculty, he returned to New York to enter the new law firm of Carter, Hughes and Dwight. Since then Mr. Hughes, who was known as the "working member" from the start, had many important cases, beginning with the one that took him to Oregon in behalf of the Eastern bondholders of a wrecked railroad corporation in that state. He has never figured in criminal actions, but has devoted himself to civil litigation, and. perhaps, most of his work in recent years has been as counsel to other lawyers. The firm, after it had been styled Carter, Hughes and Cravath, and later, Carter, Hughes, Rounds and Schurman, became Hughes, Rounds and Schurman, when Mr. Carter died in the spring of 1904. The "insurance inquisitor" whose grow ing practice has now compelled him to give up the special lectureships he held for some years at Cornell and the New York Law School, resides with his wife and three children in an unostentatious house at No. 570 West End Avenue, where he has a fine library that monopolizes his attention most evenings, after the long day's work at the office is done. His only son, now sixteen
years old, is a Freshman, at Brown Uni versity, and the two little daughters attend a private school in the city. Golf is Mr. Hughes' chief diversion, and he tries to be on the links at least once a week, generally Saturday afternoon. He is also fond of mountain climbing; hence an annual vacation in Switzerland. Occasion ally, too, his love of outdoor life carries him to the Maine woods for a fortnight of trout fishing. His friends know him as a man who believes in exercise and hard work, as much of each as one can get. The Baptist Church numbers the lawyer among its staunch members, and he was one of the organizers of the Bible Class led by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. His political be liefs are Republican, though he never sought office. The speech he made in declining the recent mayorality nomination on October 9, was as illustrative of his even tempera ment as it was of his sagacity. In it he said to the Notification Committee : "You know how desirous I have been that the insurance investigation should not be colored by any suggestion of political motive. Whatever confidence it has inspired, has been due to absolute independence of politi cal considerations. It is not sufficient to say that an acceptance of this nomination, coming to me unsought and despite an unequivocal statement of my position, would not deflect my course by a hair's breadth, and that I should remain, and that you intend that I should remain, entirely untrammeled. The non-political character of the investigation and its freedom from bias, either of fear or favor, not only must exist; they must be recognized. I cannot permit them, by any action of mine, to become matters of debate. "There are abundant opportunities for misconstruction. Doubtless, many abuses will remain undisclosed, many grievous wrongs, to which the evidence may point from time to time, will be found unsuscepti ble of proof, many promising clues will be taken up in vain. Were I, with the best of
