103
The Editor's Bag might readily have felt himself bound by them. Instead, he applied the principle of the merit system to the Supreme Court, making what was dis tinctly a merit appointment, and the merit system is necessarily independent of precedents and dispenses with red tape in determining the qualifications of candidates. Doubtless the hands of
future Presidents will be left entirely free. Even if the promotion of Associate Justices should become the usual mode
of selecting the Chief Justice, the con sequences of honorable rivalry among aspirants for the honor are not to be
your grievances. If you have proposi tions that answer your opponent's po sitions and are full of your case, you
will soon make the Court see what those propositions are. “There are some superstitions con nected with appellate practice.
There
isa superstition that sometimes appel late courts go to sleep during an oral
argument. But do not let this dis concert you or deter you from your argument. It is a mere fanciful pleas antry. The Court does not sleep. If
a judge settles back in his chair and closes his eyes he is not asleep.
He
is but indulging in a spell of philo
feared, it is only the clandestine activity
sophical
of judges willing to stoop to petty intrigue that is to be dreaded. And
if the countenance of the good judge
under the merit system there is always a
diminishing possibility of judges of the sort likely to make improper use of
their position finding themselves on the bench of the Supreme Court.
introspection.
Furthermore,
whose eyes are closed assumes a placid expression of benign and settled repose,
he is still not asleep in a vulgar sense. What you see is but the outward ex pression of the inward judicial grace
of calmness.”
..-_,?_§7_‘f_1 _‘r
v a‘: qun’
LOOK THE COURT IN THE EYE OOD suggestions, particularly help ful to young lawyers in the prepa
OBITER DICTA}, "their"
- ‘m" z
' use‘;
ration and conduct of their cases, were
HE Justice of the Peaoein aGeorgia town was a universal favorite and was noted for the amount of his pro
offered by Mr. Justice Larnm of the
fanity and the very original character
Supreme Court of Missouri in a recent address. To quote:—
of his oaths. It was said that while he swore in almost every sentence he‘ut bination tered, he of never cuss-words repeatedmore the same than once. com~
"Avoid reading your statement if long and complicated. Most men read you can
While fox-hunting last fall he fell
rest with some degree of assurance on the proposition that most judges on an appellate bench can read for themselves. Stand at the counsel table and look the Court in the eye. If you are timid at the start take courage from the fact that, if you are full of your case, that fullness of lmowledge is bound to come forth as you go on. If you have real complaints to make of the rulings below
under his horse and was seriously in
indiflerently well.
Besides,
you will soon tell the upper Court of
jured, and that evening several of his neighbors called to inquire as to his condition. When they saw the physician and the clergyman coming from the sick room together they were apprehensive
and hastily asked for news of the in valid. It was the minister who replied: "Hush! don't make any "Olsei he is
