178
The Green Bag
But I thought him a quite ordinary bore. He had a cheap wit, a self-satis fied way of taking the jury into his
trouble is there is no vent for the gas; it stays in the courtroom, near the jury box.
confidence by a sidelong glance after a
particularly irritating question to the witness. I could have killed him before that case was done. In his argument
When you consider that in almost every case the lawyer can decide whether or not it shall be brought to court, the
he indulged in school-of-expression elo quence. I was moved. I wept tears of vexation and weariness. He ought
quite patent. What cases they bring in! How righteously convinced they are
to be sent to Congress for life.
If there
is such a crime as contempt of counsel, I owe two million dollars in fines.
of the truth of things they know aren't so! Judge Pierce said in a recent de cision: "It would be a waste of time
The Wessex County Court House is beautiful. It cost the taxpayers about four times what it is worth, but it is worth a great deal. All the panels,
to analyze the testimony; much of it on either side was not commendable;
rails, chairs, tables are carved in the same design from oak that is a joy to
look at. In front of our jury box was a
not intended for the elucidation of truth, but for victory.” Did any jury man ever hear a case in which the law
bar as thick as a steamer rail, twelve or
yers tried to elucidate the truth?
fourteen feet long.
a lawyer ever think of anything but victory? Is not the whole profession of law, which makes a poker-game of the quarrels of life, essentially damaging
(On the witness
stand I should not say it was twelve
feet; I should say it was as long as from here over there.) How the lawyers pounded that rail! They are going to wear out that fine piece of oak, and then the county will have to put in a new one and taxes will go up. Cannot lawyers learn that they must not thump that rail? — that they are offensive when they protrude their faces into a juryman's
face and simulate an earnestness which the facts of the case do not warrant? If I were a prejudiced man, as preju diced as other jurymen, I should have decided each case in favor of the lawyer who refrained from assaulting that
oak rail. But unhappily the lawyer would not have paid the penalty. It is the clients who sufier— both clients
it was false in spirit, though perhaps true in fact.
It was diplomatic; it was
Does
to the character of the lawyer? I cannot
indict a whole profession, and so I am forced to conclude that the lawyer who remains an upright man must have great
character (and probably good home influences), to have resisted the corrup
tions of his daily business. It is the legal brethren who stimulate litigation, aggravate quarrels and
keep law a
muddle-tongued mystery in order that it may seem difficult and learned and make people walk into the attorney's
little parlor. The courthouse at Mortville is main tained chiefly for the purpose of de termining how much money shall be
in some cases.
paid to injured and uninjured individuals
Carlyle says: “Law courts seem noth ing; yet in fact they are, the worst of
by The Elevated Railway Company,
them, something; chimneys for the deviltry and contention of men to escape
pany and The New York, New Haven
by.”
II
selfishness of the legal profession is
Well, maybe so, old sage; the
The Old Province Street Railway Com & Hartford Railway Company (a cor poration doing business in East Mill
