Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/68

This page needs to be proofread.

48

The Green Bag DEADLY REPA RTEE IR EDWARD CARSON, K.C., an

Irishman, is one of the wits of the English bar, and a. skillful and deadly cross-examiner. He recently began his cross-examination of an offensive witness thus :—

Carson.—“I believe you are a heavy drinker?" Witness.—“That’s my business!" Carson (without a moment's hesita

of the bar of that state, and ultimately

he became its Governor. The ex-Governor never forgot his humble beginning, and at the zenith of his power and fame he never arro

gated to himself any of the false pride or pompous manner which other great men have sometimes mistakenly affected, but was genial and companionable in whatever company he found himself.

His rise to place and preferment

ness of the question, and the laughter

naturally brought him enemies, just as preference and advancement may bring enemies to others whom the world

which followed, put the witness com

hails as great or distinguished, and one

pletely at counsel's mercy.

of those enemies was a brother lawyer who, worsted in an argument by the ex-Governor before one of the courts

tion).—“Have you any other?" It is needless to say that the prompt

of Connecticut, taunted him with his

A DESERVED REBUKE N ex-Governor of the state of Con necticut was a man of sterling

merit but of very humble origin, and the field of his first venture in the struggle for place and existence is said to have been made in the neighborhood of the Fulton Market, in New York City; his occupation is said to have been that of renovating the floors and parapher nalia of divers liquor saloons in that locality before their morning opening for business. Such employment necessarily made him an early riser, and as it is pro verbial that the early bird is the lucky one, the opportunity to better his condition quickly fell to his lot.

Certain admirers of his pluck and energy in taking hold of anything that offered, however menial in character,

earned a friendship for him that resulted in his transferring the scene of his labors from New York to eastern Connecticut, with the securing of tem

poral and educational advantages by which he was enabled to acquire an education, and to become a member

humble origin, and to emphasize his enmity and contempt, while decrying the probability of the err-Governor being intellectually or mentally equipped with sufficient knowledge or learning to

enunciate and define a. sound logical proposition of law, angrily remarked to the presiding judge, "Why, sir, that man used to clean spittoons in Fulton Market bar-rooms, and at a not very remote period either.”

The ex-Governor calmly arose from his seat, cast a pitying glance at his

opponent, whose red nose and watery eyes proclaimed unmistakably that he, too, knew something about barrooms,

and turning to the astonished and indignant judge, said, “I pray Almighty

God, sir, that my friend’s career does not end where mine began." LEMAN B. TREADWELL. New York City.

THE LONGEST LEASE T not infrequently happens in Europe that there is some bar to the actual sale of a piece of property-though