The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-08-25
From the New York Times.
LAWYERS.

"Ho SfOi uiouS"s VI PityHiS iaWyeT!-
He who shows no mercy-shall we have mer-
cy on him? he who never pities suffering ju-
rors or trembling witnesses, shall we stop to
pity him? But let us consider whether they
of the bar may not also have some wrongs,
for the redressal of which they are too mod
est to ask. "No, Sir" says chap a, our
elbow, who is daily reminded how he was
snubbed fortnight since by limb of the
law. "No, never" saysthe modest miss, who
is sure that the lawyer asked her some ques-
tons that gentleman would never ask a lady
under oath. Lawyers have always been
looked upon as saucy, independent fellows,
and not uncomfortably wretched after once
the countenance is properly overlaid with
brass, and the conscience toughened. Country
lawyers come 10 be considered as walking
statutes, and repositories for dead mems
wills and living mems secrets, and they are
naturally divided into two classes;-the one
heartily detested for their impudence, and
the other highly respected for their wisdom
and stores Of honest counsel. ...
We met company of lawyers the other
day returning from a-General Term which
had fallen through on account of the sickness
of Judge. There had been no chance TO let
off the steam pent up within them. The
thought occurred to us: Is not this ne.
elected class of our felow-citizens! and while
so abnndantly we are commiseratng with the
prisoner at the bar, are we right in passing
by the gentlemen who are in the same pre-
dicament?
One thing is undoubtedly truc-the legal
profession have always been held in common
by the world at large as lap-stone whereon
to crack their jokes, and the said profession
have shown themselves models of patience
surely. But are we sure that they have not
sometimes laughed in their sleeves as we
bowed respectfully to them, and inwardly
sighed when we joked them? Perhaps, after
all, what we have doomed their especial glo-
ry, the law's delay, is their great trouble, the
very thing that tries their patience. Welook
upon the law as lucrative profession; but
take the whole number of the lawyers in
Gotham, and divide among them the aggre-
gate amount of their income, and tell us
whetherit is enough for man who pays
house rent to live on. We count man as
good as dead when he gets into the law-as
d woman is dead in law when she is so for
tunate as to get married. But if we count
up all who die thus, it would hardly give one
carcass to score of lawyers. True, we pay
our lawyers well for what they do for us,
but like wise men, we fall as seldom into
their hands as possible, and like fools, when
we need their helpwe try to do without it.
In the country, where lawyers are generally
respected, we suspect it is often that they
earn only respectable starvation. Buy a
farm worth fortune, and you pay one dollar
for good counsel to draw the deed that con-
veys it to yourself and your heirs forever;
and the eouesellor sets you down for SEN
sible man, for he knows his best business is
coming out of those scores of deeds and
agreements written by laymen, at fifty cents
apiece. A lawyer in the country is no small
potatoe lawyer if he makes his five hundred
dollars by honest practice. Those who sue
ceed in makinga living, without farming
little besides, may, when years have given
him experience, count on comfortable in
come of a thousand ortwelve hundred dol
lars year. But such you will find contnu-
ally at work, always ga doing" They may
'ride about the country" but it is generally
"on business" They are not blessed "with
the abundance of leisure" that the son of
Sirach said was essential to "much learning"
They earn all their bread-we do not be-
grudge crumb of it. They are more honest
than they are reputed-an honester world
this would be if we could say the same of
all classos. .. ..,
sSJs A nlethoric round viS1ppd individual