The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1874-05-23
our @lio.
From Homespun.
THE COUNTRY LAWYER.

sill, his thumbs hooked in The armholes Of
his waistcoat, and his frm-sct head as full
Of wisdom as an egg is Of meat. Ifa eli
ent happens to be sharing the hour with
him, he is either talking in that resonant
tone which so impresses itself on all his
clients minds, or the brazen echoes Of his
professional laugh are reverberating up and
down the village street
He rejoiees in that voice Of his, which
is SO hard and loud, esteeming it gift, by
whose help he impresses his personal pow
er upon clients and opponents alike. When
he rises in court to wrangle and argue, it
is with deliberateness which few men
can parallel. The sweet and bitter cud Of
legal lore he chews without cessation. For
tilted within the entrenchments Of profess
sional dignity, he sallies out only when he
feels very sure Of bringing back the enemy
captive. All the little boys look up to
him in wonder, remembering what hand
he has had in sending off thieves and
drunkards and otherwise questionable
characters to the county lookup.
There are some few persons, and partic,
ularly in country towns, who imagine it q
great gift to be lawyer, They regard
this character as the Jupiter Tonans Of
the rural Olympus. They associate all
that is great and worthy In the State with
his occupation. He, of all the rest, is the
one man who attends to the business Of
everybody else. He is as handy at private
as at public affairs, He draws up wills
for dying persons-bas hand in the se:-
tlement Of estates-throws his professional
guardianship around the orphans and faith
erless--becomes the trustee of property Of
all descriptions and values es-managcs del.
icate questions arising between the differ
ent members of the same family--improyes
the slender estates of widows and maiden
ladics--attends the justice courts, those
rural standards and institutes Of law and
order--helps employ teacher for the
Academy-and is sometimes an active
member Of that very important body known
as the Church Committee. There is, in
fact, no office which the village advocate
and attorney is not qualified to fill. Let
it be never SO triaing and inconsiderable,
he will manage to invest it with such pomp
and circumstance Of learned phraseology
as shall make il seem scarcely less impor.
tant and dignifed than the Presidency it,
self. It is indeed wonder, what u fac,
ulty country lawyer has Of extracting
the very essence of dignity out of some
kinds of occupation, in themselves so pitt
ful and mean
In the same town Of Follifog lived aud
practiced, too, Squire Bingham. The
Squire was one of the reputed Solons of
the place. He was man very generally
'flooked up to-" by Toe as well as by friend
Aside from the doctor and the minister
no one was popularity reckoned wiser than
he. In the stores and at the tavern men
listened to him with eagerness, and felt
grateful to catch the very drippings from
the caves Of his wisdom. He could stand
and face people in church with settled
assurance that was worth fortune to any
lawyer. and few were the eyes which
could wrestle with his, and not catch sud
den fall.
/! In his profession, no man was ever
known to be more stirring than Squire
Bingham. Everybody knew thdt, to their
cost, Numbers who had gone to law un-
der his lead for damages" were quito
ready to admit that they got them. BY
the force Of his energy and the persuasive
ness of his eloquence, he had managed to
secure plentiful emoluments, aud was--at
the particular time / speak of--on the
high road to public Office and favor. Long
ago had tho popular voice pronounced him
a "smart" lawyer, which means whatever
you please, What the popular heat night
have chosen to say Of him,-supposing it
possessed Of so miraculous an organ as a
tongue,--would not so well suit this pres.
ent purpose to repeat. He occupied as
fine house as any man in town already.
He ''stood high" with the inhabitants, and
exchanged familiar calls with the minis
ter's family; and in the days when the
ministers Of sequestered towns were vir-
tually Popes in their little realms, this
one fact was a sure guaranty Of respceta-
bility, if not an actual passport to local
eminence.
The lawyers house stood behind a
couple of silvery sycamores, scarcely more
stately than himself, that impaired a man
sion-liko appearance to the dwelling itself;
whilst within the cincture Of its white FL
agree fence throve shrubs aud flowers
enough to have made the heart Of any
country lawyer as soft as woman's, po-
cts, or story-teller's. The front walk
was of broad and clean Aagging-stoncs,
which was luxury very few Of the house
holders round about could well afford. A
huge lilac-bush stood beneath either front
window, and furnished, in the season Of
Towering, fragrance for the whole length
of the street; while it unhappily led not a
few little boys, on their way to Sabbath
school, into desperate bogs of temptation,
from desire to snap of spikes Of the
royal purple blossoms and stick them in
their button-holes. Snow.balls, too, were
growing in immense clusters in that yard;
and, here aud there, hollyhock, a bunch
Of pinks, and screen Of morniag-glory