The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1875-02-20
Ria Fees to Bj0 LaaVuers.
The Brooklyn Eagle of late date publishes an
interesting article on "Big Fees to Big Lawyers"

The Brooklyn Eagle of a late date publishes an
interesting article on "Big Fees to Big Lawyers"
&C., from which we extract the following
"Great lawyers should get great fees, as long
as men are foels enough to get into great dis
putes, and leave matters of infinite delicacy and
untold complications to be decided by twelve
men chosen at haphazard. The death Of Lord
St. Leonards, at the age OF ninety-four, has Get
the curious quilts of the makers of magazine art-
Giles at work on great lawyers, their incomes,
their ways and all that peculiarly pertains to
them. A few pecularities of lawyers, however.
seem TO have escaped observation In America
the average life of sound lawyer is longer than
the average life of men in any other profession
save that of the stage. The reasons for the
,1sngeyity of both are probably the same-good
long exercise, and healthy exercise Of the brain
The actor has more physical exercise than the
lawyer He walks more, gesiculates more and
| in middle life generally is wiser even in his ex-
| cesses.
Lawyers of the very first ability, or Of the
very first reputation, which is not the same thing,
make big moneys. The Jumel case alone has
been worth quarter of million to Chas. O'Con-
or. Sir Roandell Palmer, the opponent of our
Mr. Evars at the Geneva Conference, is supposed
| to receive from his practice from one hundred to
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars year.
This is more than the average receipts Of Mr.
Evars in his regular New York practice. De-
fendilg Presidents is not profitable for a lawyer;
the oSensible aud the real fee Of Mr.. Evarts for
defending Andrew Johnson differ greatly. Mr..
Evart received but ten thousand dollars for his
arduuus services in that trial, while Mr.. Sergeant
Ballantine who has just gone from London to In
dia to defend the Guicowar of Barnda in a mere
murder case received twenty-five thousand dol
lars in gold retainer, and is to receive as
much more, making fifty thousand dollars, the
amount paid to Evarts and to Adams for their
presentation of the case OF this country at the
Geneva Conference Taking it year in and year
out Charles OConor has, legtimatey made
larger income from his practice than any other
American lawyer. Eldon, when the Bar, sci
dom made more than fifty thousand dollars
Yearly legitimate, we mean in pre-. ascertaned,
not contingent fees.
4 ''Mach guessing has been INDUCED in, regard
ing The fees of the leading lawyers in the Beecher
case Eyarts, Beach and Fullerton.
"Evarts has exacted no positive terms He can
scarcely expect more for defending Beecher than
he received for defending the President of the
United States The fee OF Beach is contingent
one, if Tilton gets heavy damages gu. OF Beecher,
Beach will get heavy fee if Tilton gets no ver-
dict or only FIVE cents Beach is likely to 60 fee
less. The easiest great lawyer of the American
Bar is perhaps jeremiah Black Mr.. Black al
ways troubles himself more about the case than
about the fees He would rather win the case
and get not dollar, than lose it and be paid ten
thousand. In the celebrated Milligan Horsey
and Bowles case. Mr. Black never heard of fee
till the case was all over, and, in his own words,
"never thought of it, Lord Brougham Scotch
like, looked well after the main chance, and
while at the Bar made the enormous income OF
five hundred thousand dollars year, al a time
when that amount was equal in purchasing power
to that of million to day.
''Tbe position of Beach and Fullerton in the
Beecher case is specially uagrateful one. They
can obtain fair fee only from portion Of the
funeral expenses of a woman's honor, and the
ruin of oae of the ufost popular and useful divines
of this generation. In his "Ten Thousand a
Year." Warren explains clearly how a lawyer
may not take cases con speculation" but that
be may help his neighbor out of difficulty, and
having so helped him may accept reward. In
this way Quirk, Cannon Y Snap obtained coun-
sci for Tittlebat Titmouse, and according to re-
port, in this way Sam Morris obtained counsel
for that Tittebat ritmouse of marital life Theo-
dore TiItou. Common sense can see little justice
in the objections made against great lawyers TAX
ing contingent fees from needy clients
"a needy client may have just and legal
claim to property, and only need able counsel to
make the justice and legality of his claim clear,
and il able counsel do this for him, fail to see
aught to complain of in their accepting fees from
the moneys they have won for a rightful ow uer. ~
THE MYSTERIES OF MORMON RELATIONSHIP A
Salt Lake correspondent of the Cincinnati Com
naercial sends the following:
every now and then one may see in The press
some prom olem on relatiOnship-as for instance,
that one when young man marries widow and
his father marries her daughter, what relation.
ship do the resulting children bear to each other ?
No doubt these problems merely the result OF
some ingenious brain but nature is always
ahead of art in the matter OF surprises, and some
cases in Utah withia my Knowledge have given
rise 10 consanguneous puzzles that will bother
the master in chancery il the estates ever get into
court.
"Consider the following Brigham Young
married two sisters of Charlie Decker, and Decker
married two daughters of Brigham by other wo-
men. All have children Now, the offspring of
Clara Decker Young and Lucy Decker Young are
cousins Of Charlie Deckers children. But the
latter are grandchildren of the formers father,
aud consequently nephewS and neces of their
own cousins. But the nephew of cousin
blood relationship holding-are second cousins ;
| hence Decker's children must hold that relation
ship toward each other Decker'S wives are half
sisters to the children Of their own sisers-in- law
they are ssters-in-law 10 their 0wa father and
aunts to their own hall sisters N wv l. the re.a-
tonship We're haf.bloed throughout the Canons
VI DtSCeut-dt least III luulhUt-WOHlu tXciuOe
them but rs it doubles on both sides they would
probably be included Hence the TWO Mrs Deck
ers are lin law their own auHts, while Clara D.
and Lucy Young are legal grandmothers to
their nieces and the two sets of children are re-
Spectively cousins, annts and uisces, AMI the
Lord knows what else besides
Elder Allsop, of Sandy Station, mlrried a
widow and her oldest daughter, having At The
same time Young daughter by former wife,
now happily deceased. All this family live in
one house. The daughter OF this oldest wire is
halEsister to his second wife and to the second
wifes children also, aunt to the second wife 8
children, aud consequently her own aunt in-law !
The daughter of the deceased wife is haf-sister 10
all the other children, legal granddaughter to one
step-mother, legal half-sister to the other, and
consequently aunt-in-law 10 herself If they
keep they have begun, they will eventually
produce boy who will be his own grandfather
bishop Samuel Smith, Of Brigham City, has
six wives; the first two no relation to him, the
next two his cousins, and the last two his ueces,
daughters Of his own brother Thus is ne father
and second cousin to two Of his families and
father and granduncle to two more. The chill
dren of his first four wives are full cousins to his
| last two wives, and half brother and sister, as
well as second cousins to those wives children
The further relationship is difficult to trace"