The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-08-24
MY FIRST

had been called to the bar not quite
n year, and was seated with my friend
Frank Armitage in IL chambers in the
Temple. Frank had been called
on the same day as myself, and we had
agreed to make III professional start
together. To that end we had become
joint possessors of a set of chambers at
No. 90 Fig-tree Court, and of q boy
named BlObbs, who was known rs our
"clcrk," though his tender years and
seedy garments made the dignified APP.
peilation sound almost ironical. His
style of dress was peculiar, and gave
II the idea that he had several broth
ers of various sizes, and had borrowed
an article of apparel from each-his
boots belonging to the eldest and his
trousers to the youngest. There were
sundry other boys on our staircase, with
whom Blobbs was constantly having lit
tie differences and fighting them out
upon the landing; indeed this, with oc-
casional expeditions to Prosser's for
commissariat purposes, formed the sta
pie of his professional occupations.
When he first undertook his duties we
had started him with a pint bottle of
ink, n rcam of draft paper, and a gross
of pens; and we had enjoined him to
employ all his leisure time in copying
p~recedents. He began with great Wig
or, and copied about a page and a half
in a large schoolboy hand the first
morning, but he never got any farther,
The ream of paper dwindled somehow,
and the ink disappeared to an extent
y which even the numerous little black
devils, with which Blobbs had embel-
lished his domain, failed to account for,
until one morning 1 detected him in the
act of backing his boots with it, and
polishing them with the pen-wiper.
Still, as boys go, Blobbs was not a very
bad specimen; and as we really had no
work for him to do, we were not dis
posed to be extremely angry with him
for not doing it.
Fortunately, Armitage and myself
were both to a considerable extent in
dependent of our profession, for, TO all
appearance, our profession was quite
independent of us. Wehad been called,
as | have mentioned, very nearly a year,
and neither of us had yet been favored
with n brief; nor did there appear to
be any particular likelihood that We
ever should. We had a friend, Charley
Larcombe, who had recently been
articled to q solicitor, and who had
promised that when he was out of his
articles (Which would be in about four
years. and had passed his examination
(Which might be forty), he would
"give us a lift" This rather vague
prospect really appeared to be our only
chance; but with the natural sanguine.
ness of youth we still looked for briefs,
though we had not the ~faintest notion
where they were to come from. In
truth, in the very early days of pro.
fessional career (when we had only beer
barristers for a week or two) we used
to watch with anxious solicitude any
person of legal aspect who was seen to
cross the court in the direction of oui
staircase; but we found hat the per.
son of legal aspect invariably stopped
short at the chambers Of Grimmer, Q,
C., which were immediately below ours,
and the approach of a stranger
had now ceased to excite more
than casual interest. Oui
personal habits too had d~egenerated
At the outset of u career we had
unanimously agreed that every thing OF
an unprofessional character in our be,
longings should be rigidly tabooed. II
particular we had decided that oul