Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-11-18
NiScOnSin'S Dead JuriSt.

| open court at Madison, on the Jth INST
Those delivered by James G. Jenkins,
of Milwaukee, and VIM. F. Villas, of
Madison, were as follows:
Mr.. Villas
MAY IT PLEASE YouR HoNoRs:-The unusual
asSemhlage of so many of the bar of the state,
! the sad sense of bereavement and sorrow which
sits upon the yisageS of those here present, the
funeral decorations of this court room that empty
chair so eloquent all preSage the melancholy an
nouncement which am deputed Y my brethren
| cf the state bar in accordance IN the solemn
uSages Of the profession, to formally make TO the
court.
Chief Justice Ryan is more,
That profound and abundant wealth of learn
ing, that eloquent tongue that massive brain,
which like an exhaustless mine, yielded richer
stores the deeper it tried while its every pro-
duet spanked with the gleam of priceless value,
gone from men, lost to us and TO the state, for
everi
a pioneer of civilization to the bar of the west;
an advocate fit to cope with any of historic re-
nOwn; a lawyer and judge of comprehensive
and accurate learning, penetrating acumen and
wise Judgment the head of the bar and the chief
justice of the state; profession and people may
well sit down in sackcloth and ashes, lamenting
our irreparable loss. He was n man. take him
for all in ALL we shall not look upon his like
againw
The duty of this solemn hour cannot hope to
discharge. The day for preparation afforded me-
has been half destroyed by illness. But no time
would be enough for me to do the great theme
justice. He was, in every aspect in which his
character and abilities regarded, extraordi
nary man. Every faculty he exerted, every
complishment he assumed to possess, every passion
which moved him, was great, intensely great He
was giant among men, il SOUL intellect and at
tributes.
It would require his own power and discrimina-
ton, his perfection of speech, truly to repre-
sent him. In the hands of such an artist in Ian
guage, the portrait of his mind aud character
would be as striking and absorbing IN interest as
any ever drawn for the gaze and wonder of man
kind. But who now shall paint it, know none
who could but him. and in his death, the subject,
the artist and the portrait, are lost together!
l shall attempt but rapid statement OF his
life, and to point out a few salient features of
his character and powers.
On the 18th of November, 1910, at New Castle
House. in the county of Meath, Ireland, Edward
q. Ryan was born His parents were possessors
of fortune, but, second son, he took no share,
save what was bestowed on his education. He
completed in 1927, the course of instruction at
ClOng0ne's Wood Cottage, and entered upon the
study Of the law. He had but partly finished
that course, when, in $780, he migrated to New
York. There, sometimes teaching in private
schools, sometimes at work in the Office, to gain
support, he pursued his legal studies until 1896.
In that year he called to the bar and removed
to Chicago, then but village in the remote west.
Here he practiced for six years, mingling with
professional duties the work of editing news
paper. In 1910 and 1871 he was prosecuting at
tOrney Of the county. In 1S42 he changed his
residence to Racine; and in 1916, represented that
county in the first constitutional convention of
Wisconsin. In 1913 he removed his residence
to Milwaukee, where his bones now repose.
There he practised his profession until called in
June, 1874, to this bench, holding in the mean
time, for three years, the Office of city attorney.
From the time he took his seat here he continued
in faithful labor, often interrupted by failing
health, but always persistenty resumed, until the
18th day Of October last when broken and ex-
hausted by his patieEt toll, he descended from
his seat to his last bed where the morning of
the 18th Of October, he passed away. Laid to
his final rest by his brethren of the bap and the
bench, his remains rcpose il Forest Home Ceme-
terry near the city of his unchanging love.
Heaven give him rest
1t is fair question whether his wondrous
powers as Il writer, a speaker, and lawyer, were
due i'll greater degree to the strength Of his natural
parts or to the perfection of his education. Per-
hapS generally it would be answered to the former.
But certainit is no one was ever more finished by
education. Every spoken and every written per-
tornance If his life bears the impress of his
learning, shines conspcuously with the lustre Of
his scholarship. His training was chiefly in law
and in language: in both remarkable for accuracy
and finish. And it is especially noteworthy, that
lie Was IN MS enllnence III DOtl, SeI1-tfalneQ lie
finished his course III school at seventeen; he was
but twenty when he quit his pupilage in law in
his native country for the new world. From that
time forward his instruction administered
to him by himself, from books and observation of
men. His history as we see it. discleses marked
precocity. For six years after his coming to this
country, he supported himself by teaching and
clerical labor, while he prosecuted his preparation
for the profession. He was admitted to the bar
at twenty six, but does not appear to have at
tracted especial attention to his superior powers
until past thirty. He was in his thirty-sixth year
when, in the first constitutional convention of the
territory, lie acquired that acknowledged pre-
eminence which he ever after maintained.
10 me, his natural parts appear most splendid
and valuable for the manner in which they as
simulated and protted by knowledge and observa-
ton. Every book he read and every hour he
passed of life made addition to his powers. He
did not merely read and see to add to store Of
learning; what he gained was not so much in
crease OF possessions, increase of power, Of the
mind. He read much but never inactively. No
book held him IN passive submission; he mastered
it easily with acute and ana lytical grasp. His
memory retentiye and exact; yet he never
seemed to speak much from remembrance as
from himself. This was no less true of his dis
course upon legal than upon literary topics His
understanding was so informed by his methods of
study that what it gave forth was his own; + in
substance, the learning of the books, in form and
manner so marked by his genius to be ap
parently his own
And so vigorous was his grasp so clear his CON
cepton. So finished mis- style. that it is rare to
find instances when he has added to the yigor and
beauty of his expression by any quotation from
others, although his extensive reading supplied
him readily.
But he was not only rich in the lore
Of books, he was an accurate observer OF
men. 1t has never been my fortune to meet with
any who was his equal in ability to
lyze character. He read the motives Of
action the various faculties and changing char
acteristics of men, with ntuitivc ease and nice
justice. This gave peculiar force to his speech
when inyeighing against the conduct and motives
Of those he attacked; feature Of his powers
which made him not less terrible to his enemies,
than the wonder of his hearers, when the occasion
demanded or allowed the exhibition.
His course of self-educatiOn was not limited, Gs
SO commonly the error is made. to mere processes
of study. He refined and corrected his ideas by
diligent writing, and enlarged their abundance by
frequent conversation. They who read with de-
light the smooth and delicious flow of his compo-
siton. who ride at ease of understanding upon the
perspicuous current of his expressed thought
clearly informed without effort of their own save
attention, upon abstruse and difficult subjects Of
distressful doubt are little fitted TO realize the
freight of labor which every word carried from
his brain. Yet they who know his habit Of writ
ing can testify to the painstaking toll with
which he criticized and purified every product of
his pen. He could if he would, compose with
rapidity unsurpassed by any and the hasty labor
Of his desk lie could well trust In com
petition with the fruit of pains in others. But he
was too sincere and ardent a servant and lover of
the English language, to imprint her words with
haste or indolent inattention on page where they
might stand to her and his reproach. To him the
legal rule of Interpretation was fact Every
word has his meaning" He vigorously
demned tes debauchery of language which the