River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-11-18

open court at Madison, ON the 9tn INST.
Those delivered by James G. Jenkins,
of Milwaukee, and VIM. F. Villas. of
Madison, were as follows:
Mr.. Villas
MAY IT PLEASE YouR HoSoRs:-The unusual
asselnblage 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 by my brethren
of the state bar, in accordance with the solemn
usages OF the profession, to formally make to the
court.
Chief Justice Ryan is no 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 CLEAN of priceless value
are gone from men Lost TO Us and to the state for
ever
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 f 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 a man, take him
for all in all, We shall not look upon his like
again.
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. lie was in every aspect in which his
character and abilities regarded, an eXtra0rdi
nary man. Every faculty he eXerted, every ac
eomplishment he assumed to possess, every passion
which moved him, great, intensely great He
was a giant among men, in soul. intellect and at
tributes
1t would require his own power and discnmna-
ton, his own perfection of speech truly to repre-
sent him. In the hands of such an artist in lam
guage the portrait Of his mind and 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
| shall attempt but rapid statement of his
life, and to point out Il 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
G. Ryan was born His parents We're possessors
of fortune, but, "A second son, he took no share,
save what was bestowed ON his education. He
completed i'll 1927 the course of instruction at
Clongone's Wood Cottage and enterc upon the
study of the law. lie had bnt partly finished
that course, when, in 1890 he migrated to New
York. There sometimes teaching in private
schools sometimes at work in the office to gain
In that year he was called to the bar and removed
to Chicago, then but village in the remote west.
Here he practced for six years, mlngllng with
professional duties the work of editing news
paper In 1910 and 1871 he was prosecuting at
torney Of the county. IN 1912 he changed his
residence to Racine; and in 1876, 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
l l.. , .
time, for three years the office of city attorney.
From the time he took his seat here, he cont ued
in faithful labor, often interrupted by failing
health, but always persistently resumed until the
18th day of October last, when broken and eX-
hausted by his pateEt toll, he descended from
his seat to his last bed where on the morning of
the 18th of October, he passed away. Laid to
his final rest by his brethren OF the bar and the
bench his remains repose in Forest Home Gene
terry near the city Of his unchanging love.
Heaven give him rest
1t is a fair question whether his wondrous
powers as a writer, a speaker, and lawyer, were
due in greater degree the strength of his natural
parts or to the perfection Of his education. Per-
haps generally it would be answered to the former.
But certain it is no one was ever more finished by
education Every spoken and every written per-
Torrance of his life bears the impress of his
learning, shines conspicuousy 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
he was in his eminence in both, self trained. lie
finished his course in school at seventeen he was
but twenty when he quit his pupage III 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 1t, dlscloses no marked
prccocity. 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 has superior power;
until past thirty lie in his thirty-slXth year
when in the first constitutional convention Of the
territory, he acquired that acknowledged pre-
eminence which he ever after maintained.
To me, his natural parts appear most splendid
and valuable for the manner in which they as
simulated and profted by knowledge and observa-
ton. Every book he read and every hour he
passed of life made addition 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 i'll passive submission; he mastered
it easily with an acute and analytical grasp. His
memory retentiVe and exact; yet he never
seemed to speak so much from remembrance as
from himself This no less true Of his dis
course upon legal than upon literary topics His
understanding SO Informed by his methods OF
study that what it gave forth his own; if in
manner so marked by his genius as to be ap-
parently his own.
And so vigorous was his grasp, 50 clear his con-
ception so finished his 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 his equal in ability to ana
I'VE character He read the motives of
action the various faculties and changing char
acteristics of men, with intuitivc ease, and nice
justice. This gave peculiar force to his speech
when inyeghing 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-educaUion was not limited, as
so commonly the error is made, to mere processes
of study. lie 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-
sition 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
distresstul doubt, are little fitted to realize the
freight of labor which every word ca Tied 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. lie could if he would, compose with a
rapidity unsurpassed by any and the hasty labor
Of his desk he could well trust in com
petition with the fruit of pains in others. But he
was too sincere and ardent servant and lover of
the English language TO imprint her words with
haste or ndolent 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 con-
demned the debauchery of language which the
rapid penny-a-liners of the newspapers have in
tilcted on our native tongue, and the speech of
some, even, of our scholars.
So in all his labor oi writing, dictionaries were
his companions and his friends. lie trusted to no
one of them but surrounded by many, he gath
cred from the best lnguists the perfect hue of in
telhgence and beauty that belonged TO every word
he used and set it then in happy harmony with
its fellows in the finished picture of thought,
which his every period became. Such discipline
had its reward. His style is his own strong, clear
and beautiful not wholly without fault, but as
worthy of study as Addisons not always, in his
opinions perfectly Judicial but turning from that
path only to bring in gems of beauty by the way.
To be able to write as Edward g. Ryan has writ
ten is of glory in letters, sufficient title
to literary renown.
lIe cultivated conversation, and, as | have
thought not only for its pleasures, but for sit
benefits to him. Certain ii is, he shoue in social
discourse with brilliancy not often equalled. In
happy hours when in health and spirits, who more
delightful than he His rapid and easy speech
was wise or witty as the time and subject suited,
but always sweet in the simplicity and purity Of
the language he employed. he was ever con
spicuOus for elegant dietlon in ordinary speech
nor did the tmmult of emotion or passion which
sometimes possessed him mar this accomplishment,
or lead him to vulgarty. 1t rather secuted to