Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-02-08
Clerk Stratton's Farewell.
REMARKS or WM VI. STaAITox. ESQ, A
THE BA. SUFFER, FEBRUARY Arm.

! At the sbar supper at the Hotel North. on
Friday evening last, the following resolutions
were adopted, complimentary TO Mr. Stratton.
the ex-Clerk of Courts:
| Resolved, That the public services of our
esteemed guest. William VI. Stratton, Esq.
in the office OF Clerk Of Courts for kennebec
county, covering period of thirty-six years.
have been characterized bv snch exemplary
| fidelity. impartiaIity and efficiency, a. to
merit the grateful acknOw Judgments of this
bar and of the public.
| Resolved, That in his retirement from that
Office he carries with him our sincere hope that
| his remaining years may be filled with hap
pness. contcntment. and ''all blessed con
ditions" and be cheered by the plcasan:
memories of an official life stainless the
pages of his records.
After the resolutions were adopted Mr..
Stratton replied as follows. speaking entirely
without notes:
Mr. Chairman, Nessrs. J,stices of the Courts
| and Gentlemen Of the Renaejec Bar
| For the complimentary reference to myself
and my services contained in the resolutions
| Just adopted, | tender vou my most grateful
Acknowledgements. | thank YOU also for this
happy occasion so generously devised and
carried out for our leave-taking. And my
thanks are not only due to you. gentlemen,
but to a long line of judges and lawyers who
have preceded You, many of whom have gone
to their rest, while some still linger amongst
the living. To them and to Won my heart is
| filled with gratitude recall Your unrenit-
| ting kindness. In all my intercourse with
you, | never received an angry or harsh
word. Not that | have the vanity to suppose
| that YOU have not sometimes been tried by
my dlatory habits. my mistakes and blum
dcrs But Won certainly have been verv for
bearing in any expression calculated to wound
my feelings. Here, gentlemen, it would seem
to be the part of wisdom and prudence in me
to resume my seat. 1t would be an act of
the utmost rashness on NV part to attempt to
make n speech. Having for pretty long
lifetime sat at the feet of judges and lawyers.
men skilled in the art of offhand speaking |
have never learned their art. You, gentle
men, talk and talk and have your say. and
| saw it well. while / could take no part in
| your discussions, but have been simply a lis
tener. In my day. too. | have heard with the
| liveliest interest the ablest and most eloquent
advocates of the county and State-Sprague
and Evans, FesSenden and Shcplev. when
they were in their prime, and many others of
almost equal fame. They all gone now.
but their mantes did not fall on me.
|
thing more will be expected of me-some-
thing more | feel is due TO the public, to you
and TO myself 1t would be strange indeed il
an official life so long as mine has been. sub
| ordinate. quiet and uneventtul though it be,
| should not afford material for an after-linner
speech. The materials indeed are ample. but
who shall make the speech? I trust | shall
have your indulgence, gentlemen. if in this
untried field. do not acqu;t myself in the
most creditabe manner.
| Standing here ut the close of life devoted
| to single pursuit for term protracted al
most beyond example, the thought that most
| impresses itself on my mind is the great
length of time-great mean rs measured by
the ordinary term of human lifc-I have been
connected with the courts. As look back
through the long vista of years to that far off
shore where | embarked on the voyage of
life, the view seems misty indeed and dim.
And such has been the quiet and uniform
tenor of my daily lahors. that the incidents
worth recalling are hardly enough to form
milestoncs by the wayside.
Let me mention two or three facts that
cause me to realize that l belong to a dav and
generation now long past. When | first en-
tered the clerks office, having perhaps some
antiquarian predictions. remember with
what curious interest looked at the earliest
records of the county. saw there the names
of Robert Treat Paine, of Parsons. SewalI.
Sedgwick. and other old Massachusetts, Judges
then long since departed. Those records
really seemed to me quite ancient. And vet
gentlemen. the county of Kennebec was then
only thirty-four years old. and my own off
cial term covers a period considerably longer
than that, and reckoning the years of my ap-
premiership exceeding it by third. Would
any young man examining my first records
now regard them old? 1t NAV be So but
il is difficult for me to realize it.
| Another fact in the same line OF thought
Is there n person here tonight. other than
myself, who remembers to have seen the
first Chief Justice of our Supreme Court
Prentiss Mellen? Yet it is nv pleasure 10
have seen him and to have received kindly
word from that eminent man. Iou will rec
Object that in all the Biographical sketches of
Judge Mellen. it is mentioned as a promi-
nent trait in his character. the exceeding del
icacy and sensitiveness of his organization.
As a presiding Judge he sometimes
spoken of as fussv. Woe be to the Sheriff
where he presided who did not keep the air
pure and the temperature Just right. Nv
own brief interview with him exhibited this
characteristic. The old Judge being in the
clerks office one day asked me TO sharpen
his penknife. Those were the DAYS of Quill
pens; elliott had not then been heard of |
remember as tested the edge of that harnl-
less little instrument upon my thumb ball
how quickly the old judge fiinched. and
begged me to desist with as much earnes,ness
as if had been about to do some deed Of
bloody violence.
Another fact which shows that | have
moved amongst the living about long enough.
is the great number of lawyers whose rise
and progress and decline have myself wit
messed. Let ME recall one out of many. \
year or two before came to Augusta. un-
dertook to teach a district school in q remote
part of my native town. Winslow. Unhappi-
" it was the fashion in that dsv more than
it is at present. to impart knowledge through
the instrumentali,y of the birch, and sue
ceeded pretty soon in getting myself prose-
cuted for an assault and battery | needed
counsel of course, and l went to the place
which then was, and always has been since.
Just the place to find a smart lawyer-over TO
Waterville. l waited upon and engaged
young man, then a very tyro in the profes.
sion. familiarity known as Sam Wells. Mr..
| WelIs drove IN tho ,~lo-.