Towanda daily review. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1879-1921, 1881-05-10
The Legal Profession.

The following paper on the legal pro-
fession was written by q literary gentle
man who somstimes visits this place, for
the Lariat, paper conducted by the stu
dents of Wabash College, Crawfordsville,
Ind. We commend it to the careful pc
rusal especially of the younger members
of the bar: ~
Preparation is everything in the life of
q lawyer. He wins or loses his causes
according as he has full or careless prepa"
ration. His whole professional life is in
dcated in advance by the preparation he
makes at the beginning. The first ten,
possibly the first five years after young
man begins to study law will determine
his status. fhe thoroughly masters the
fundamental principles then, he can
thereafter be relied on to make the most
of his causes If he begins professional
life without distinct impression of the
profound reasoning underlying all legal
cancellations he will have most uncer-
tain career. He will win causes without
knowing how he won, or lose without
knowing why he lost. Success and fall
ure alike confuse him.
A man can never be lawyer who has
anything of the parrot in him. That sill
ly bird looks wise and severe without
knowing anything, and repeats words 1t
has caught from others without knowing
what they mean. The laMyer shuns
these distinctive traits Of the parrot.
With full mastery of the elementary writ
ers and thorough familiarity with the
maxims of the law q young man has pro-
lection against unsafe conclusions.
Without this heis like an army without
ORDERS or ship without a compass. "A
student without mastery of the Greek
verb man make clear and acurate trans
lation Of De Corona, but the probability
is that he will not and whatever he does
he does doubtfully, and with difficulty
and without enjoyment. 6
The elementary law writer's are the
grammar Of the law. These must,first be
mastered or every step thereafter will be
hazardous. A lawyer needs at least one
better take two more years of prepara-
tion than was necessary fifty years ago.
The necessity demands, and every year
emphasizes it, from the enormous num-
Der of law books. They increase at the
rate of more than three hundred annual
ly More than two hundred of these are
reports of decided cases. These are, as
a rule, far less satisfactory than the ear
lier decisions. 1t requires keener mind
and more accurate and enlarged prepa-
ration to read and apply the cases of this
day than the cases of fifty years ago.
Then they were decided on principle by
reference to fundamentals. Now deci-
Sions, rest on decisions, and every
case is a frame work where every
thing depends on something else. A
case is apt to bea piece of patch work,
and not completed design. The
discriminating faculty is more and more
demanded that this patch work may be
taken apart aud the conclusions cast
aside which are incongruous and unWar-
ranted. The faculty ridiculed by Butler,
to distinguish and divide Hair, twixt
south and southwest side," is in every
day demand. Every decided case carries
more or less weight and it must be con-
sidcred critically before being accepted
to determine just what weight to give it.
The present way of making briefs is very
much on the scissors and pastepot plan
1t is a search Of digests and reports.
A ,,oop with opa bnnly iS said hn q