The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-03-23
The Supreme Court.
A Fancy of the Way the Work Goes on.

The supreme court room is the one spot in
the capitol into which the stranger tarrying
within our gates does not intrude; indeed, If
the stranger were not guidedoo it, he would
never find it, standing, as it does, in the dark
est niche off the marble corridor leading from
the rotunda of the senate chamber, writes
correspondent of the American Register. If
the stranger can be induced to sit awhile and
content himself he will learn much that is in
structive and see much that is curious. Nine
men, grave and reverend, each one looking as
though he had passed the line of time which
separates ones old age from his prime, sit be-
fore him in quiet dignity. The black silken
robes in which they are clad gives them the ap-
pearance of ministers of the extremely high
church, while the little books they hold in their
hands, with pencils in suspense, seem to belle
the first impression, and raise in fancy the
picture of the race track and betting book. An
inspection of the books, however, proves them
to be the record of the case on hearing, which
dapper little man, in language as dry as the
cobwebs on his Office walls, is arguing. He
speaks in monotone, and the gathered wis
dom of centuries is rolled into his brief. No
buncombe oratory, no flashes of wit, no pa
thetic touches which Adden in the nisi prius
court and float jury's verdict on stream of
tears, characterize the dapper little lawyers
speech, for he is beginning where all feeling
ended-hard, dry reason is the only weapon in
his armory. The case itself may be curiosity;
whatever the decision in il may be, it will be
perpetuated in the reports, and through time
to come other lawyers will learn it and quote
it glibly. Into this court Of last resort it has
come only after long years OF waiting. Mayhap
children were born into it, inheriting 1t as
legacy, and growing into manhood, pinned
their existence to it in hope or groaning under
the disappointment it caused them. blew their
brains out to escape the poverty it entailed;
people may have married into it, grown old
and died natural deaths in it; romance and
reality, love and hate, joy and sorrow may
have iumbled clashingly together in it, but the
record, it will never tell you OF these things
for the record alone contains the legal facts in
it. Certain it is, that it has come from thou
sands of miles away; and Just as truly, has it
been the chase of the butterfly by the child, or
the hunt for the bushel of gold at the foot of
the rainbow. When one quotes the saying of
some learned judge-the older the better-and
applies the principle it contains to certain
circumstance arising from certain fact, one Is
called lawyer; when one looks behind the
title, John Doe VS.. Richard Roe, to analyze the
feeli ngs the joys and heartaches enliyenir
and crushing those who will be enriched or
beggared in the result of the application of the
principle, one is called-a poet "Its good in
its way" says Greenbag and Parchment, after
reading Hamlet, "but it is not the law" at
is sad the men died by the negligence OF fell
low workman; but then their death, though
melancholy has settled the law" says the
learned judge.
So the dapper little lawyer, oblivious of
everything save his books and his reason, con-
tinues in monotone his jargon. So the judges
in silken robes, with books and pencils, listen
as.intently as child to fairy tale by the fire.
side, and so theiauditors slip noiselessly out to
gaze upon the pictures in the rotunda or to
look upon Maryland and Virginia from the
dome. If the stranger, however, still fingers,
and if he will count in the row of judges four
from either end, his eye will rest upon the chief
Justice. To hold the office of chief justice of
the supreme court is to hold the highest office
in the country. Members and senators WELD
their powers and distribute their patronage
only for a few brief years at best; the popular
breath that makes them also DEGREES their
change. The President himself decends from
his lofty position to mingle among the people,
with only the simple prefix " Mr. placed be-
fore his name, but the chief justice of the
supreme court of the United States of America
is chief justice for life, regardless of popular
changes and chances; nay, in death history
will always speak of him as the chief Justice.
He represents human ambition satisfied; he
is Alexander without that monarch's grief;
his is the triumph of the Roman general
Around the semi-circular walls with their
dead faces cut in marble, watching the pro-
ceedings to-day, the stranger may count the
chief justices that have been since the republic
began, and the number, including the present
incumbent, will only reach the figure OF 8.
Only six chief Justices in 90 years 1.-THE strang-
er believes longevity is one of the benefits of
the position. Many wrecks of empire have
been thrown upon the shores of time in 93
years; wars and pestilence have depopulated
and laid waste; American liberties have been
more than once threatened and in the midst
of all only six chief justices in turn have pre-
sided over the deliberations Of justice.