The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1882-05-05
The Supreme Court,

The Supreme Court,
The Supreme Court room is the one
spot in the Capitol in which the
stranger tarrying within our gates
does not intrude; if the stranger were
not guided to it, he would never find
it, standing, as it does, in the darkest
niche of the marble corridor leading
from the rotunda of the Senate Cham
Der. 1t the stranger can be induced to
sit awhile and content himself. he will
learn 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 before him in quiet
dignity. The black silken robes in
which they are clad gives them the
appearance of ministers of the ex-
tremely high church, while the little
books they hold in their hands, with
pencils i'll suspense, seem to belle the
| first impression, and raise in fancy pic
ture of the race-track and betting book.
An inspection of the books, however,
proves them to be the record of the
case OH hearing, which dapper little
man, in language as dry as the cob
webs on his office walls, is arguing.
lie speaks in monotone, and the
| gathered wisdom of centuries is rolled
into his brief No buncome oratory, no
flashes of wit, no pathetic touches
which sadden in the niSj 1)ri,ts Court
and float jurys 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 ar
mory. The case itself may be curl
osity whatever the decision in it may
be, it will be perpe.uated in the reports
and through time to come other law
yers 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, in
heriting it 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 ond sorrow, may have
jumbled clashingly together in it, but
the record, it will never tell you of
these things for the record alone con
tains the legal facts in it. Certain it
is, that it has come from thousands of
miles away; and just as truly, has it
been the case 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 ap
plies the principle it contains to GER
tain fact, one is called lawyer; when
one looks behind the title, John Doe
VS.. Richard Roeh to analyze the feel
ings, the joys and heartaches enliven-
ing and crushing those who will be
enriched or beggared in the result of
the principles, one is called--a poet
dts good in its way says Greenbag
and Parchment, after reading Hamlet,
but it is not the law" 1T is sad the
men died by the negligence Of fel-
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, continues in monotone his
legal jargon. So the Judges in silken
robes, with books and pencils, listens
as intently as child to fairy tale by
the fireside, and so the auditors slip
noiselessly out to gaze upon the pict-
ures 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 from either end his eye will
rest upon the Chief Justice of the Su.
preme Court is to hold the highest
office in the country Members and
Senators WELD their powers and dis
tribute their patronage only for few
brief years at best; the popular breath
which makes them also DEGREES their
change. The president himself de
scends from his lofty position t(
mingle among the people, with only
the simple prefix Mr." placed before
his name, but the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Uuited States o
America is Chief Justice for life, re
gardless of popular changes ant
chances nay, in death, history vii
always speak of him as the Chief Jus
tice, lie represents human ambition
satisfied he is Alexander without tha
monarch's grief; his is the triumph O
the Roman General.
Around the semi circular walls witt
their dead faces cut in marble, watch
ing the proceedings to-day, tn
stranger may count the Chief Justice
who have been since the Republi
began, and the number including tn
present incumbent, will only reach tn
r figure s. Only six Chief Justices il
nirety-three years! The stranger b,
lieves longevity is one of the benefit
of the position. Many wrecks of En-
+ pire have been thrown upon the shore
| of time in ninety, three years; wars an
t pestilence have depopulated and lai
waste; American liberties have bee
more than once threatened, and in I'll
, midst of all only six Chief Justices
turn have presided over the deliber