Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-05
OUR SUPREME COURT.
Something About the Men Who Hans
Down the Learned Decisions.

with redder faces and brighter eyes,
ready for the fall term of the court, which
begins in a few days. l haven't seen the
stocky Chief Justice yet. He is, think,
still at the old home of the Waites-Lyme,
| Conn.-where his summers are spent. He
does not strike you as a Connecticut
man. He lived in Ohio long enough to
get that bucolic air which tones down
the sharp New England edges. He is
short man, with good deal Of well-dis-
tributed flesh, a pleasant face, and silVery
hair and beard. His wife says he
never reads any thing but law books, and
his conversation confirms her statement.
don't think that he cares to converse
/ about anything else. But he has a very
pleasant conversational manner. Now,
! his daughter can talk on any subject
for a little while at least. She is very
active and enterprising leader of young
society. She also takes her mothers
place in older society, her mother being
an invalid. She is especially at home in
organizing a charitable entertainment
| private theatricals in particular. She
is an excellent business woman, and
would make as good a manager
of the Boston Ideals as Miss
Ober. Her father greatly admires
her social ability. He is proud to act as
her errand boy when some philanthropic
scheme is on foot, and may invariably be
seen at her entertainments with half a
| dozen high-priced seats looking anx1ously
around for his brethren of the Supreme
| Court, most of whom have, of course,
| bought tickets to please him. The Waites
live quietly but comfortably in house on
/ street, between Secretary Chandler
and Secretary Gresham. Waite has
thrifty sons who do not live on HIM. He
has a saving way himself, and probably
controls a respectable bank account. |
Mr. Justice Miller, the jolliest of
them all, who is distinguished |
from the rest not only by his brightness |
and his joviality. but by his swallow-tail |
coat, which ne never deserts, has made |
his usual tour this summer to the Pacific |
| coast. Alaska included. 1t is these long, |
| healthful trips that keeps him from sink |
| ing under complication of diseases, |
which would have carried a weaker or a |
| lazier man off long ago. Miller is now |
! the oldest in service on the bench, |
and is one of the three with Presiden- |
! tial aspirations. The others are Field /
and Harlan. Miller is a short, we'll /
! built man, with a proud bearing and |
| handsome, classic head. He talks well, /
! lives well in a house on Massachusetts
/ avenue, near Edmunds and Bayard,
over which his wife presides with great
| dignity, and would be happy if he could
/ be content. Field is just in the same box
save that he is a tri1e lame. He is a
short man with fine head, gray hair,
gray beard and gold trimmed spectacles.
HE IS THE ONLY DEMOCRAT ON THE
BENCH,
| and hence is given to political colOring in
his opinions, for he thinks himself Presi-
Dental candidate who will certainly be
nominated some day, and whose political
opinions ought to be well known. He
lives comfortably on Capitol Hill with
devoted wife, whose love for him is of the
old-fashioned sort. Mr.. Justice Bradley,
whose seat Mr.. Attorney General Brews-
ter would like to occupy, and who will,
for that, if for no other reason. hold on to
it as long as possible, is a little, dry old
man, with gray hair, and low voice. He
looks very much like caricature of Til
den. He is not Of very happy DISPOSE
ton, and this, complicated with Scotch
dyspepsia, has saddened him. But he
ought to be happy, for he has good wife
and very superior daughter. They, too,
live on Capitol Hill, and, like the Fields,
90 to New England in the summer. Now
Judge Harlan is a big, bluff, red-faced
Kentucky blond, who goes to Block Island
in the summer and fishes and sails and
swims, and has a good time generally.
He enjoys life, especially that life where he
becomes boy again with his three stall
wart sons, one OF whom, very lOveable
young man, enters the Presbyterian min
istry this year. The Harlans live on
Massachusetts avenue, in the West End,
when they are at home. Judge Harlan
does not allow his Presidential aspira-
ratiOns to spoil his sleep, but he cherishes
them nevertheless. Mr.. Justice Woods is
too we'll known in Georgia to be de-
scribed. He and his family are good
Washingtonians, though, now. They live
very comfortably on Vermont ave-
nue., and are very much liked. The Judge
is quite content with his present position.
Mr.. Justice Matthews and his family are
of the Ohio type. With their handsome
new house on Connecticut avenue, and
all their fnery and all their entertain
ments, they are still very rural. Taey are
pleasant people. The Judge talks well
and lives well. They wander about New
England in summer. Mr.. Justice Gray !
and Nr. Justice Blatchford are the rich |
members of the court. Blatchford is
mill owner. Gray is little else. Gray il
the biggest man on the bench. He tops
Harlan half head. He has big, broad
English face, red cheeks and side Whis-
kers. He is bali. He is the bachelor CT
the court. His romance is buried in a {
little Massachusetts town, where a sweet !
faced maiden lady still waits for him,
Years ago, when both were young, he beg
ged her to marry him; but she had family
cares-an old father, who needed her
and she would not say Eyes" then. After {
awhile he ceased to urge her and went r
away, and both have remained unmarried
to this dav. The Judge has satisfied his am
billion, but he does not look happy-eXcept, I
| should say, at dinner. He is the epicure I
of a body all Of whose members are good r
judges of the good things of this world. I
In Boston he liked to do his own market z
ing, getting only the best and freshest /
and paying the lowest prices. but here T
he lives on Rhode Island avenue,
two miles from the Central (main Mar !
ket, and | fancy his sister, who keeps
house for him, sees to his table. Gray
goes to Newport in the summer. So does
Blatchford. who has a cottage there.
Blatchford-a neat, weIl-shaven, well-pre- j
served old English gentleman, short in '
statue, slow in speech, and reserved and '
ever cold in manner-and his wife also re- t
sembles him-live in a well-built brick
house on b street, near Mcpherson square.
All in all, the members of our highest
tribunal have pretty easy time. They
work hard, but they have time to rest. q
They get $4,000 year and a pension OF {
the same amount when they retire, and
although their docket is three years in
arrears they do not allow it to trouble
them.
QUEER FEATURE OF OUR SUMNER LIFE {
in the West End of Washington is the
negro entertainment which has run since
May l nightly, and almost daily, in
the grounds of the old Van Ness mansion,
just south Of the White House and the
State Department. The Van Ness man.
sion was built about a century ago by one
of the heads Of that powerful family who
owned the big farm now covered by the
fashionable houses of Washington. It
extended from the Potomac nOrthward 10 I
the place where Blaine's hand
some house now stands, and
was almost as broad as it was long.
1t was a very fine residence for the time
and place, built in old Virginia style
of succeed brick, painted white. 1t was !
surrounded with large garden curiOusly
wrought by the arts of a professional
gardener with stiff borders of box and {
sitter beds OF Old-fashioned plants.
Around the garden was an elaborate stuc-
coed brick wall with elaborate gateways
and lodges. 1t was really a very impos-
ing place and was the scene Of some noted !
entertainments. George Washington was
guest, and so was the Marquis Lafayette,
and so were others of less distinction.
But its glory has departed. Nowadays
it is in the hands of some !
shrewd cOlOred men who rent it at a nOmi- ,
nal rate, for it is practically untenable.
They have many cheap Chinese lanterns