Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-18

inson ct al. VS.. State of Georgia, Is Ga,
P. 60, and to come off victorious. As
said IN a previous letter, be is now the
only surviving lawyer in the practice of
all the lawyers who lived In Savannah
| nifty years ago. And he is not in Geor-
gia. A native low country Georgian, and
the descendant of native Georgians, it is
meet he should pass the evening Of his
days Where he passed his morning and
noon. We know that BerTien and
Law, and Charlton and Harden. and Guy
Ter and Gordon and their confreres are
dead, and we are recOnciled that their
forms and faces no longer appear on the
beautiful streets and parks of Savannah,
but with the knowledge that John FL
lott Ward is yet in active life and not
there, creates a void that can be and
should be filed. have some more than
/ pleasant memories of my stay in that
office. 1t was there that l first saw
several Of the old and noted men Of that
/ time, and, with some, my first sight was
my last; 1t was there l saw Col.
William Mcintosh, Thomas $. Clay
and Archibald Clark. The latter
/ was an ancient lawyer of Camden
/ county, and the patriarch Of a numerous
/ pOSterity. There / first saw Mai. VIM. !.
| Hansell, the afterwards NestOr of the
| Georgia bar, but whom l came to know
well when l went to the interior of the
/ State. / have a memory. which is more
/ like vision, of a little fair-cOmplected.
! authenticated girl, the Judges oldest
! child, who often came to the office. and |
| cannot realize, notwithstanding the full
/ forty years since, that she is not the same
l little girl vet, for / see her now as l did
/ then, and only have seen her.
When that noble and sweet-mannered
/ gentleman, Judge Charlton, surrendered
forever his gentle breath, the firm became
g fyrn Fh,v, &
Jones, and finally was terminated at
savannah by the removal of Ward &
Jones to New York city, where the same
firm was continued for many years. Jones
was Charles Z. Jones, the scholar and his
tOrian, who now resides at Summerville,
near Augusta, Ga. There were two of
the Owenses, John W. and George S. The
first-named was the most gifted of the
family, and just as his ability was gen.
orally recognized. and fame was in his
grasp, he yielded as all the human
family have. or will, to death-the ''Old, old
fashioned DEATH" as Dickens calls it.
George ;. has retired from the practice.
He was the youngest Of three brothers of
Hon. Geo. W. Owens { a lawyer of more
than 80 years ago. who were all lawyers:
Mr.. MacAllister had two sons who took
their fathers profession. Judge Law has
two sons, VIM. W. GOrden, Robert NJ.
Charlton, Edward J. Harden and John 4.
Ward, had or have each a son in the pro-
fessiOn. So as the fathers die the mantles
fall upon the sons.
Before closing this letter [ must say
something of the law students of Charl-
ton & Ward. George ;. Owens.
and John +. Guilmartin were my
fellow students. George S, as already
seen, is present, and speaks for himself.
Guilmartin was allured into office, and
faH oil Il -
first or second term. Henry J. Stewart
went out short time before l came in.
He settled at TrOupville, Lowndes cOun-
ty. Georgia, and after a few years re-
moved to Jasper, Hamilton county, FlOri-
da, where be yet resides and practices
law, having been Judge, He is native
Of Liberty county, and Is Of the we'll
known family Of Stewart Of that
county. Immediately preceding me was
John Love Laurie. The mention of
this name will instantly arouse memories
the most pleasant with contemporaneOus
citizens Of Savannah who yet survive. In
the year 1889 there appeared there a
Scottish youth. He was Just at that age
and that maturity when he might be
classed either as boy or man. He was
not literally ga beardless bOy,'' for the
down on his cheek suggested the coming
razor. Short in stature, rudy In COM
pleXiOn, agile in movement, artless and
cOntiding in manner, learned and read be-
yOnd his years. pOetical Of temperament,
dressed in the plaids and bright
cOlOrs of his cOuntrymen, he was
a youth Of Is to notice and admire,
for such shining qualities, set off by a
pleasing picturesqueness. The musical I
information of his child-like voice, speak
ing in the sweetest OF all dialects, went
straight to the heart of the hearer and there
abided forever. That the soil, climate and
society of Scotland had produced a speci-
men like this, carried with the knOwl-
edge the full realization Of such a creation
as Robert Burns, and we were ready to
repeat from Whittier's ideal of him
Il saw the same blithe day return,
The same sweet fall of even,
That rose on wooded Craigie burn
And sank in Crystal Devon
Then his name was Laurie, historical
and poetic name, known throughout all the
Scottish borders. Who could fail to con-
found him with the Annie of that name,
made immortal by the immortal dBOny-
nous poet and fancy that this fairy youth
was fresh from where "MaXweltOn Braes
were bonnie and early ta's the dewT'
These sweet decisions were not without
their confirmation as convictions, when
some Willie Nicoll of this country would
''brew his peck O maui" aad some
Robert, and some Allen, 'waud cam to
see"
This youthful genius, who lived in
ethereal realms, far above the common
sense and common drudgery of a law
yer's life, aspired to graft upon the
thrones of Coke and LittletOn the roses of
the poets. As might have been known
before the experiment, the roses would
not flourish in such revolving contact.
Young Laurie had electrified the city by
his poems and prose, published in "Ihs
Magnolia" a monthly periodical OF high
merit, of which Phillip c. PendletOn was
editor. He had drawn to him through his
writings and bearing, in friendly contact,
as we'll as in admiration, such men as Bish-
op Elliott, DIR. Arnold, Judge Charlton,
and many others of the learned and elite
of the city. After his admission to the
bar he located in Townsville, Ga, but it
soon proved that he was no more fitted by
nature and education for the practice Of
law in land Of '"cOrn and cotton" than
Burns was fitted for an EXciseman on the
SOlway. In the maZes of the law the
poet became entangled and bewildered,
and yet continued the struggle. Joaquin
Miller has a poem, the warp of which is,
that the man who succeeds wins glory;
the man who fails, sympathy; yet more
deserving than either, is ''the man who
fails, and yet fights on"
In the month Of April, 1858, l was
at Mariana, Florida. While TAX
ing nv breakfast the first
morning after my arrival how my eyes
were gladdened with the sight of John
Love Laurie, who came tripping into the
breaAfast room with that same elastic
step, and that same bright cOuntenance,
with his soul looking through its beauti-
full windows. He was one of those few
choice spirits who, ObliviOus that he
might be surrounded by DAVIS if only at
times J, ''wore his heart upon his sleeve |
for them to peck at" How glad was to
meet him once more, and gladder yet to
see how cheerful and comfortable he was!
He had not long before located there to
practice law. His prospects were good, /
and soon his family would follow. So he
said, and so he believed. l had my doubts,
but as Florida was the Land of Flowers, !
the land of romance, and was supposed |
to have the tabled spring that could make
youth eternal, / was not without hope
that the Scottish poet and a cOngenial
people had met. But yet had some mis- |
giving that wherever he went there would
be somebody to make "the browst," and /
that that somebody and that brOlCSt would
be a temptation my dear little warm
hearted Scotch friend could not resist.
However this may have been, we parted,
and the succeeding fall the yellow demon
Of an epidemic made his appearance
in Galveston Tpvqs IL was my horror 70