Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-08-14
FOUR NEW SUPREME JUDGES.
A Glance at the Men Who Are to R.t.r.
During President Cleveland,s Term.

Vow SOGuc"S OOOSSSa
A Glance ut the Men Who Are to Ree4r.
During President Cleveland's Term.
During this Presidential term four Of
the Judges of the Supreme Court will
FAC the age of seventy years., at
which time the law entities them to retire
with salary. If they take advantage of
this Cleveland will have the appoint
ment OF three new Supreme Judges
and one Chief Justice. Justice Brad
ley's term expires first, and he is al
ready old enough to entitle him to
retirement. Justices Field and Waite
will be seventy years old in November,
1866, and Justice Miller will be seventy
on the 9TH Of April of that year.
Justice Bradley will retire with a
fortune. He is worth over half a mill
ion and he has one of the finest libraries
in Washington. He has been on
the Supreme Bench since 1870,
and had made a fortune as a railroad
lawyer before that. Like many great
lawyers his hobby is mathematics, and
he works out geometric problems for
recreation. Bradley, it was said, was
intended for the ministry. His father
was a farmer, but he was well enough
off to send him to Rutgers College,
where he graduated in the same class
with the late Secretary Frelinghuysen.
Though he is seventy years old, he
looks younger, and will probably be
able to follow the present fashion and
complete a book of "reminiscences be-
fore he dies.
Justice Miller has been upon the Su-
preme Bench since 1862. and he is the
Oldest Justice in point of service there.
He was an Iowa lawyer when Lincoln
appointed him, twenty-three years ago,
and he has maintained the reputation
since then of being one of the most
able Judges connected with the Su-
preme Court. He Is we'll enough off
to retire, too, and he ought to be, for
his salary on the bench will at the time
Of his retirement amount to two
hundred and forty thousand dollars.
He has a good oundframe for his age,
and he must weigh about three hundred
pounds light. He has a semi-bald,
smoothly shaped head, a baby face as
to softness of outline and rosiness of
complexion, and he looks for all the
world like a mammoth reproduction of
Dickens fat boy thinking of some grave
matter.
Justice Field lives in what was the
old Capitol prison, in the block which
they talk of tearing down and erecting
the new library building in its place.
Justice Field has been on the bench
for nearly a generation, and it is
twenty-eight years since he took his
seat there as of the Supreme Judges
of California. Judge Field was a live
ly young fellow in those days, and l
doubt not he was ready to defend his
decisions with his pistol as he was in
his career in the California Legislature
shortly before this. Now he 10 older
and more sober. He is one of the
broadcast and most learned men in
public life. He travels clear across the
country every year in attendance to
his judicial duties, and his salary bare
,ly pays his expenses. He is not poor,
however, His brother Cyrus has had
so many opportunities to make his
friends wealthy by giving them good
pointers that it is hardly probable that
his brother Stephen would be left.
Judge Field entertains well, and his
house is always full of company. He
will probably continue to live at Wash
ington after his retirement.
Chief Justice Waite will soon leave
America for England. Mr. Waite is
much better now than he was several
months ago, and this trip will result
probably in the entire recovery of his
health. He is now sixty-nine years Of
age and has only one more year to
serve before he has the right to go on
the retired list. I saw him on the
street yesterday. A very dark man
with an iron-gray beard, which hangs
down upon his chest. He has a kindly
face, an intellectual brow and a thick
growth of iron-gray hair. He is one OF
che examples Of men who have risen
to the highest honors of the United
States by sticking closely to their pro-
fession and not bothering with politics.
-"Cdrp." in Cleveland Leader.