Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1886-02-27
They Have . Jolly Time.

At the Capitol, the other day,
dropped into the Supreme Court room.
The nine judges were on the bench.
three lawyers inside the rail and five
spectators on the benches. Ii was rs
quiet rs could be, and the chief interest
centcred in very lively debate between
one Of the attorneys and old Judge
Miller. After Congress convenes and
the Capitol is thronged with visitors the
court will be honored with more specta-
tora, but the scene of its labors is always
druwsy, and filed with heaviness born
of decorum and stiffness. The judges
are all in remarkably good health, and
daily congratulate themselves, and in
dulge in jokes based on that fact. Chief
Justice Waite has returned from Europe
with very pleasant remembrances of
hospitable entertainments, and in better
physical condition than he has been for
years. He tells his friends that he is
about resolved to 60 ON the retired list
at the opening of the next century. AS
for Mr.. Bradley, whose retirement has
formed the theme Of gossip for several
years. he is driving up gradually. and is
hardly more than a shadow, but he
laughs at the idea of giving up active
work, and really does more service than
almost any other one of the nine. He
has suffered considerably from attacks
made upon him in connection with the
Electoral Commission, but as Judge
he ranks very high with the lawyers
who practice at that bar. As for the
other judges, it would be hard to find
better preserved set of men with stronger
faces, or who reflect more unctuously the
effects of good living than they.
1t is generally believed that the Presi-
dent will give Attorney General Gar
land the first vacant judgeship. just
how much that has to do with tue de-
sire of the court not to encourage any
Withdrawals / do not know. Garland
is not especially the kind of man that is
welcome in that select and pleasure
loving circle. BY outsiders the chief
qualifications for this Office are supposed
o.bc great legal attainments. In adj
dition, the judges themselves always do
considerable quiet work to make sure
that any prospective newcomer into
their ranks is IL good story-teller, a bon
viyant, and an expert at whist, other
wise he does not reach the standard set
down in these days. However dignitied
and austere the judges appear in court,
they are exceedingly jolly in their social
gatherings, and they form a combina-
ton whist and law club that meets
every week to crack Jokes and study
Hoyle over the best Burgundy that can
be had. have heard some good stories
about the initiation into that charmed
circle of one of the justices, welLknown
in Boston, but they might be misunder-
stood and tend to impair the public APP
probation of the courts dignity, and so
had better 60 unwritten.
Now, Mr.. Garland is not just the kind
of q man that wOnld keep up the time
honored traditions of the court He
has no frills nor furbelows, and would
look about as natural in his silk gown
IS bear. He despises society, abso-
lutely never goes To dinner, has never
worn dress coat. and lives in absolute
contempt Of the little niceties which the
Supreme Court holds 50 dear. He likes
to study law, TO hunt and fish, but he
never looks particularly we'll, nor cares
how he looks. On the bench he would
break down all the absurd little punctil-
iousness that the court has established
for itself, and be simply, as now, a man
whose only charms are those which
come from u naturally big head and
heart. But the judges demand some
thing more, and, without saving any
thing, they are known to all the lawyers
who are on intimate terms with them to
hope that it will never come to pass
that Mr. Garland will sit in their num-
ber. - Washington Correspondence.