The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-10-09

enough. II you have a mind to go over to
the court house and oopy records you can
earn as much as q dollar a day, sometimes
more, and then you can have your evenings
to study medicine"
The young man accepted the proposition.
and with him went another young medical
student who was a great chum. and who
also had opportunity to earn some money
copying records. These young mon worked
with %drudge,like pen during the day
for some two years. Their duties,
however. took them frequently into the
court room when the court was in
session, n one day a very interesting
trial took place which changed the course
of these three young mems lives. for it
changed their ambition. As they listened
to the arguments of the lawyers each of
them Of a sudden without any previous de-
sire to do auch a thing decided to abandon
medicine and to study aw. When they
came out of the cours room they confessed
their purpose to each other, and the next
day they closed their medical books, opened
Blackstone and entered the Office of a local
lawyer.
After a year or two these young men were
admitted to the bar and formed partner
ship. One was Sanford E. Church and the
other was Noah Davis, and in a little while
the youn Arm were convinced that they
did wisely when they gave up medicine to
become lawyers. In a few years Davis was
chosen Justice Of the supreme cou,t of the
western district of New York, and In &C
solve partnership with Mr.. Church. He
swore in Grover Cleveland as q member of
the bar. Though they had been bosom
friends and fellow Students from CHILDHOOD
and had been partners for several years.
yet they differed in politics, one being a re-
publican and the other Il democrat.
Promotions we're rapid. MIR. Church was
sent to the legislature, where he achieved
great fame for one single act. Judge Ds-
Wis became so prominent that he was sent
to congress and was very nearly chosen
United States senator. Had it not been for
was the successful candidate, Mr.. Davis
would have been elected. He afterward be-
came chief ~jnstice of the supreme court in
New York CITY and only a year or two ago
retired from that Office because he had
reached the age of 20 years.
Mr.. Church gained & eat fame as a law
yer, and in some of his caFes he found that
his medical studies were of much service to
him. He also gained favor with the greater
politicians, and in 1868. when the conyen-
ton of the democratic party was held in
New York city the delegates from New
York state, at the suggestion Of Samuel J.
Iilden, decided to present Mr.. Churoh's
name as their candidate for the presidency.
They voted for him for many ballots. and
at one time it seemed as though he would
surely receive the nomination. other in
f~uences prevailed, and Mr.. Church
was not nominated. A year or
two later he was elected chief justice of the
highest court in New York state, a court
which in the opinion of many lawyers
ranks only second to the supreme court of
the United States. In that office Judge
Church died. He used to say while chat
ting with his fellow lawyers that had he
stuck to medicine he would uuquestionably
have remained a country doctor oil his life,
and IL is one of tho interesting traditions
of tho New York bar that these two young
medical students living in a country viii
lage, poor, as they said, as church mice,
should by reason of a change of profession
have attained very distinguished honors.
1t isa curious coincidence perhaps that two
other very distinguished jurists began life
as country doctors. The late Chief Justice
Butler, of tho Connecticut supreme court,
prnctised medicine before he became a
lawyer in n little Connecticut village, and
Justice Miller. whom many lawyera regard
as one of the ablest lawyers who ever sat
upon the bench OF tho supreme court OF the
United States. had been practising medi-
cine in u country town in the west for ten
years before he began to study the law.