The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-04
A PICTURESQUE JURIsT.
Justice Lamar Looks More Like an
Anarchist Than a Judge.
From the Ne,s York Recorder.

Justice Lamar Looks More Like an
Anarchist Than Judge.
From. the Neig York Recorder.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 26.-The most pict-
uzesqne figure on the United States supreme
bench4s that OF Justice Lamar. In ply
steal appearance he is as little like jurist
as pOszible. He might be taken for a poet
or for an anarchist, but hardly for Judge.
His manner in court hRrmonizes with his
aupearance. He never seems to listen to
what is going on, but sits with subdued as
pect. sunk in the leather cushions OF his big
arm chair, overwhelmed on one side by the
enormous frame of Justice Gray, and on
the other basking in the beusvolence of
tuft Of bearG. Usually resting on his breast.
His biack hair, barely touched with
gray, flows down over his shoulders,
and his eyes have a dreamy
and abstrscted look. Oace in awhile, dur
ing an unusually striking argument he will
pick up law book and turn 10 8 reference,
but that is all He takes no moro interest,
apparently, in the cases argued before him
than any one of the spectators lined around
The room. The Mississippi Justice is noted
for his absence of mind. Frequently, when
be comes to the capitol, he turRs instinct
lively toward the Senate chamber, after the
halit Of former years, and, if alone, he has
been known to get into the cloak room and
prepare to hang up his coat and has before
beginning TO realize where be Is Occasion
ally he drops into a reverie on the bench,
from which he mas to be aroused by one of
his associates, and his attendant is con-
stantly on the watch to prevent his
scandallzlng the court by walk
ing up Pennsylvania avenue without
removing his judicial robes. When he was
Secretary of the Interior he had a bad habit
of going down to the department. at all
"a 4 49, n
corridors. Sometimes during the day even
he would leave his desk and take turn up
and down the corridors for a half hour at a
time, and then, In starting back to his room,
he would almost invariably turn the wrong
way and impose upon an accommodating
subordinate the task Of guiding him to his
desk. During these lapses he would follow
his guide meekly and submissively, apDa-
rertly obhvious to the ridiculous situation
In which he was placed.
he is a man of moods. At times he will
devote himself with intense application to
the unravelinR OF kuotty legal problem,
and at other times he will shun the SEM
blance Of mental effort for a week at a
stretch. For this reason be is errRtic in
his treatment Of the cases handed over to
him for review. He was equally uncertain
In his moods when a member of Cleveland's
cabinet. On one occasion a newspaper man
applied to him for permission to see the
office, and met with q psremptory re-
fusaL Having pretty intimate knowl-
edge OF bis whims, the young man a few
days later called with the same request.
Lamar happened to be in business trim.
and with no recollection Of the former re-
fusal, he ordered the papers to be placed
on table in an adjoining room. Then,
pointing to them, he said: There they are,
writing paper and everything you want,
and there" he added good naturally,
pointing 10 a closet, lis bottle of whisky.
II you need anything else ring for it."
The justice enjoys riding, although he
cannot indulge in this pastime to the same
extent as three or four years ago. But he
still keeps staid and amiable old family
horse, on which he may be seen on pleasant
days ambling along from the capitol to his
house on Massachusetts avenue. He trusts
to the alertness Of the animal to keep from
stumbling over fences, aud he has been seen
more than once jogging past contentedly,
with an umbrella tucked complacently
under his arm.
Il is tradition OF the court that the
justices shall not NEEDLE in party pol itics
and In a general way this tradition 10 re-
spected.
There are few of the justices, however,
who do not have an occasional weakness for
dabbling in politics in a small wav 1t is
not an exceptional thing for a politician
who has been forcing a henchman for au
office requiring legal training to find his
progress suddenly and mysterionsly barred.
If be were to examine into tine thing pretty
closely he would discover that one of the
supreme court judges had interposed sug-
gestlon TO the appointing officer Just at
critical time. The thing is not done in a
vulgar way. A timely word dropped into
a cabinet minister's ear at swell dinner or
reception is far more effective than
crude and vulgar appeal for political favor
IL takes tact and patience, however and in
some instances any amount of social pres
tige to bring Justices influence TO bear in
any particular case.
listened not long ago TO a conversation
between two politicians, who were plan
ming an appeal to one of the most dignihed
supreme court justices Both we're men of
national reputation. They moved in the
same social set as the justice against whom
they were laying their siege, and met him
almost daily, yet it required nearly an
hours earnest discussion before plan for
preaching the subject deIicately. without
offending the judicial sense of decorum was
hit upon. The justice il question possessed
genius for giving chill" to the unfortu-
nate individual who approached him by any
but the most diplomatic avenues.
Justice Field has had a more adventurous
career than any other member of the court
He was ''forty-niner," and one of the
bravest and most venturesome of the seek
ers sster gold About his first experience
after arriving on the coast was to become a
member of the vigilance committee organ
lied to put down lawlessness The mining
camp OF Marysville was about as dangerous
a place as there was along the coast,
and FELL, who had legal education,
was chosen by the orderly part of
the community to administer the laws in
the capacity Of alcalde of the city. Field,
instead of treating the position as that of a
justice of the peace, to which it was really
equivalent, boldly took the administration
OF justice into his own hands, ruled the COM
munity with high hand, Furnishing crime
and enforcing police regulations until he
was relieved by officers selected under the
new state constitution. He was a second in
two duels, and for year his life was in
peril every hour Of the day.