The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1893-04-21
Selett Mistellunll.
The Country Lawyer.

lhe following IS Tie response I'd tho toast
"The Country Lawyer" by Hon. James A.
Connolly, Of Springfield, at the annual BAH
quot of Illinois Safe Bar Association at Il .
Leland HOTEL Springfield, January 25, 1893.
As there may be differences Of opinion con-
cerning the limitation of the subject assigned
TO me, vii. assume that it relates to all but
metropolitan lawyers, iliasmuch as it is the
fashion Of the day to speak Of the country as
including every place outside the boundary
lines of metropolis.
While the country lawyers might be CLASH
cally termed "Rustlcus," yet if We take him
as class he will be found anything but rus
tic cuss, when it comes to dexterous use OF
the "nice, sharp outlets of the law"
His clothes may not fit him like those Of
his city brother, but that is the fault Of his
tailor.
His hair and beard may not be trimmed in
"Fashion Plate" style, but that is the fault oil
his barber.
His Office may not be swept and busted da;-
bright and clean as i'll the library of his city
brother, and smart, clean volumes of reports
and digests may not be 50 numerous, but
what are there look like old soldiers just re-
turned from long eampaign-they have seen
service.
While Hale, Coke, Blackstone, Chitty, Ste
phens, Story, if they could return, would feel
like unnaturalized foreigne rs in the Offices of
bis metropolitan brother, they could drop into
the country lawyers Office and feel at home,
for they would find the cream of their life
work holding the place of honor on his book
shelves, and their names household words.
The country lawyer loves "old friends, old
books" and before the advent of the Prohibs
he loved the other member of the famous
trinity-"old wire'-generallv of the Ken
lucky brand.
The country lawyer is ruminant animal.
He don't swallow bis legal food hastily, but
he walks into the rich pasture fields of the
horn books, knee deep, and filing himself, re-
tires 10 chew it over and over, until healthy
digestion enables him to assimilate it, and
make it part of himself.
He don't have to hurry. He don't have to
eat, sleep, think according to . time table
made by some street or steam railroad compa-
ny.
He makes his own time table, changes il to
suit his own convenience, and is therefore al
ways on time.
He makes the trip from sun to sun once
every twenty-four hours just rs we'll as his
hurrying metropolitan brother, even if he DOES
not move forward quite As rapi dly TO the place
where "Finis" is to be written on his last
page.
While the metropolitan lawyer may be the
clown in the circus, winning the applause of
the half tickets, BY his qups, his tumbies, and
his swelling importance, the country lawyer
i. the all-around variety man who holds the
attention of the ,chole ticket, by his bare back
riding, ground and lofty tumbling, tight rope
walking, and blowing the trombone in the
band.
The country lawyer Is the nag that can pull
his share of load of corn to market, or be
stripped Of his harness, mounted, and run and
win race at the crossroads.
The country lawyer is something like the
poet: he his more born than made, and Hum
or presided at his birth, for good joke nave
gets inside the lines of bis county witholt g,v-
ing him call.
Skim the cream eff the milk in your dairy,
and what have you Left
Skim the country cream off Your metropol-
itaD bar, and Whist have you left?
According to Darwin, it took a long time
for tho process of evolution to "evolute" the
tails OF our ancestors, so that their descend
auts might comfortably wear fashionable
trousers, but the process of evolution works
more rapidly on the country lawyer, aud Oft
en-, when we find . metropolitan brother win
ming al! the races on the kite-shaped track of
a metropolis, until he attracts the worlds at
tentiOn, when the world hunts up his pedi-
gree aod training, it finds him, as colt, put
ting on legal muscle by nibbling the short,
stubby grass of jury trials around the prini-
tive courts Of country justices.
Such early feed in the legal pastures Of the
gives wind and mettle to the legal
racer, and makes him thorough bred, as sure
ly rs the limestone soils and blue grass of Ken
tucky, or the ozone Of California gives it to
the equine thoroughbred.
And when, in his malurer years, he wins
the metropolitan races, he forgets the plaudts
which greet him, while his thoughts turn back
with pleasure to the scanty country pasturase
vf his early days, where he had to hustle from
"Early morn till deWy eve,''
for living.
With t.e country lawyer the law is still
profession, while with his metropolitan broth
er, it is business at all times, except when
bar associations.
Bar associations are modern institution.
They are an innovation upon the established
ways of our professional fathers, and the coun
y lawyer takes to innovation very slowly.
Ludeed, it looks as though it would take the
Duntry lawyer as long to get in the way of
bar associations as il did TO work
he tails of our ancestors.
uc COuiIty i0"yCi 10 SOu ucai vi u uA-
ure-he is the trunk of the tree--while his
brethren are the branches.
The beauty Of the tree is in the branches,
,ut the sap is in the trunk. The branches
oathe in the sunshine and wave in the breeze
because the trunk supports, uplifts, sustains
hem, and gives them new life when they
Troop aud fall.
The country lawyer is an electric while his
brother is fast becomming =
homeopath, dealing in specifies and special
lies.
In the broad field of equity the country law
yer roams confident aud at ease, armed with
all the weapons of full and even justice, while
bis metropolitan brother rarely ventures into
these fields unless preceded by an injunction,
which he relies on as often as implicitly as
he dsrky does on his rabbi fro