Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1893-12-21
THE LAWYER OF rooAx.

Us 10 0sa4oafy 0ees01ag loseo - lgoso
sss Specialists.
"Thcre b % much learning hero In
tho legal profession % ever. but Il 10
not On exhibition, T" said PHILADELPHIA
lawyer. I'm the first place. the courts
will not countcnancc its undue display.
n old times IN advocate was allowed
great latitude. Formerly, in Gaze Of
damages caused by 6 neglected side
walk, the attorney would be allowed to
expound not only the laws relating TO
damages Tor neglect, but be might
stray Oh into the realms Of medical ~
risprudeo,e at great length, and even
peroratc with IN allusion to the Magma
Charta, the constitution and the Amer
lean eagle. At present a lawyer must
coniine himself to the real merits Of his
case. The machinery Of our courts has
grown too costly to permit such waste
OF time. lt follows that there Is less
oratOrical skill displayed than in former
days. especially at the period when come
OF our leading lawyers made specially
Of criminal defense. Now few lawyers
Of eminence, either In Philadelphia or
the east generally, undertake the de.
tense In criminal case.
To-day the practice Of law, like other
professions, Il becoming more and moro
specialized. A law ofiice Is simply q
business Office, as yOu may discover
by visiting some Of the handsome new
oficc buildings down town. I know Of
ono ONCE where there are several part
ners, that would remind you Of hank
ing Office, and where . boOkkeeper and
cashier Is employed to pay OF clerks.
typewriters and other employees. You
will. however, still find veteran members
Of the bar pursuing old time methods in
coy, quiet Office, sitting ut baize COW
cred table amid q wilderness Of well
thumbed books. They carry q dark
green bag filed with briefs when they
90 TO court, precisely as all lawyers did
80 years ago, and as London barristers
still do.
"As TO young lawyers, however tai
onted they may be, If without social or
political prestige, their struggle to ad-
rance In the profession Is sure to be n
hard one. Practice now is often inher-
tied or transmitted in some other way.
could point out to You In Philadelphia
law firms that have been confined to the
members Of one family or its collateral
branches since the Revolution.
II may say that there is an evident
impetus to change many useless old le-
gal methods. The remark Of Lord Cole
ridge, when in this country, that there
were many volumes of English legal de-
cisions which IL would do no harm to
destroy, would answer as tho main-
spring Of this impetus. Legislation il
certainly advancing in this-that mere
~ experimental general laws are passed
with greater difficulty than formerly"
Another lawyer, older than the other.
said: Progress in the legal profession,
Progress Is hardly term to apply to
law, for IL is founded on precedents,
sometimes the older the better. For this
reason Jurisprudence Is the least pro-
grcssive If the sciences. Still there have
been, no doubt, improvements in meth.
DDS Of practice. though am not much
Of code lawyer. have had to study
hard all my life. Tho younger lawyers
appear to do little Of that. They seem
TO believe, with Aaron Burr, that law
Is whatever Is boldly advanced and
plausibly maintained. '"-Philadelphi
Record.