The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1894-03-31
JONES ON LAWYERS
The Famous Evangelist Scores the
Pettifoggers Heavily.
Ignorance and Assumption the Potent
Factors In the Life of . Jackass.
Whether He Have Four
Legs or Two.
COPYRIGHT ls94.1

CIOIy.
The lawyer is quite an important
factor in the body polite, in the bust
ness and commercial world. He has
his place, his work and, sometimes. |
am sorry to say, he has a destination.
The moral character Of a lawyer will
largely determine his practice as a
lawyer. for every book from Black
stone to the last Supreme Court de-
cision is ~elevating, helpful and broad
ening to the mind. Whatever may be
crooked or unreliable in d lawyer. he
certainly does not imbibe it from his
books, but he gets it altogether from
his practice.
In the practice OF law. selishness
and dOgmatis1n play their parts. A
princcly lawyer, cultured in his pro-
fcSsiOn and pure in his morals, stands
next to a preacher in moral influence
in the community where he resides;
but the dirty little pcttifogger, who
will do anything that the devil or a
dirty client wants done for five dol
lars, and then offer as an excuse for
the contemplate mcanness, the fact
that he did it as an ~"attOrney'' and not
as q man., makes me sometimes wonder
if, hen he strikes the fires Of the low
err pit, he will say TO his friends: II am
here as an attorney and not as a man"
In the practice of law, as in all other
professions, the best and the wisest in
II ages who have practiced in this
profession nave given cast and charac-
ter to it on the one side, while the lit
tie and the mean and the selfish have
made the profession the butt Of a thou
sand jokes and unreasonable ridicule.
If a lawyer loves and honOrs his pro-
f~essiOn, his profession will enoble and
honor him. The little fellow who is in
it for its fees, and only it's fees, dis
honors his profession and his practice
and his profession dishOnors him.
a Blackstone, a Choate, an Erskine,
a Pitt, a Marshall, a Jay or a Webster
would have honOred any profession,
and with such lives and characters as
theirs they would nave made any pro-
fessiOn honor them. Many of our lit
tie ~pettifoggers Of to-day, standing by
these great men, remind me Of a rat
terrier standing by an elephant.
We have constitutional lawyers and
lawyers running on the bylaws. We
have jury lawyers, case lawyers, SUI
preme court lawyers, justice court law
yers, lawyers who know law and law
yers who do not know any law and
never will know it whether they see it
in a book or meet it in the road.
This profession is fed and fostered
by either the s~elfishness, prejudice or
dishonesty of clients. Fraud, rascal
ity, deception: and, in fact, everything
frnrI, coTif 10 ronnv TO Tho r,i11inroiro
who steals a system Of railroads, fur
nish clientage for this honorable pro-
fcSSiOn.
Honest men may differ and dispute
and become clients. a man may kill
his neighbOr in self-defense and be-
come a client. There are two sides to
every issue before the cOurts-pros-
ecutor and defendant. or, in civil suits,
plaintiff and defendant. In all crimi-
nal cases, the man is either guilty or
innocent. The lawyer for the prosecu-
ton declares he is guilty, the lawyer
for the defense maintains his innO-
ccncc.
A suit in the civil courts is either the
result Of passion, prejudice or Gishon-
cSty.
SO we see that this honorable profess
sion, by association with clients, unless
they are absolutely impervious to sur
roundings. must take on more or less
Of the spirit of their clients. Perhaps
the most contemplate lawyer in all
the list is he Who would discount the
truth brought out in the testimony
and villify and abuse an honest wit
ness. \ case in point:
An honest old negro was prosecuted
before the courts for shooting a dog.
His lawyer asked him: Uncle Tom,
you say you shot this dog in self de-
Tense, did you?" NO, sir, boss" he
replied, Il shot him in the leg and he
jumped the fence" He would be true
to facts if found guilty by the jury.
The lawyer repeated the same lues-
ton several times to another negro
and then asked him again: Jim. what
kind of a dog did you say that was?"
BOSS, done told you FIVE times it was
a waller dog" But | mean" said the
LAWYER, what was the character of
the dog: what W a he good for?" He
weren't good for anything, boss. He
wouldn't hunt rabbits. he wouldn't
stand guard; he just layed around and
done nothing and stayed fat all the
time. and OATS what made them call
him what they did" We'll, what did
they call him?" Lawyer, sir" The
pettifoggcr proceeded cautiously with
the darNcy, amid the laughter OF all
the spectators in the courtroom.
The profession seems overcrowded.
| believe there are more half starved
lawyers in the average towns in this
country than any other class. Their
eagerness for practice and their dire
full want Of fees | sometimes think adds
many cases to the dockets in our City,
County and Circuit courts.
The lawyer who stays by his book.
and never seeks q case and attends to
the cases brought to him well and
never takes a bad case, is the lawyer
who has come TO stay.
have never seen any reason for less
conscience and moral rectitude in the
practice OF law than in any other pro-
fcssion. \ man who would dc q thing