Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-01-18
OlGNIFlED, BUT ILL HAMMERED.
Such, In the Opinion of q Western Law
yer, Is the Supreme Court.

Sucn, In the OplnlOn OF q western LAW
yer, Is the Supreme Court.
II am a lawyer from a western city in
Washington on business" said Alfred
Fremont to q writer for the Washington
Star.
II have seen the sights on other visits
and find myself with an idle afternoon. I
recall that the supreme court is in session
tho most august judicial tribunal In the
republic, whose members are the very en-
bodiment of the majesty and dignity Of
the law. I conclude to go there with q
1everent feeling, hoping for a baptism of
the spirit which will inspire me to better
efforts in my profession. l enter the cham
Der with muff1ed tread. There sit their
judicial majesties, in awful array, in their
great high backed padded chairs, and most
Of them apparently asleep. But 1 reflect
that such a position with closed eyelids is
conducive to abstract attention and ref1ec-
ton. They are pondering deeply the argu-
ments of counsel, a man of age and digni-
ty who has perhaps spent months in pre-
pairing for this occasion, which to him Is
the high water mark of his professional
life.
Suddenly one of the judges rouses
himself and makes some remark to his
left. 1t is evidently irrelevant to the case,
for both laugh and pass 1t down the line
from right to left. It provokes' comment
and retort back and forth and smiles and
mods until the whole court is engaged
with itself, while the poor lawyer on his
feet, not daring to notice the inattention
and ~discourtesy even by a momentary
break in his speech, plunges hopelessly OH,
realizing that his carefully prepared argu~
ment is receiving no attention. When the
irrelevant subject is exhausted, the judges
settle back into impressive, high browed
silence, which is broken again and again
as they lean over and talk to each other
right or left or call q page or examine a
docket, write a note or retire to the mite
room.
But this is not the worst, for Just as
the clock strikes 4-at the very first stroke,
without even SO much as I beg your par
dom or May l interrupt you?-the chief
justice breaks in, Adjourn court, in the
very midst of the speakers sentence, and .
all the judges jump up n arc off, as
though they were SO many laborers in a
trench throwing down their picks at the
stroke of the hour. The constitution in
sures them their Offices during good be-
havior.' What a pity good behavior had
not been defined to include courtesy and
politeness toward the bar, whose men,
bers, appearing before them, are officers
Of the court, charged with the equal duty
and dignity of maintaining the laws and
securing ~justicel Why should there be
two codes of ethics or etiquette for tho
same court~-one requiring even from the
most venerable practitioner the utmost
Difference, while 1t permits absolute rude
ness from the COURT These men of the
bench are refined gentlemen; observing
the forms and usages of polite society, aud
how such rudeness can have become the
practice of this great court Is a problem to
q lawyer from the west, where judges are
models Of judicial courtesy and dignity"