The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1895-07-12

Address Of Justice Brewer,
OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME
COURT, TO THE GRADUATING
CLASS OF THE LAW DEPART
MENT OF THE MARY
LAND UNIVERSITY.

CLASSOF THE LAW DEPART
MENT OF THE MARY
LAND UNIVERSITY.
Young Gentlemen Of the Graduating Glass
1t is blessed thing to be a lawyer; pro-
vided always that you are of the right
kind, and take it no one is permitted to
graduate at this law school unless he is of
the right kind I say it is blessed thing.
for it is the rule of our profession to work
hard, live well and die poor. And to such
life most cordially invite you.
Be sure, however, always to be the law
yer, and never both lawyer and client. 1t
is an old saying that a lawyer who is his
own counsel, has fool for a client, and
| want to add the testimony of my expe-
rence to the truth of that adage. So,
young gentlemen, never sign your names
as plaintiff or defendant but only as coun-
sci. This experience is not, however, pc
culiar to our profession, but common to
all The doctor never takes the medicine
he gives to others, and so lives to a good
old age The saloonkeeper does not
drink his own whisky, and never dies OF
delirium tremens. The theologian never
quarrels with himself, but only with one
of his brother theologues, and so poor DR..
Briggs is kicked out of the Presbyterian
Church. The politician never practices
what he processes, and so never cheats him
self The dentist never fills his own teeth,
and what an amount of suffering he
avoids You need not expect to escape
abnse, for no profession is the object of
so much dcnunciation and abOuse as that
of the law, no man so often called hard
names as the lawyers. Many seem to
think that the right to speak ill of an at
torney, though not expressly enumerated,
is most certainly included among the Gin
alienable rights of the declaration of In
dependence.
The kind of abuse which our profession
receives varies with the whim of the SLAM
derer To one great class in society,
lawyer is but a synonym of rascal. They
would as soon expect to find baby that
never cried, 4 woman that never talked, Il
Shylock loaning money without interest,
a Norman advocating celibacy Il gentle
man without a cent opposed to an income
tax, or a candidate for the Presidency
hurrying to express himself fully on the
silver question, as an honest lawyer. The
only distinction they perceive between
the inmates of the court house a3d those
of the penitentiary is difference in abil
ity. The one is little sharper than the
other He has studied until he can steal
without violating a letter of the law. In
their eyes law suit is simply a villainous
scheme devised for the purpose of trans
ferring the contents of a clients purse in
to his counsel's pocket; a trial, legal de-
batting society, with success depending on
the quantity of talk and the volume of
sound Law books were written to assist
criminals; and even the grave and vener-
able Judge on the bench Is only the last
obstacle which the ingenuity of the pro-
fessona has yet succeeded in throwing
IN the way of the punishment of crime.
Their idea is happily illustrated by this in
cident: Among the toasts announced at
public dinner was the following: can
honest LAWYER, the noblest work Of God"
No sooner was the toast announced than
up jumped rural gentleman at the lower
end of the table, and adds, land about the
scarcest" This reminds us of the epitaph
prepared for one of our profession by the
famous Ben Johnson,
God works wonders and then
Here lies IA LAWYER an honest man.
And also of the inquiry made at the sight
of this inscription on tombstone, "A
lawyer and an honest man, why do they
put two in the same grave?'
Still another class denOunce the profeS-
sion as non producers, consumers of 9th
ers' productions, leeches living on the
blood sucked from the veins of others,
sharks, land-pirates, etc, etc. They do
not add to the material wealth of a nation,
as the farmer and manufacturer: The
producing classes have to support them.
Like hard masters, they reap where they
have not sown, they gather in where they
have not scattered abroad. Disregarding
the curse, IN the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread" they grow fat and rich on
the tolls of others. Like sponges they
absorb rather than, like coral insects,
build | admit that they do not support
themselves by planting potatoes or plow-
ins corn, though there is many an attor-
nev who would bless himself, and bless the
bar and bless all of us if he struck his
name off the court rolls and entered it on
the books of an agricultural society. 1t
is true their hands are not busy in spinning
warn. or weavking cloth. Their muscles do
not grow large and strong in swinging
the blacksmitl's hammer or the wood !
mans axe With the hands at least,
they toll not, neither do they SPIN Yet
it seems to me that the profession which |
has produced the mighty structure of the
common law, that mysterious and far
reaching power which regulates much |
of human life, creating those myriad cor
porate eXistences which build asylums |
found colleges, erect manufactures, and
construct ldllodtlS tllitllIlS lllto lnt 81
cred precints of the home circle, and tell
ing husband and wife parent and child,
their respective rights and duties, privi
leges and responsibility, controlling all
business transactions from the purchase
of iacknifc to the creation of our Ma
tional debt and directing all legislation,
from the ordinances of a city to the laws
of an empire-may well challenge of the
farmer: aye, challenge the world for a
production of like beneticelce.
Still another class look upon our pro-
feSSion as Il collection of heartlesS, Joy
less, unsocial book worms. As they look
upon it, the lawyers drag out weary and
sunless lives in dingy offices, coming huge
and dusty tones of black letter and an
cient record He is the truest and best