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

huming one of Pharoah's mummies from
the sleep of three thousand years in the
Catacombs of Egypt to dance schot-
tische amid the ruins of Memnon or Baal-
bee, as of dragging the lawyer from the
perpetual hermitage of his office into the
bright sunlight of genial, happy, sym
pathising social life
There is also very common opinion
that the lawyer is, at best, necessity on
ly to a low order of society and an infe-
rior civilization. He is indispensable only
because men are had. AS humanity grows
better, and purer society and civiliva-
ton develops, his value will diminish, and
in the glad milenial morning he will be
known simply as an historical fossil II
the question were asked is there place
for the lawyer in Heaven the answer
would be an instantaneous and almost
universal negative. The common notion
is illustrated by the story of the Indian
paying an attorney, and persistently de-
manding a receipt. On being asked why
he replied: Suppose die, and try to en-
ter Heaven ST. Peter ask Been good In
dian ? Yes Paid your debts y Yes
Paid Lawyer B. his fees . Yes Where
is your receipt.' Me have no receipt. Me
have to hunt all over hell to find you''
AS to the future of any individual law
yer, shall not attempt to solve the mys-
teries. But as to the profession, think
the words of the poet are most apt:
And it is thus with our noble profession and thus
it will ever be still;
There some who appreciate its labors and some
who perhaps never will.
But in the great time that is coming, when Gabrels
trumpet shall sound,
| And they who have labored and rested shall come
from the quvering ground,
When they who have striven and suffered to teach
! and ennOble the race,
Shall march at the front of the column, each one
i'll his God given place.
| As they march through the gates Of the city with
proud and victorious tread,
The lawyers, the cleIk and the judges will travel
not far from the head
But whatever be the criticism placed up
on our profession one thing is sure, and
that is that the life of lawyer is happy
life. No one has so much good solid fun
as the lawyer. The court room is a great
place for the display of wit and humor and
one who is alive to their suggestions can.
not but find ample qualification in watch
ing the progress of events in a court room
The witness, the jury the party, the law
| yer, and even the venerable judge, make
their contributions to the emirth-provokine
features of our lives. And so it is that q
lawyer takes kindly to laugh. And here
let me correct a mistake. We are not, as
aprofesson, physically speaking, like Pha-
raoh's lean kline. Those pictures which
Dickens, that prince of slanderers, and 9th
ers like him, draw and call attorneys, are
nothing but atrocious libels Mr. Perker
that little high dried man with dark
squeeZed-up face and small restless black
eyes, that keep winking and twinkling on
each side of his little inquisitive nose as if
they were playing a perpetual game of
PeepO with that feature, dressed all in
black, with boots as shining as his eyes, a
low white neckcloth, and a clean shirt with
frill to it, q" is not atype of our profession.
On the contrary ,all past experiences proves
that the practice of the law tends to obesity.
Lawyers are not lightweights. Justice
says, as did julius Caesar, ''let me have men
about me that are fat, sleek headed men
and such as sleep O nights When you
go into the court room and look around
the bar, what circle of full faces and plump
solid bodies you behold. To use good
but homely phrase, how jolly they look.
Old Father Time plows fewer furrors in
their brows than he does anywhere else.
They sleep well because they have so few
burdens on their cOnsciences Fulfilling
the old adage, they laugh and grow fat
From time immemOrial size, physical as
well as mental, has been considered one of
the qualifications of judge. Justice and
corpulence seem to dwell together. There
appears to be a mysterious and ineXplica-
bic connection between legal lore and large
abdomens. | know not why this is unless
it be that in order that justice may not
easily be moved by the follies and passions
of men she requires as firm and as broad a
foundation as possible. Daniel Lambert
made a great mistake in not choosing the
law as a profession, while Barnums skele-
ton man would not have made even re-
spectacle justice of the peace.
But happiness does not consist always
and wholly in a laugh. There is intense
pleasure is honorable strife, and the law
yer who battles with his client has all the
excitement and joy of conflict, and when,
after a long and weary struggle, success
crowns his efforts, he has the exultant emo
ton which comes from success Not alone
by reason of the eXulting strfes in the
court room, but in the fact that in his pro-
contact with all the varied forms of bust
ness, with all the activities of individual
life, and all the multiform complications
of the present complex society, and enters
hand, comes the real joy of life Other
professions have peculiar and intimate re-
lations with special forms and phases of
life. The doctor is at home in the sick
room, the minister deals with the religious
wants of the human soul, the merchant
looks to supplying our material necessities,
but the lawyer touches man in all expert
ences of life. He stands beside him in all
transactions of business, he is counselled
in domestic affairs he aids in the settle
ment of estates he frames the charters
which manage the great charities of the
world, and no religious organizations
church or missionary is able to dispense
with his assistance. Do err when | say
that humanity needs us. Is any profes-
sion helpful in so many and such varied