The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-03-15
FIELD.
He Is Almost eighty, and Has Served
Thfrty-Three Years on the Bench.


w. B. S., in st. Louis Globe-Democrat
Once a year the story goes out that
Mr.. Justice Field is going to re-
f 5ss no ;d sast of doing ann ang such i thing. n 4
Justice of the United states Supreme Court
who has served ten years, and VINO mas
fun pay. Mr.. Justice Field has served thir-
ty-three years, and in a few months ne
will be eighty years old. For ten years he
firing act. Why hasn't he taken advantage
Of it? Well, he comes of the toughest OF
Connecticut stock, and the habit or work
is strong upon him. He enjoys the labor
Of the bench. There Is another reason for
the tenacity with which the Justice holds
on, If the gossip of the court circle may
be considered. In one year more Mr.. JUS
tice Field will take his place in the history
of the court as the Justice who sat upon
the bench longer than any other Associate
sets, sat thirty-four years. In two years
more Mr.. Justice Field will have sat longer
taan any Chief Justice IN the =, history : OF ,,I the
ty-ive years. Mr.. Justice Field proposes
to pull out the longevity peg and STICK 1t
in at a higher hole before he retires. unless ness
Of the circle that the venerable father or
the court" will attain his ambition. In the
t ties Field has sss seen 4 four IF Chief justices and
twenty-three Associate Justices on the
bench What a span this means VIII be
oSttci uh0etSSoOd "hSL % Sloeee ..a
since the foundation OF the court In 17@
there have been only eight Chief Justices.
The hfty-first Associate Justice, MI. Peck
ham, took his seat a few days ago.
This distinction comes to Mr.. Justice Field
in the nearing close of a career which has
been anything but monotonous. The man
who at eighty feels fully capable of PERFORM
ing the duties of a member of the United
States Supreme Court, sixty-f1ve years ago
nursed cholera patients in Smyrna. wnere
he had gone when a boy of fourteen with nts
sister, who was the wife OF a missionary:
been waiting on the table, drop dead, while
the guests fled, shrieking The plague'' The
plaguer' He found himself in San francisco
with 81 and a diploma emitting him TO prac-
tice law. The dollar he multiplied by the
sale of sixty thousand newspapers he had
brought with him from New YORK; When
the vigilance committee reorganized the
mining camp of Marysville the members
elected the young lawyer from the states al
calde. and it was thenceforward his duty
to settle by Judgment the disputes which up
TO that time had been appealed TO the pistol
that he was sent TO the California Legisla-
ture, and there he challenged q man who had
insulted him TO fight a duel. The man who
carried the challenge was Broderick, after
ward killed by Terry in q duel, but not until
he had saved the life of Field in a San Fran
suddenly threw back his cloak and raised a
pistol to shoot Field Broderick threw him
self between them and pushed Field through
the door and into the street
Ii is stranger than fiction that the life or
Field has been entertwined with the lives
has come through to- this peaceful old age
without a scratch. A charmed life he has
certainly led. In 1857 he was elected q
justice OF the Supreme Court Of California.