The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-01-09
BUT STILL HE GOT HIS FEE
His Aptitude for Legal Things
Seen in an Anecdote.
HIS GREAT KNOWLEDGE OF LAW
He Was Great Student of History and
Had Wonderfully Retentive Mem
ory---Especially Fond of
Political History.

1
marched in procession through
! it's pages. He read in an
| otnniverous though desultory way;
| kept it up, indeed, all through his life.
/ And few were the regions, and remote
| the periods, which Thurman could not
| give a very clear, full exposition Of
| Especially was this true of the politi-
| cal history of peoples and nations.
| Principles of government which, to-
| day, find their expressions in a worlds
affairs, Thurman had traced to their
very sources, far away in the uplands
of past centuries.
He relied heartily on the maxim.
s'He who knoweth not the reason of
the law, knoweth not the law" Thur
man made it point TO know both
the law and it's causes on every oc-
casiou
HIS KNOWLEDGE OF LAW.
They tell an anecdote in example of
his appetite to know the reasons for
legal things which might be put in
| here One day q friend found him
over-hauling some far-away, forgot
ten volumes in the National Library.
''What are you hunting for?" asked
the friend.
s'Why?'' said Thurman, looking up
from a dusty tome he was lingering.
''you know there used to be Hindu
law that whenever husband died his
widow was to be burned with him on
his funeral pile. 1t struck me long
ago that this was a mighty strange
enactment, and having an hours leis-
ure i thought I'd come over and see IL
/ couldn' tdig up it's reason. Every law,
savage or civilized law has nits reason.
and I have grown curious to know
why it occurred to these Hindus that
to burn up the widows as fast as they
were made would be public good
thing"
1t was perhaps four days iater,w when
the friend who had found Thurman
exploring Hindu law, again met him
in one of the committee-rooms of the
Senate.
by the way, Senator" remarked
the friend, ibid you develop the cause
| of that Hindu rule to burn widows,
which saw You looking up the other
day?"
'Why, yes," responded Thurman,
with great air of satisfaction, II
| have found out all about it. 1t would
seem these Hindu women grew very
| treacherous at one time, and il became
| quite feminine fashion to poison
| ones husband. or course the Hindu
| husband objected to arsenic, lauda-
mum, strychnine, and other aids to inn
morality. He didn't care to die by
any such numbering method. To
| check this fad the law was made that
widows should be burned on the fun
| eral pile of their dead husbands. From
that time forward every Hindu wife
| devoted herself to prolonging the life
| of her spouse to the end that she, her
self, might live long in the land which
the Lord had given her. Really. it
was a very good reason, although n
very bad law
LOST HIS FIRST CASE.
II had been thinking for some time .
| said Thurman, that / ought to try
/ case. Two or three opportunities
| had been presented, but my courage
| had failed me and J refused them
They were litigations trife too
small for my uncle, but modestly de-
clined to appear, and in one or two
| instances my would-be client, know
| ing that his case was not quite big
| enough TO attract my uncle. went TO "a
| rival. 1T was when this happened one
day made up my mind that the very
! next man rash enough to ask me to
| try his law suit would be gratified.
1T wasn't three days before the vic
| tim put in an appearance. 1T was a
| controversy which did not involve much
money, but over which there was no
little temper and heat. IT was u row
between farmers over the ravageg OF a
pig. My fellow was the invaded man.
L. 4. L
proper fence. My client assured me
that his fence was all right, but that
! nothing short of solid masonry would
fence against this peculiar build oil
| pig.
why said he, talking over his case
to me in the Office, this particular pig
is built like a sun fish, and while he's
wider than barn door, he amt thick
er than pane of glass. You'd have
to tie knot in his tail to keep him
from going through the cracks in a
tight board fence
'Of course, / told my client we'd
| win, and at my instigation he gave me
| SIS. This was really a tremendous fee,
burt as the lawsuit we were embarked
upon WAS sentimental rather than
! practical, and my client was a man
| OF riches, he unhesitatingly forked
| over the money.
'There was continuance of two
| weeks in the case, and during these
fourteen awful days that pig lawsuit
haunted me like nightmare. read
law and thought about it through the
| livelong day, and then dreamed about
| it at night. At last the awful hour
| approached, and putting law book
under my arm, for the looks Of the
thing, / pulled on my hat and started
for the Justice of the Peace. ] felt
wretched and my mind was in state
| Of daze. / have seen many dull occa-
sion, but never in my life did day
dawn when ! came SO near knowing
nothing at all as on that Of my first
| lawsuit.
"ATy client was in company with me.
| marching, as he thought, 10 sure and