The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-16
MISSOURI IMMIGRATION
Has Been Prohibited by Kansas, Says
Judge Henry
OF BOONVILLE, mo-, IN HIS SPEECH

Law-SOme of the Witty Things Said
by Him 40 the State Bar Association.
The lawyers of the State Bar ascot
alton to the number of sixty, listened to
an address last night by Judge John w.
Henry of Kansas City, ex-justice of the
supreme court of Missouri Chief JUS
tice Martin and ex-Chief Justice Horton
of Kansas were both present.
Judge Henry said: 81 might say that
l regret that you did not invite some one
to address you ADLER than I, but l shall
not say it for I have no such regret.
[Laughter.l
"Some of the people of Missouri were
guilty of outrages against the people of
Kansas. who later avenged themselves.
These issues have been at rest thirty
years. Kansas is slower to forgive than
Missouri. She has virtually prohibited
immigration from Missouri by passing
the prohibitory law, which, of course,
excludes genuine Missourians from set
ting among you. Laughter.
"The antipathy which caused the war
between the states is fast disappearing.
Thank God it is over. and 1 wish it would
never be mentioned again"
OF finances, Judge Henry said: ST
favor the free coinage of silver IS to I,
but / have not the slightest hope of it
unless one of the two great parties de-
clares in its favor"
Judge Henry took occasion to say
some very uncomplimentary thirgs about
the sharper-lawyer. He said, sWe should
raise the standard of professional morali-
ty and drive from the bar shysters and
tricksters who stir up strife and live by
champerty like hyenas proving at mid
night for their prey in byways never
trodden by honorable members of the
profession.
"The conduct of such attorneys has
that artifce and chicanery are
inseparably connected with the
practice of law while the truth is
there is no more upright, honorable and
conscientious class of men than attorneys
"a case being called in the supreme
court of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln APP
peared for appellant and said: This is
the first case l have ever had in this
court and 1 have therefore examined it
one of authority. l have not been able
to find any authority to sustain my side
of the case but l have found several
cases directly in point on the other side.
I will now give those authorities to the
court and submit the case.
"The lawyer has no moral right to en-
gage in cause In which to succeed he
must resort to artifice, sophistry or false
hood. The acceptance of a fee for such
service belongs to that class of crimes of
which Judas was guilty
There is not enough of the esprit'de
corps at the bar. We are not sufficiently
resentful of imputations cast against the
body.
"Lawyers take to politics as naturally
as ducks to water, or a Kentucky thor
oughbred to mint julips and mint sings
'For the young lawyer there is no moro
direct road to perdition than that tray
eled by politicians. All along the politi-
cal highway are devils stations to drag
you down to hell. A fondness for poll
tics is worse than the opium or whisky
habit"
Speaking of the deleterious influences
of our too rapid civilization, the speaker
said sour fathers worshipped in
church buildings of moderate cost, but
now we erect palatial edifices, under the
pretense of building churches to God,
which are filed on Sunday with fashion
able men and women clad in the costliest
raiment, blazing all over with jewels,
while all around are furnishing poor, of
whose needs they know nothing and care
less And this, God help US, we call re.
ligion.
''In the old days lawyers and doctors
had to pursue regular course of study
before they became licentiates. Now it
is not uncommon for one to leap from
the school room as pedagogue; from
the merchants counter as a salesman;
from the pulpit as a preacher to the bar.
or into the medical profession, to ruin
clients, or kill patients, without having
had any previous training to do it scien-
tifically.
"Fhe world has made. what is called
wonderful progress within the last fifty
years, but whetheri it is really progression
or retrogression is a question history will
have to determine.
THE godly pious people are not all
dead. The honest, painstaking. Flooding
tradesmen are not all extinct. Politicians
VINO are more devoted to their country
than party are yet to be found in the
land and lawyers who place a lower es-
innate upon their fees than upon honor
and renown may yet be seen at the bar.
"The model statesmen have nearly all
disappeared.
1.-The model preacher practices the
charity he breaches; exhibits in his life
the meekness he commends; holds up
Christ and Him crucified to his congre-
cation and does not place himself in
front TO display his own graces and the
bleeding Saviour behind him of whom
the dying congregation will get but an
| occasional glimpse. Such men still live
and preach"
At the close of Judge Henry's address
he was unanimously. by a rising vote,
made an honorary member of the asso-
citation.
LAWYERS THE POWER
They Were a Plurality in all Matters