The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-24
Jurisprudence in Philadelphia.

If serious crcdence is to be given to the
statement of the Press of Philadelphia. the
position of "Philadelphia lawyers" or
some of them, long an enviable position, is
no longer such. Philadelphia lawyers,
models of astuteness, vigor, erudition,
penetration, and sagacity, are, according
to the Press, no longer to be regarded with
envy. Some of them, indeed, have fallen
prone, it is asserted. upon degenerate days.
These find, the Press says, "much difh.
Guilty in supporting themselves upon their
earnings" and they are compelled to resort
to various unusual, if not abhorrent and
unprofessional, methods to maintain them.
selves. Hear the Press:
MANY young lawyers spend their leisure time
about the criminal courts in the hope OF obtaining
clients from among the prisoners. There are several
others who have prosprred by drumming up a prac'
tice among the keepers OF boarding houses. Obtain.
ing the addresses Of a large number OF landiAiies,
thoy 20 to them and ofer to collect any debts that
may be owing TO them by boarders who have gone
away withou. paying. Having located the de!in.
quents. they give them no peace until they pay up.
In this line OF business they have been very success
full, their fees having been so per cent. OF the amount
OF the debt. which the creditors are willing to pay.
as. in most cases. they had given up hope OF getting
Ill iuluB ' uE
In n city in which, theoretically at least,
every adult male inhabitant owns his own
house, and often his own house and the
grounds and terrace about 1t, a city, too, in
which candidates" are therefore few in
number, it certainly seems peculiar that
any legal business, so to speak, could be
obtained by the methods described by the
Press. 1t seems very strange that practi.
TONERS at the bar in Philadelphia should
be willing, even for fees OF fifty per cent,
to rest quietly under the awful %imputation
of giving delinquent boarders "no peace
until they pay up"
This is not the sort of legal practice, not
the kind of professional skill, not the ira
ditional cleverness of Philadelphia juris-
prudence which has proverbially given to
lawyers of that town their great and per.
vasive fame.
There is, there must be, some mistake
about the matter. These ingenious but
needy Philadelphia lawyers are exceptions
to the rule. They are not a unifying force.
Their doings are not to be accepted MS
altering the status of Philadelphia law
yers generally, or as justifylng any change
in the high popular estimate of their skill.
knowledge, and influence. This view of
the matter derives color from the record OF
what is called the Tittermary case in Phil,
a~delphia. Here Is the local chronicle OF
some of its features:
~"TITTERMARY IN JAIL.
"oFFIcIALs SAY THEY DO NOT KNOW WHY HE IL NOW
LOCKED UP THERE.
"JoHS TITTRRMARY. alias WILLIAM HARRIS. who con
fesscd that he, along with others, had killed Major
WILLIAM G. WILSON. has been removed from the City
Hall, where he has been In confinement. to hoya
mensing Prison.
When Assistant District Attorney BARLOW wa
seen yesterday afternoon and was asked what Ia tht
charge upon which TITTERMARY has been committee
he said: This is u matter on which ! can give no In
ormation | am only the Assistant District Attorney
why don't you go to District Attorney GRAHAM? HI
knows everything
District Attorney GRAHAM could not be found. Capt
MILLER said; Assistant District Attorney BARLOW
has full charge OF the case, He knows the charg'
against TITTERMARY. 90 TO him
at is reported on good authority that the charg'
preferred against TITTERMARY is that OF having at
tempted to illustrate the ends OF Justice"
Here, certainly. is a case, II the record o
it be a true one, which calls for the appli
cation of some of the skill Of Philadelphia
lawyers. Here a delinquent who confesse'
to murder v incarcerated In philadelphia