The age-herald., 1899-03-17
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

| likely to lead to mischieg, said J. J. Wf-
 lett, the distinguished attorney of Annis- | ton. Reforms in that direction should be i made with the greatest caution, or prefer | ably not at all. There is great objection
 made to what is termed the laws delay. | Shapespeare made Hamlet complain of It l hundreds of years ago, and thousands or
 years before that time practically the same 1 complaint was made But it should be un- : derstood that the 'railroading' of causes 1 through courts would be subversive of all | justice, all sense of right, and the courts
 would be reduced to the dead level of mere | legal eaucuses in which immature and ill., formed judgement would hold sway to the
 material and sometimes vital disadvantage
 of those who merited the laws protection
 or whose deeds called for the laws ven- | geance.'
 'This reform of code procedure has been | tried in New York, and it has brought | about hopeless confusion," continued MT. 1 Willett. T heard Joseph H. Choate, who
 was last night given almost unprece. 1 dented ovation at a great London ban | quet, at which he was a guest in his ca | pacity as American ambassador at the | Court of St. James, declare that New York l state had made a monumental blunder in | reforming code procedure. MT. Choate | said that the entire new system, as it stood, | had to be torn up by tho roots; that the | New York legislature, acting under consti- | tutional authority, had made what was all | most fatal mistake. We must in New | York return to the old systems of New | Jersey and Alabama, he declared. We | must have done with these new existing | conditions Judge Hornblower like MT. | Choate, one of the most eminent members | of the American bar, voiced in another | place sentiments identical with those ex- | pressed by Mr Choate. It was related that l under the new order of things in some in | stances it required two years for case to 1 reach a jury
 | It is a fact known to all men learned in | the law in this country that the Alabama | supreme court ranks as one of the abest | four supreme courts of the states, | the three others being the highest courts | of New York, Massachusetts and Michigan. | It is further known that the present su- | preme court of Alabama Is one of the | strongest the state has ever had. Chief | Justice Mcclellan, for example, is one or the abest judges of law of his age now In | the United States. MT. Justice Sharpe, MT. Justice Dowdell, MT. Justice Haralson, and MT. Justice Tyson are all lawyers and justices of very great accomplishments. Justice Tyson, the youngest man on the bench, made a greater reputation in six years on the circuit bench than has been made by any other circuit judge in so short a time within the history of the state.
 So fully recognized was Justice Tyson's
 ability that he was nominated for the su- preme bench without opposition.
 "Often in my official experience as solic- l itor for the state l have known men to be | indicted by the grand jury and tried and | convicted at the same term of court" said Solicitor Charles w. Ferguson of the Tenth circuit. Tn Walker county especially this is of frequent occurrence. More than that, in my knowledge offenders have been in- dicted and tried within few days after committing their alleged offenses." MT. Ferguson has served more than ten years as solicitor, and is noted for the number of convictions he has secured.
 
 Henry B. Gray the popular president of
 the prosperous Peoples Savings Bank and
 
 returned from a weeks visit to New York.
 He says that "the boom continues in busi-
 ness and monetary affairs in the metropo. lis. The situation is practically without precedent. Never before in Wall street
 have the transactions on the stock ex- change been so great. But apart from this
 wild spirit of speculation, legitimate bus:-
 ness was never in a more prosperous con- diton. There is plethora of money quite unexampled; and capital is seeking safe investments at most reasonably low profits. Everybody is talking favorably of the south in general and of Birmingham in particular and there Is no doubt that large sums will be invested in southern property. Any business proposition that is honest and reasonable meets with ready and friendly consideration" President Gray enjoyed his visit, and returns home the embodiment of good health and good spirits.
 Warren Stone Reese, of Montgomery, United States district attorney for the mid dle district of Alabama, is in the city. MT. Reese is the only son of the late Colonel w. s. Reese, of Montgomery, who was on the staff of General Wheeler in the war between the states and was for four years mayor of Montgomery. Colonel Reese was more instrumental than any other man in building the confederate monument in the capitol grounds at Montgomery, and it was l he who induced Jefferson Davis to come l and lay the corner stone of the monument | in 1886. He did much for the improvement | of the capital city. The son is a bright | lawyer, and is said to be the youngest | United States district attorney in the south | Sheriff Frank P. O'Brien will today wear | sprig of real shamrock plucked from the 1 "ould sod' over the sea- He received a let | ter yesterday from the beautiful old County Mayo, and enclosed in the envelope was | shamrock sprig. The good high sheriff is proud of the green souvenir from the far | fair land of his ancestors.