The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-07

IueI : voice uleQ away 10 a
How old did you say, madam"
Silence for a moment; then a shrill
voice piped I'D:
II guess mama's forgot what papa
said to tell you. He said: For heav-
ems sake, tell the conductor the child's
only four and half, and save me
three dollars"
In reciting the story the Judge al
ways adds:
And papa was saved the three dol
lars, not by his furiously blushing
wife, but by his offspring, whose naive
speech made the conductor lean over
my seat the next time he came through
the car and remark:
Wouldn't that jar you? Never
! laughed SO in my life-and l didn't
have the heart to collect fare
1t is in his law offices in Wilmington
| and between clients that the Judge
likes to swap anecdotes with old
friends.
MIR. Grny's Dingy Law Offices.
These offices are in an insignificant
looking and old brick building, and to
get into them a prospective client
must climb up a dark stairway to the
| second floor. Once through the outer
door of the offices the visitor will find
two great rooms, dingy, smelling of
row after row of worn law books hid
ing the walls anu SledIeu dCCOTulHS
to the style of twenty-five years ago,
with a mantle fireplace and a stove.
Sharing these business quarters with
the Judge are two of his children
Andrew, who bears his grandfather's
name, and George, junior. Both are
several years under thirty, and both
are entrusted more and more by their
father with the firms business.
Judge Gray's father lived his days
Newcastle nipfIIrPSnIIP town
where they have whipping post and
park given to the people by William
Penn and where, according to the late
Levi Burd, one of Delaware's famous
lawyers, They don't do anything ex-
cept sit on barrels and mix tobacco
juice with the waters of the Della
ware"
How He Made His Reputation.
1t was while the courts were located
at Newcastle, where Andrew Gray was
looked upon as a man of affluence, that
his son George, several years after he
left the Harvard Law School, in 1863,
attracted the attention of the entire
bar of Delaware by his successful con-
duct of what every well-known lawyer
in the little state had looked upon as
hopeless case for the defense.
A farmer had taken a load of his
products to Wilmington, and while
there got drunk. When he returned
home he was frenzied with liquor, and
while in this state killed his wife. He
was caught red-handed, and no one
dreamed that any defense for the deed
could, or would be put up.
But when the farmers trial was
called George Gray came forward as
lawyer for the defendant, and placed
witness after witness on the stand to
prove that his client was beastly drunk
when he killed his wife: that no one
had ever heard him make threats
against her, and that, as far as they
knew, the couple had lived peacefully
together. Then Mr.. Gray made a de-
duction that startled the older lawyers.
The defendant was crazy when he kill
ed his wife and the drink had made
him crazy. Because he was crazy at
the time he was incapable of premedi-
tating the deed, which was not and
could not have been the result of any
ill-feeling between the couple, because
they had lived happily together. There
fore, the defendant had killed his wife
while not in the possession of his rea-
son, and, therefore, was not guilty of
murder.
The jury held the young lawyers
logic to be good law and acquitted the
defendant.
After that trial Lawyer Gray did
AlOl nave W walt lOIS between ClleHLS,
and he at once became leading mem
Der of the Hen and Chickens State bar.
Judge Gray as "A Host.
Until he moved to Wilmington,
when the courts went there in the
early eighties, Judge Gray's Newcastle
home was a rallying place for all the
out-of-town lawyers while the courts
were in session. To quote one who,
like Judge Gray, followed Justice Will
mington:
1--WE used to get together on the
judges porch and relate experiences
and there was always something re-
freshing for everyone after a days
hard work. The judge was a genial
host, typical Delawarean, sir"
Former Senator Higgins often fore
gathered on Mr.. Gray's porch Mr..
Higgins and the judge knew each other
as boys. Both went to the Harvard
Law School and We're classmates there.
Mr.. Higgins went ahead of Mr.. Gray,
and when the latter reached Boston,
Mr.. Higgins met him at the railroad
station and later introduced him in the
Law School.
Years after Judge Gray returned
the compliment by introducing Mr..
| Higgins to the Senate of the United
States. William G.. Wilson.