The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-02-16


Ii has been years since ! met my friend,
Mark Blanford. l see by the press dis
| patches that he is dead-died in Column
bus last week. II greved me for time,
although ne was old enough to die. Eighty
| years is a good old age if the man is
| good Every time one of these old trees
falls it shocks me. George Barnes died
not long ago in Augusta. and / was
greyed. for | loved him and / uncon-
sciously whispered, Next" Only three
of us left of the Senate of 1866. There
were forty-four. but the old reaper has
cut down all but our Chief Justice Sim
mons. our chaplain, Brother Marlborough,
and mysef-and ! am sick
But / was Illuminating about Judge
Blanford--men called him Mark-we who
knew him best He was, as Hamlet said
of Yorick. a man of infinite jest and most
excellent fancy. When the spirit moved
him he could entertain his friends most
pleasantly and il was our delight to get
him and Judge Underwood and Judge
Buchanan together with Evan Howell as
teaser and spending the evening hours
during the session of the Supreme Court
when Mark was one of the judges. Dur
ing the court hours Chief Justice Warner
was sitting there as serious and solemn
as Presbyterian preacher drinking in
the record and digesting the law Of the
case. while Mark took in the surround
ings and humorous side of everything
, He was a good lawyer, but jumped to
conclusions like woman and never saw
much difference between the plaintiff and
defendant unless one Of them was a wo-
man or a widow. One night we visited
Mark in his room and he RECALLED us with
his experiences in justices courts while
he was young and deyihsh. The old time
justice court was a good school for a
young lawyer He not only practiced law
in it, but the arts OF oratory and could
use big words with impunity, for neither
the old squire nor the jury knew their
meaning. but were impressed with their
learned length and lingering sound.
still remember the Fretman case that
Mark rehearsed that night. yankee
school teacher from the Nutmeg State
had sued Jim jenkins for SIS worth of
schooling for his two boys. Troup and
Calhoun Jenkins wouldn't pay it be-
cause the two little nullihers hadn't
learned anything hardly and they told
him that Fretman gave powerful long
amazing. especially with Sally Amanda
Jones' Fretman was good-looking
yankee, with pink checks and winning
ways and was popular with the girl
scholars Sometimes Salamander, as
they called her, dident go out at recess,
bat pretended she had some sums to do
and wanted the teacher TO show her how.
TroD said he heard her squeal one day.
Z oil .,fNd
Fretman squeezing of her. She was a
red-hcaded gal.
Old Phil Davis was the justice court.
Marks plea was that Fretman wasent
scholar and not fifth to teach, and that
he couldent read writin nor write readin
nor spell all the words in Daniel Web
sters blue-back spollin book, and he
made a motion TO put him on the stand
and spell him. Fretman's lawyer fought
it, but the old squire said he must spell.
Fretman was scared. He trembled all
over like cold. wet dog Spell Phthisic,
said Mark and he spelt it correctly. He
then spelt him right along on all sorts
of big words and little words and long
WORDS. and afterwards. but Fretman new
er missed until finally Mark says, Now
spell Ompompynusuk. Fretman drew a
long breath and said it wasent in the |
book But Mark proved by an old preach |
Ell that il was in his book, and so old |
Phil spoke up and said: Mr.. Fretman, |
you must spell it, sir" He was then |
sweatin like a rundown fiIly. He took |
one pass at it and missed. You can |
come down. sir, said Mark; you've lost |
your case" And sure enough old Phil |
gave Judgment against him and he had |
the cost to pay But he was good grit, I
for he stuck to his school and his Sala-
mander.
At the next court Mark moved to non
suit a doctor who had sued a Teller and
he filed a plea of NAL practice and de-
manded a profert OF his diploma The
doctor said he had one at home, and
begged for time to go after it, Old Phil
gave him time, and he rode 6 miles and
back as hard as he could lick it, and
shook it in Mark s face trimphantly.
Mark smiled and said "Now, doctor.
please take the stand and translate this
urrn language into English, so that his
lonor may know whether it is diploma
Or not. 1t looks TO me like an old reyo-
utionary grant of land" Of course the
loctor couldent translate it, and he lost
us case IN Jlny | don't believe We
nave as good anecdotes now as we used
o have | don't know anybody who
las taken the place of Howell Cobb and
Charles j. Mcdonald and CincinnatuS
Peoples and Hope Hull aud the others
rave already named. / am writing about
hem now because | am sick and it cheers
ne TO think of them. If it were not for
he bright little grandchildren who come
Q see lie ] should go to bed and give VI
he ship. For two weeks | have had the
rip and am MISUNDERSTANDING and
neezing and wheeling, my head a foun-
ain and mine eyes rivers of tears and
obody cares very much but they dose
he with cuinine and bromine and Gallo
lel and, at last, prescribed castor oil
nd turpentine. | rebeled but they
rought me something in cup that they
aid was the white of an egg and sherry
inc, and SO | gulped it down and found
was castor oil. My head aches. | want D
dozen holes bored in it and a dozen z
)rckscrews to pull the stuff out Sick 9
) | am. my wife laughs at me and says /
expect TO ratC as a gentleman !
ad better be more careful how eXpec- I
'ratc and she made me an old fashioned d
oney stew and I'm trying that now It's L
{. y ii l. fIaA