The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-01-30

fields and flowers and songs and to the
adventures of the human heart, except
through the digest and the statute
book. Ultimately the lawyer loses ms
ability to talk; at least ne can com
mand no speech except his barbarous
court jargon.
There is a story of a lawyer whose
wife read to aim novel while he was
recovering from an illness. The book
opened to him a realm so new and so
enchanting that he determined TO write
a novel himself, and he did So At the
eliminating point of the plot, the hero
and heroine met on a summers even
ing in a little mountain village of the
far west. The sun had sunken down
trail of golden light behind the feathery
curtains which canopy his resplen-
dent couch. leaving a purple garb for
the mountain and glamorcus dream
for the sky. Soon unseen hands We're
hanging the night around Them and as
they walked beneath the over hanging
crags the moon arose and spread
wide and tender light upon the boar
austerity of rugged desolatiOn about
them. At length he paused and took
her hand Constance he said in years
I've changed and many deep sins and
errors have been avenged on me, but
through all, and in spite of all I have
been true to you-win you be my
wife2'
And then the lawyer wrote: To
which the party of the second part re
sponded substantially as follows. to
wit:
In this country we enthrone the law
a 8 king 1t IS our monarch. We weave
for it the purple of a royal power: we
place the imperial diadem upon its brow
and yield it sway, as by right divine
over all the seas and continents Of hu-
man life. It grants investiture of lib.
erty and property 1t seals the charter
of the rights which strong men prize
It heeds the sobbing cry of the humblest
orphaned babe 1t stands sentinel be
fore The door Of the sod house of the
prairie with the same fidelity that Il
guards the palatial habitation Of the
rich: and in the presence of its mute
authority the most stu9endous armd-
ment prepared for conflict stands spell
bound and dares not make a hostile
move
but however wide the dominion Of
the law may be- and however great it's
potency. its right and title are deriva-
tive.
"AH the great charters of the world
were as inevitable as fate They rep
resent the spirit of the age measuring
itself up with the spirit of the ages; and
they bear the same witness. across the
centuries, to each others authenticity as
do Job, the Agamemnon, and King
Lear.
But the law is only one portion of the
divine activity 1t can not encompass
or direct all life. and ebullient attempts
to do so must necessarily vaDorize. A
hemOrrhage of law is weakening to the
DOQy GOUAICs anu those VINO naSlllN aD-
peal to legislation as a remedy for every
social disturbance resemble the the
atrieal manager who, upon the occasion
Of fire, sought to calm his audience by
assuring them that there was about 10
be opened on the roof a reservoir OF
water sufficient to drown them all. The
law should. therefore. stand in due sub
ordination and proportion to life's other
manifestations. so that in their entirety
they may present the dignity, the sim
Dlicity and the serenity of one majestic
whole
During any period of rapid progress,
and therefore of change and readiust-
ment. life can speak in terms of law
only to the extent of its comprehension
/ Of the new order and its notentialities.
How shall laws be made for that which
pie command certain of themselves to
go out and wrestle with mist7 No
matter how many elections may be held
or what their result may be. a ballot