The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-07

every day of the session. so that there
shall always be some on the bench
familiar with every ruling or agree
ment made in court.
AS the judge sits high up in the
great oaken hall of justice, with its
bronze statue of Livingston and its
paneled portraits of dead jurists. John
Jay in his crimson university robes
high above them all, he can see
through the windows the Hudson riv-
er. which sweeps the shore of his be-
loved farm at EsoPus, sixty miles
away where his family, his crops and
his herds await him at each weeks
end. However deeply his mind is i'm
mersed in the complex problems of
his great Office. his heart is always
in his farm. for he was born a farmer
and will be one till he dies. This
familiar and practical knowledge of
farming and farmers is of great value
to the court in dealing with agr1-
cultural cases.
Judge Parzer's Working Traits.
considering the fact that within q
few months Judge Parker is likely to
be the Democratic candidate for pres
ident it is worth while noticing his
working traits as a public officer. He
goes at his task without nervousness
1t is hard to imagine a less nervous
man. He works with method and
deliberately Unlike President ROoSe-
veIt he does not lurch at things in
a fury of energy, but makes progress
in an orderly and calm mood After
debating an opinion he goes over the
sheets and strikes out everything I'M
necessary or rhetorical. But his cor
rections ordinarily relate merely to de-
tails; he does not have to pull his
work to pieces. Nor is there any one
who ever heard him speak discour-
teously or in anger to a subordinate.
His tact and natural kindness make
things move smoothly. Yet there is
an iron firmness about him.
His Farm at Esopus.
At the end of every week and dur
ing the summer vacation Judge Par
ker is to be found on his picturesque
farm at Esopus, which OverlOoks the
Hudson river. He has three farms in
New York state-one of $50 acres at
Cortland. another of $50 acres at Ac-
cord and another of 90 acres at
EsopuS. He manages these three
farms and makes them, on the whole,
pay He is no dillettante stranger to
the country. playing with agriculture
as with a toy, but a real farmer, who
directs the work, superintends the
blowing and. in harvest time, goes out
in his shirt sleeves to work with his
men in the hay and sorghum.
careful estimate of Judge Par
ker's wealth places the value of all
his possessions at about $4,000 This
property he has acquired mostly by
saving and good business judgment
His farm at Cortland came to him
from his farmer father. He was born
on it and worked along its burrows
as a boy.
OF Old English Stock.
On his fathers side the judge comes
of old English stock. His great-grand-
father John Parker, was born in 1851
at Worcester, Mass. He was a hard
working farmer. When the war for
independence broke out he left his
pillow and served as a private under
Washing ton until the American repub-
lie was established. Little is known
of him except that he was a man of
pluck and independence and was
greatly respected by his neighbors-
His son, John Parker, was an intelli-
gent man, highly educated and pub
lie spirited In 1903 he came to New
York state and bought a farm at Cort-
land, the same farm which his dis
tinguished grandson owns and culti-
Yates today He had a large family.
and when his health broke down the
burden fell heavily upon his son John.
the father of Judge Parker Those
who remember the judges father say
that he was a man of studious habits.
In spite of his bitter struggle for life
on the farm he read widely and deep
ly- He vas especially fond of COM
hitting rare passages to memory, and
every spare moment found him porting
over a good book.
On his mothers side Judge Parker
derives good New England blood. His
white haired mother. who lives at Der
by. Conn, is a woman of refinement
education and strong character. In
the summer time she spends the
judges vacation with him at Esopus
She IS a member of the Woman'S /
Christian Temperance union. The giant
sits beside his mother while she SOL
EMMY lectures him on Temperance.
and. being an abstemious man, he
smiles and promises to be good. Her
constant aim is to warn him against