Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury [Connecticut]) 1903-1917, 1904-04-16
A LEGAL UNION.
Lawyers Talking Of Form
ing Social Association.

The lawyers within the Jurisdiction
Of the district court will have fully
organized union next Saturday. Fur
Their steps in that direction were taken
at a meeting of the bar in the district
court this morning and incidentally
there was great deal of fun. Mr.
O'Neill held down the ruling chair. He
said there ought to be an association
of the bar more for social purposes
than anything else. Attorney Guilfoile
asked if it was to stand for Hearst or
Parker. and Mr. O'Neil said it would
stand for every democrat on the ticket.
Laughter. After telling how similar
associations in other places are con-
Quoted, he said that Bridgeport
seems to have the best ideas. There
the lawyers hold an annual banquet,
at which "reminiscences are told. One
OF the officers is bar historian, who
takes note of all incidents worth tell
Ing or recording and at the banquet at
the end Of the year these little affairs
are told and there is a great deal of
fun and merriment. He thought a
committee ought to be appointed to
make the nominations for offices next
Saturday, and. having already usurped
the duties of chairman, he was en-
powered to appoint the committee.
The following were chosen: Judge #.
Nj. Peasley and Attorneys Carmody,
Guilfoile and Minor.
At this juncture Attorney Minor set
fire to the carpet and there was more
commotion for a while than would oc-
cur in ten years at any other kind of q
gathering except a republican harmony
meeting. Things were getting quite
warm when Attorney Lauber jumped
over chair and alighted on the fire,
extinguishing it.
Judge Cowell said he understood it
way always the duty of the committee
on organization to furnish the first
banquet, and this seemed to be the
sense of the gathering, and also that
Judge Cowell should furnish the wine.
The judge voted against this proposi-
ton and Mr. O'Neill said he recalled a.
shad dinner he had with some mem
bers of the bar some years ago at the
mouth of the Housatonic river. At
that time Clerk Root and Messenger
Gillette were not fishermen and there
was considerable more shad in the
Housatonic than there is now. A fell
low with pack of cards was at the
dinner and he won all the fish in the
river, and because he was poor law
yer he got pulled in, not into the river,
but to quod, for trying to catch what
he 4ad fairly won.
To give the committee an idea of the
kind of dinner that would about fl
the bill. Mr. O'Neill told story. He
said that some time ago the "civic au-
thorities," the board Of registration
and the selectmen, used to give an an
nuaI dinner ut the time of making
voters. There used to be wine galore
but one time some cranky fellow
kicked against the public paying for
the wine, and at the next civic dinner
the diners had to bring their own
liquor. The consequence was there
was more wine than there was mince
pie. One man ate too much pie, a
whole mince pie, and he never got over
it. There were no coroners those davs.
but it was generally suspected the man
died Of too much pie. notwithstanding
that he escaped an autopsy.
"But those were the days we got JUS
tice," said Mr. O'Neill. All the lawyers
burst into uproarious laughter, and Mr.
O'NeiIl, turning around to see the cause
of it. saw Judge Cowell smiling at nim,
and said he would have to continue his
story to next week