The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-08-13

I ing part of the population; more than
 three-fourths of the clients are Jews of English, Russian and Polish national ity, and the lawyer is at times quite
 unable to proceed without interven- ton of an interpreter, The Jews seem
 to pick up the English language very quickly, but newly imported immi- grants and transmigrants are particu- larly likely to need the services of a lawyer, and these can generally speak hardly a word of English. Legal pro- lection committee chiefly assists the poorer aliens.
 It's aim is to wright a wrong, rather than to put money in the pocket of client. Its procedure is as follows: The clients are first interviewed by layman, well known in the neighbor- hood, and himself Jew. He able to dispose alone of the majority of cases. His legal knowledge is sufficient for the more ordinary difficulties, and off,
 ten word of advice is all that Is. wanted. More difficult eases he drafts into walting-room, giving out num-
 bered tickets; and these come in turn before the solicitor, who is in attend
 ance' and he goes carefully into each case.
 Most of the cases referred to him are of an ordinary description-some land
 lord has been levying an illegal dis
 tress, some husband ill-treating his Wife, some employer refusing wages to his workman, an omnibus upsets a barrow and the wares are damaged, child has been run over, a friendly so- ciety or insurance company refuses
 payment, petty leases and partnership l agreements have been broken. t
 The committee is only too glad to be
 able to avoid litigation if it can effect
 some satisfactory compromise It can act independently, as it's services are given gratis, and occasionally, when both parties set their views before it,
 can act more as arbitrator than as at- torney. But the best guarantee for peaceful solution is the knowledge of
 it's power and will to enforce it's views,
 and the committee does not take up a
 case, however deserving, that 1t is not prepared to fight in court.
 It raises annually a small fund to
 pay it's own litigious solution for his professional services and his disburse-
 ments in court fees, etc. He is quite
 distinct from the consulting solicitor
 who presides at the committees ses- sions. The former Is a solicitor of the
 neighborhood, who merely conducts
 such cases as are referred to him on the advice of the latter. The possess
 sion of war chest is peculiar to the Toynbee center. The leading case of | Davin and Harris, which decides that the bedstead, no less than the bedding
 proper, is exempt from distress, is the
 chief outward sign of it's existence.
 The more curious and romantic cases are unfortunately as a rule the least hopeful from legal point of view, though even here good advice may bring the blessing of resignation. It Is something gained to lay the ghost of a
 family tradition relating to a lost ln- heritance with the statute of limita-
 tions. Perhaps a widow will come
 seeking land that was in the family generations ago. or a family conclave attends en masse with a claim to a de- ceased Dutch merchants fortune that
 even the offer of ten per cent, commits
 sion elsewhere had failed to recover. These are more exceptional cases. The proceedings before the consulting l solicitor are full of interest, too, for
 the student of men and manners.
 There are tales relating to the Feast of
 Purim or the Feast of Tabernacles, the | inner histories of the pickled herring and other trades, Jewish betrothal doc- | uments, Russian promissory notes, sto-
 ries of tenement amenities, and the life
 of the workshop, court and street;
 while the humble penny stamp, vainly
 endeavoring to cover sins of omission
 under the stamp act, and posing as an
 agreement stamp or deed stamp, is el-
 oquent of the general diffusion of un- digested law. Occasionally, too
 there comes a client limiting that he
 would be obliged If he could hear of
 the best approved legal way to defeat
 creditors. The exhortation to be hon.
 est that he gets is disappointing to
 him. There would be less need of the
 poor mans lawyer If the law were
 kinder to the poor man.-London Ex-
 press,