Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-12-02
.KENNEbEC BAR HOLDS
MEMORIAL SERVICES.
Tribute Of Love to Four Leading Members That
Have Died During the Past Year---Judge An
dTeWS, MeSSrS. Baker, Brown and TitComb.

member of this bar, who had for many
years been acknowledged as one of the
| most learned and accomplished lawyers
and powerful advocates in our State.
1t becomes my sad privilege to respond
to the resolutions then presented as an
expression Of deep sorrow for his loss
and sincere respect for his memory.
In mis- earlier life he had been a sue
cessful journalist, and had repeatedly
Teen the recipient of political honors
from his fellow citizens, but with these
temporary diversions he remained con-
slant in his desire and purpose to bend
his mind to the philosophy Of the law
and make the practice of the legal pro-
fession the work of his life; and though
it was then said of him that he touch
ed nothing which he did not adOrn,"
yet like the tabled Antaeus he seemed
to draw invincible strength only when
his feet touched the solid earth of his
| chosen profession.
Orville Dewey Baker was the son of
Joseph and Frances Rogers Baker. His
mother was sister of the famous
Jonathan p. Rogers, a lawyer distin-
guished alike for his mastery of legal
principles and his skill and power as
advocate, who practiced for some years
lin Bangor as the partner of Edward
! Kent and afterWard removed to Boston
at the personal request of Daniel Web
ster where he ''died in comparative
youth in the midst of a growing fame"
The traditions of both the Penobscot
and Suffolk bars have united in pre-
senting Jonathan Rogers to the sue
ceedng generations as legal giant.
Orville Baker was endowed with in
tellectual gifts and powers of a very
high order, and from his early child
hood to the time of his entering upon
the practice of the law, his academic
and legal education as well as his en-
tire mental development, progressed
under the constant supervision and Wig
liant care of his devoted father. The
ripe scholarship which was the fruition
of his course at BoWdoin College was
succeeded by appreciative travel and
study in foreign countries. With such
broad and liberal culture as founda-
ton, he prosecuted his legal studies at
Harvard Law School and graduated
with a comprehensive grasp of the sci
ence of the law unsurpassed by that Of
any other graduate in that decade. He
entered upon the practice of the law in
partnership with his father, with a
splendid equipment for the pursuit Of
the most imperial and exacting of al.
re learned professors, and he came
per saltum into the front rank of the
best legal scholars and ablest trial
lawyers of the state. | well remember
the first important jury trial in which
during the second year of his practice.
he was put forward by the senior men,
Der of the firm to make the closing ar
Sument 10 the jury. With an orderly
grouping of the relevant facts about
each of the propositions, with much
rhetorical adOrnment and elaboration.
with caustlc satire and glowing elo-
Quence, the argument was pressed for
ward to its logical conclusion. AL
though III this first case the evidence
was not accepted by the jury as suffi-
Gent to support the premises of the
argument, the effort was recognized
by all as one of distinguished ability
and spleE1id promise.
Then felt we like some watcher Of the
When a new planet swims into his
ken
That new and brilliant Iuminary
mad flashed into Names constelIa lion
OF the law was promptly recognized
throughout the State. If any had lin
gering doubts at that time whether he
possessed the practical wisdom. the
correct mental roise and the intujtiye
sense of common right which are indis-
pensible TO the highest success in the
profession, their doubts were PROMPTLY
removed by RAPIDLY succeeding efforts
OF subsequent career, which abundant
~ 1ulhiled the brilliancy of early pronl-
lsc, Under the Christening influences
OF superior culture and the study Of the
masterpieces of English oratory. he
avoided the excessive use of words of
Latin origin ana ESCAPED the common
perils of magniloquence" With rich
vocabulary of both Latin and Saxon
Words his addresses disclosed no fixed
preference for either but he aptly
chose the term which most exactly
and forcibly expressed the pressing
Thought or dominant mood of the mo-
ment. He was also endowed in an en-
lnent degree with the faculty Of i'm
aglnation which enabled him by stril-
ing illustrations to give vividness to
| every scene and increased power to the
expression of every thought. The
opening paragraph of his address at a
recent memorial service may be uuo-
ted AS at once an illustration of the ele
gance of his diction and the beauty Of
his imagery, and an expression Of the
infinite pathos of the occasion, as we'll
as that, when one in the full possession
of all his faculties and in full tide and
stress of his useful work, has passed
away iii the midst of his earthly years.
AT times VIC are strikingly reminded
that, close beside the borders of life.
set with all its blooms, flows the river
of death, into whose forbidding waters
nc man may step and then return, and
no man who has once entered may send
answer back from the farther shore.
When it comes to one who is frail with
sickness. or weary with the hardships
of life, the fingers of death are soft and
even welcome, and draw one gently to
repose. But when it overtakes, as 1t
did here, the strong man in harness, it
must give us pause, in order that we