The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-08-22
''CONE ARE DAYS."
Joe Waters MOurns for the Old
Time Lawyer.
Attorneys Now Float Through
Case Like Chip on Stream.
LOOK TO PRECEDENT.
Which Side Can Find Greatest
Number of Cases.
Appeals to Jury a Thing of the
Misty Past.

y
away and in little while will have
disappeared off the face of the earth :"
Thus spoke Capt. Joe Waters today,
while in reflective mood, and the
captain ought to know, for he is one
OF the best of the old type of barris-
tiers who won cases by the strength of
their intellect. by native shrewdness,
wit, personality, knowledge of human
nature and eloquence.
In the old days. more than a quar-
ter OF century ago." continued Cap
tain Waters, "a good lawyer went out
on his circuit with three law books in
! his bag and a change of linen. He
was well grounded in common law
and chancery and for a library of
authorities he had only a treatise or
two on law by favorite jurist He
was prepared for all exigencies that
might arise from any case. He could
face any situation, quickly and thor
oughly. and his debate with opposing
counsel was as sharp and bright as
the clash OF rapiers. He faced the
judge with equal confidence that he
did the jury. He went straight to the
point of case along the track of for
ensic oratory after having fought 1t
through foot by foot with his wit and
knowledge of legal lore.
what a contrast with the lawyers
of today, who float through a case like
chip in the stream and spend most
of the time stationary in some eddy or
other.
THE old lawyer was a. student of
human nature and was always at his
best when facing a jury. He depend
ed upon his own powers and the par
ticular points of his own case rather
than the authorities on a similar case
in some distant state tried by God
knows what kind of a judge. He was
terribly in earnest when facing a jury.
was the lawyer of the old school, He
was lifted out of himself. The peo-
| pie of the countryside had gathered
| for miles around. The audience wept
and smiled and hummed applause in
accompaniment to the lawyers word
| picture of the case. All, I tell you he
knew what to bring out of that case
and hold as a dazzling light before that
| jury. The court room was a school
| house in those days. a theater. a
| forum. The old lawyer could carry a
case through every court in the land.
| Any kind of case. The court of
claims. court of international arbitra-
| ton, as far as the law reached the old
| lawyer was at home.
| 1.-The logic of those old fellows. state
| ly and irrefutable: their repartee
flashing like a Corsican's dagger; their
rounded periods of eloquence straight
from the heart to the heart; their
pathos which moved speaker and
| nearer alike to tears. There are few
such men now, and soon the last of
| them will have passed away" The
| veteran lawyers chin sank upon his
breast and he pronounced the last
| words with a sadness that was hides
| cribable.
| Captain Waters was silent for a
minute, lost among the shadows his
thoughts had called forth from a van
| ished time. But my boy, I want to
| tell you that if there are no such men
now it is not because this age has de-
generated. 1 am not a pessimist nor
an egotist. 1t is simply because of
| the practice at the bar which is dictat-
ed by form and custom. Lawyers now
| adays prepare a case and not them
selves for case. They sit in their Ii
brary and look up the authorities on
similar cases. When the case comes
to trial the counsel for defense has an
impressive list of these authorities and
if his opponent has one or two less
on his list then the first named law
yer claims a verdict, or decision, as
the case may be. His practice of law
gives him no such training or course
of development of his natural pow
ers as did the practice Of the old time
lawyers.
at is like preparing for the prize
| ring by the arm chair method of ath-
letics to make a logician, an orator,
| wit, a master of rhetoric and, a judge
| of human nature out of a young law
yer of today by the present methods
| of practice in the courts of this coun-
| try / tell you a man must enter into
the dust and CRIME and blows of the
battle and fight long and often II he
would develop his powers to their ut
termost.
"Then the greatest talent of the old
lawyer was his mastery of the now
lost art of cross examination. The
crucial test Of a case lies always m the
cross examination of the star witness
for the other side. The witness who
faced one of these old lawyers with a
lie on his lips was to be pitied. he
was riddled; annihilated; hoisted on hi:
Town petard and his fragments scat
tered to the four winds of that law
lyer's unleashed powers The witness
who smoke the truth had nothing a
all to fear from the most terrible eros:
examiner of those times. You canno
pierce truth or make way against 1t
Not God Almighty Himself can az
that.
well we'll. 1 am getting old.
guess, and see things by the hgnt o.
other DAVIS. But I have heard ant
seen some wonderful lawyers IN m!
time and 1 do not see their like to
day. With the decline of the old Gus
tom of law practice men like Edmund
Burke. William Pitt, Charles Fox. Dan
lei Webster. Henry Clay, stephen A
douglas. Abraham Lincoln. John c
breckenridge, Robert Ingersoll, Jane
a. Blaine and many other fmmorta
LAWYERS and orators have disappeared
and there are none TO take thei