The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1910-07-30

three correspondents were held in their seats by
cautionary word from veteran who had done
long service in the Supreme court. He said. Wait
In q few minutes, as the reading went on, i
became apparent that the court had decided thai
while the companies had franchise for 100 years
they had practically no rights under 1t. On the
strength of the mistake which made In send
ing out some of the first dispatches that day
stocks went up and then when the truth came out
they tumbled so fast that they hurt their heads.
When the justices led by the clerk and the
chief justice enter the Supreme courtroom every
body stands. When the judges have taken their
seats the court crier after the manner of court
criers since the time of the patriarchs. declares
that the high and honorable court in session and
that justice is to be dispensed Just before taking
their seats the justices bow to the assembled
throng and the throng bows back. When the court
crier's voice has died away everybody takes his
seat and the proceedings begin.
The Supreme court sits in the old senate cham
Der Of the capitol. 1t is the room where Webster
Hayne Clay Calhoun and others fought their bat
ties. The gallery is a tiny affair capable of seating
only about thirty people and the wonder is how
when Webster delivered his great grafton in reply
to Hayne there could have been present the great
crowd of which history tells u.s.
1t was in the Supreme courtroom that the cleo
toral commission which decided the Hayes-Tilden
contest held its sessions. The fifteen members
of that commission occupied the seats of the JUS
tees and 1t is said that during the progress of the
nearing the uttie room was crowded literally to
suffocation and that many people were overcome
1t Is an historic chamber and 1t is one of the places
to which visitors to Washington bend their steps,
In the membership of the Supreme court there
are two veterans of the Union army and two vet
Grams of the Confederate army. John Marshall
Harlan who is Republican, raised the Tenth Ken
lucky infantry and served in Gen. George H. Thorn
as division He rose to the rank of colonel and
his name was before the senate fer confirmation
as a brigadier general at a time late in the war
when his fathers death compelled him for family
reasons to retire from the service
Oliver Wendell Holmes of Boston graduated
from Harvard college in 1861 and at once entered
the Union army. At the battle Of Balls Bluff In
October. 1861, Holmes was shot through the
breast and for long time it was believed he could
not possibly recover He did recover, however
and went back to the front, taking part in the
battle Of Antietam, where he shot through the
neck, and again his life was despaired Of Once
more he recovered and went to the front only to
be wounded again at the battle of Fredericksburg
Justice Edward Douglass White was born in
Louisiana and he served through the Civil war in
the Confederate service Horace Harmon Lurton,
who was appointed by President Taft to the
vacancy caused by the death Of Justice Peckham
entered the Confederate service when he was only
seventeen years old and he served three years. He
was with General Buckner at Fort Donelson when
the Confederate commander surrendered to Gen.
eral Grant. Lurton was Grants captive and It is
not at all probable that the northern soldier had
any conception that this youthful prisoner was one
day to be appointed to the Supreme court of the
United States by Republican president