Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1910-07-13
STATE ATTORNEYS TRIBUTE
TO FRANK T. BROWN.
Made at the Bar Meeting When Res
oIutions Were Adopted.

oIutions Were Adopted.
utes were paid deceased members of
the bar, State Attorney Hull said re-
garding Frank T. Brown:
From its early history the bar of
the city of Norwich has numbered
among it's members some of the abIest
and most illustrious of the state of
Connecticut.
Prominent in the famous list of
names has been written, by consensus
of opinion, the name of Frank Thurs
ton Brown. Sufficient time has not
yet elapsed to make real the solemn
fact that the logical cogent and per-
suasive reasoning of our brother will
be heard by us no more. 1t seems
but yesterday, when, in the midst of
expectancy, he rose in his place. calm.
earnest confident and full of the de-
tail and logic of his cause-faitnful
to his client, but as faithful to the
court the personification of the ar
dent, learned and high minded advo-
cate and counselor With clear vision
and lucid exposition he brushed away
the chaff of essentials and adj
vanced with well nigh irresistible
force the controlling elements in
volved in his cause. In his hands the
argument of a cause was never tedious
or without interest. To some of us
the scenes in which he bore part
are more than reminiscence. They
are pages in the volumes of our own
lives. In them are cast the hopes,
the ambitions, and che triumphs of
generation of his contemporaries. OF
these some have been advanced to
the bench; some have entered the 81
lent halls of death and others still re-
main to play their parts in the cease
less drama enacted by counsel and adj
Vocates in the halls of justice.
No profession is so circumstanced
to judge of the merits of its members
and no profession is so fair and free
from prejudice or jealousy in its
judgments and estimates OF it's fellows
as the legal profession. Our encount
ers are at close range with no cover
or opportunity for sham or pretense.
Stimulation and DISSEMINATION are ex-
posed without mercy, and no mask can
avail against the scrutiny of the legal
forum. The science and the art of
:he law involve in their reach and
disposition every vocation and avoca-
ton which the hand of man has ever
touched or his mind and cunning
ever conceived. Whether il be the
commonplace of life or the remotest
extremities of scientific and expert
mental research and speculation. all
human experiences, property, liberty,
the issue of life and death are brought
at some time for adjudication into our
courts of justice. The law is the per-
lection of human wisdom as applied
to human affairs, but it has it's prece-
dent and example in revealed divine
law. Truth is stranger than fiction.
The real story of human life is an un-
explored and impenetraible labyrinth
and never has been, and never can be,
fully portrayed in the pages of history
or story. The discipline of the law is
UNNECESSARILY greater than that of the
schools.
Our Brother Brown had at the age
of 10 years passed the discipline of the
schools and entered into the sterner
and more trying ordeals of the advo-
cate AMI counselor at law. His equip
ment, innate and acquired. was COM
plete and replete. His mental opera
lions were extremely rapid and his
logic was seldom at fault. He was not
conspicuous for industry for its own
sake, but when occasion demanded
his application was intense His pow
ers of analysis and exposition were re-
markable. His mental vision, while
acute, was at the same time broad
ard comprehensive. He was a dan
geroIIs but a fair and generous ad-
versary. He scorned every sembIance
of unfair or dishonorahle advantage;
for he possessed honor that was sensi-
tive in the extreme. His thinking was
honest, for his heart was true ''As a
man thinketh in his heart. so is he"
was fully exemplifed in him.
In the inconspicuOus years of his
early practice there was disclosed to
the eye of his older, and then more
experienced brethren, the marks of
genius. which are but the capacity for
work His future successes were fore
seen and foretold. He did not seem
to acquire the knowledge OF the law
from many volumes, but rather from
analysis of the leading and control
ling decisions and dicta of our courts
of last resort. His legal laboratory
was not pretentious or extensive, but
his crucible was hot, and his strength
lay not in the mass or volume of de-
cisions. but in the discovery of the
true and basic metal of legal wisdom.
Although for lears he had COM
1
and had frequently been called to its
service. yet his reward had barely be-
gun to be commensurate with his
worth. when he was summoned from
the transient courts of earth TO the
higher courts of the eternal.
An extremely nervous tempera nrnent
impelled him to exertion too strenu-
GUS for his endurance, and while his
work seemed unfinished his column
was broken.
Thirty years of honorable and ac-
tive life seemed about to ripen IN the
fruition of a brilliant career when
the rider of the pale horse touched
and stiIled a heart that was pul sating
with life and hope.
Our brother Brown did not realize
the limitations nature had placed up
on him 1t would have been better
for him if he had possessed the fac-
uIty to gather about him Noang.r
men. to whom he might delegate
much OF the labor ofssearch ana prep
aration necessarily involved in che
examination and disposition Of tie
great and important questions which
multiplied upon him in the later years
of his professional career He never
avoided the strain of brain and ncrve
and denied himself the relaxation
which has been discovered to he the
touchstone of the art OF continued ef-
fort
It was my lot to know something
of the human side of his nature. At
the outbreak of the Spanish Anne can