The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1911-12-29

srortier encountered on his behalf.
In 1877 Briggs resigned from me
INV and went to Trenton, N. j.,
whare after a while he entered pon-
flies His first office was that OF mayor
~ Trenton. He was elected to the
senate in 1907 to succeed J. 2. Dryden
who died only three weeks ago
soldiers in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme court OF the United
states has several soldiers in its mem
hersbip. Edward Douglass White, the
chat Justice. who was appointed to
frat mice by President Taft to sue
coed Melville w. Fuller. served as
nrivate in the Confederate army. In
his biography supplied for oficial use.
the chief justice merely says. u
seryed In the Confederate army. he
tells nothing Of the excellent record
which he made as a soldier, although,
having no military education. he dio
not rise 10 high rank In the armed
service OF the Confederate govern.
ment.
oliver Wendell Holmes. son OF the
.Autocrat of the Breakfast Table"
had fine record as soldier. His
fathers story Of "A Search for the
Captain" or a name similar. dealt
with the attempt to trace young
Holmes after he had been badly
wounded and had disappeared.
Justice Holmes left Harvard college
early in 1851 to go to the front with
the Twentieth Massachusetts, Volun.
teer infantry. He was shot through
the breast at Balls Bluff and 1t was
thought he could not recover. He dio
recover, was commissioned as cap
tain and inside of four months was
shot through the neck. He recovered
from this wound as he did from the
other and again went into the service,
and in less than month after he re-
turned to the front was shot through
the leg. He seems to be pretty healthy
today. although it is said that he is
a walking barometer and that II his
wounds begin to hurt in fair waether
he knows that it is going to rain in,
side of "a hours.
Horace Harmon sLurton, another as
sociate justice of the Supreme court
served three years in the Confederate
army. General Grant once captured
the Confederate force of which Lur
ton was a member. The young Con
fedate soldier then saw Grant for the
first time, but history fails to record
that the general recognized in his
youthful captive future associate
Justice of the United States Supreme
court.
Lawyers Numerous in Congress.
The majority of the members o
the Sixty-second congress is com
posed of lawyers. This condition
of preponderance of legal minds
in the two houses has been maintain
ed ever since the earliest days OF the
republic, when for awhile agriculture
was named as the pursuit in life o
more than half the senators and rep
resentatiyes.
Not all of the member of congress
who have a right to practice in thu
courts are actively engaged in thei
professions. A good many of them ar
rather rusty on law, and they admi
it. These members in the main ar
men who have been holding ofic'
continuously for years and who hav'
found that they could not keep pac
with law when the only time tina
they can give to it is during the re
cesses of congress in the summe
months when most of the members aft
er the hard winter feel more like &c
ing fishing than taking up cases Il
court. Moreover, almost every Ser
TENDER they are called upon to max
political speeches, and this, like fish
ing, interferes woefully with lega
practice.
Half of Them Once Teachers.
While the majority of the member
are lawyers by profession, fully hal
of the men of the two houses at som
time in their careers have laugh
school. There are men in extraordinal
J lily high official places today who
J early life taught schools at the cross
] roads. Elfhu Root, senior senate
, from New York, is one of these. Hi
father was professor of mathema
les at Hamilton college, and he wa
known as Square Root" designs
, ton sufficient to show that the stl
/ dents liked their teacher of mathema
: les. One of Elihu Roots brother
) succeeded his father in the professo
: ship at Hamilton. and the boys cal
/ ed him Cube Root"
| Elihu Root himself thought that b
3 would make teaching his life profe
= sion and so soon after graduating fro
= Hamilton he entered country scho,
D in Oneida county, New York. an
4 taught there for some time. The
his attention was turned to the b;
t and he became lawyer The rest
:. his history is too well known to nee
0 repetition.
a Robert Marion La Toilette. senate
+ from Wisconsin and a presidential DO
( sibtlity. also was a school teacher. +
o did not teach long, but teaching WI
s one of the means which he used
I his rather hard driven youth IN he