Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-12-21

much account Of the great hardships
and dangers which the soldiers OF the
frontier encountered on his behalf.
In 1877 Briggs resigned from the
army and went to Trenton, n. J.,
where after a while he entered poll
tics. His first Office was that Of mayor
Of Trenton He was elected to the
senate in 1907 to succeed J. F. 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
bership. Edward Douglass White, the
chief Justice, who was appointed TO
that Office By President Taft to sue
coed Melville W. Fuller. served as a
private in the Confederate army. In
his biography supplied for official use.
the chief justice merely says, i
served in the Confederate army" He
tells nothing of the excellent record
which he made as a soldier. although,
having no military education. he did
not rise to high rank in the armed
service of the Confederate govern
ment.
Oliver Wendell Holmes. son OF the
"Autocrat Of the Breakfast Table
had a 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 1861 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 did
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 Il his
wounds begin TO hurt In fair waether
side of "a hours.
Horace Harmon Lurton, another as
soclate Justice Of the Supreme court,
served three years III 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 a future associate
Justice of the United States Supreme
court.
Lawyers Numerous in Congress.
The majority of the members Of
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 of
more than half the senators and rep
resentatives.
Not all of the member of congress
who have a right to practice in the
| courts are actively engaged in their
professions. A good many o. them are
rather rusty on law. and they admit
it. These members in the main are
men who have been holding office
continuously for years and who have
found that they could not keep pace
with law when the Only time that
they can give to it is during the re-
| cesses of congress in the summer
months when most of the members aft
er the hard winter feel more like 60
ing fishing than taking up cases in
court. Moreover, almost every Sep
| TENDER they are called upon to make
political speeches, and this, like fish
ing, interferes woefulIy with legal
practice.
Half of Them Once Teachers.
While the majority of the members
are lawyers by profession, fully half
Of the men of the two houses at some
time in their careers have taught
school There are men in extraordinar
lily high official places today who III
early life taught schools at the cross
roads. Elihu Root, senior senator
from New York, is one of these, His
father was a professor of mathemat-
les at Hamilton college, and he was
known as Square Root" a designa-
tion sufficient to show that the stu
dents liked their teacher of mathemat-
les. One Of Elihu Roots brothers
succeeded his father in the professor
ship at Hamilton, and the boys call
ed him Cube Root"
Elihu Root himself thought that he
would make teaching his life profes-
sion and so sooE after graduating from
Hamilton he entered a country school
| in Oneida county, New York. and
taught there for some time Then
his attention was turned to the bar
and he became a lawyer. The rest of
his history is too well known to need
| repetition.
Robert Marion La Toilette, senator
from Wisconsin and presidential pos.
sibiiity, also was a school teacher. He
did not teach long, but teaching was
one of the means which he used i'll
his rather hard driven youth to help
him prepare himself for the career
which he hoped TO enter upon.