The Washington herald., 1912-10-06
Some Famous Lawyer
Types of Charles Dickens
Novelist Creates Over 20 in His Novels. Not Counting
Clerks Tukinghorn and Jaggers Offset by
Sydney Carton and Traddles.

bond. His heart and hand of the good
angel Spenlow would have been always
open but for the restraining demon Jor-
kins. "As / have grown Older" David
comments, Il think / have had experi-
ence of some other houses doing busi-
ness on the principle of Spenlow Jor-
kins." Dickens enjoys q taste Of irony
in making Spenlow, who had been IN
expert in testamentary disposition. die
leaving his own affairs In disorder ana
without making a win.
But II lawyers are apt to resent these
types of the profession through winch
Dickens seems to show an almost uni
versal ridicule ana contempt for their
kind, they mar be consoled In the re-
membrance that it is lawyer whom the
author presents to the world as one OF
his noblest characters This Is sydney
Carton IN the Tale Of Two Cities" And
again We may forgive Dickens all his
other lawyers because of the delghtful
creation of Tommy Traddies In David
Copperfieid." who becomes staid and
respectable judge at the end OF the book
and who we are told stands for the por-
trait of the authors intimate and dear
friend. Sergt. Talfourd.
Eugene Wrayburn in Our Mutual
Friend" is another lawyer who deserves
well of us. at whom We must smile dur
ing his cynicisms. but who comes through
the plot unscathed and finally lands right
side up. Many a young attorney will ap-
preciate that delicious piece of Eugene's.
which well hits of the inertia with which
the ethics of the legal profession hedge
in the youngster during his first years as
a briehess barrister:
Idiots talk" says Eugene to his friend
Mortimer Lightwood. ''of energy. II there
is a word in the dictionary. under any
letter from A to 2, that abominate 1t Is
T.. Il fls.n L..
perstitioni such parrot gable! What the
deucei am to rush out into the street,
collar the first man Of wealthy appear
ance that 1 meet. shake him and say,
Go to the law upon the spot, you dog,
and retain me or I'll be the death Of
your Yet that would be energy"
Hiram Grewgious, esquire, agent and
collector Of rents. Is another Of Dickens
quaint lawyer characters whom We all
hold in loving memory. He is one OF
the most felicitous of Dickens creations
as well as one of the disappearing In
the Mystery of Edwin brood" Awk-
ward and hesitating in manner. ungain-
ly in appearance, whimsical. near sight
ed, wooden and impassive-yet shrewd
withal-he still had some, strange capac-
ity in him of making on the whole an
agreeable impression"
Contemplate Characters.
The majority Of Dickens lawyers are
really contemplate Observation-Disclosures
and pettifoggers. schemers and charla-
tans-and at best the author shows but
a grudging federation for those high w
in the profession. Even the Lord High
Chancellor himself has not escaped his
excoriating lash. He seems to have be-
lieved in the old story which makes the
devil the lawyers patron saint, and he
makes use in one of his tales OF the in
scription over the door of the queer old
house of Rochester in Kent, which places
proctors and rogues in the same class:
Richard Watts, ESQ.,.
by his VIII. dated = Aug. T5e.
founded this Charity
for Sir Poor Travellers.
who not being Rogues Proctors.
May recrive gratis for night
Lodging. Entertainment, and FourTence each.
The reason for this antipathy toward
lawyers lay perhaps in Dickens dislike