Evening star., 1915-04-11

the most famous Welshman in the
country-after Lloyd George. of course.
Honors sit thickly upon him. Previous
to being made president of the pro-
had been solicitor general, and thus
automatically a knight. Prior to that
he had been queens councilor-they
are kings councillors now. of course
by Queen Victoria. He is also J. P.
of Glamorganshire. an Ii. D. of the
University of Wales, a freeman of the
county borough of Swansea and Meath
Unlike certain famous British judges.
he is not the type of judicial humor-
ist" that the late Sir William Gilbert,
himself justice, declared never would
a good story and tells the latter SO well
that he was known to his fellow-mem
hers Of the house of commons as Good
Evans" But on the bench he is all
wrinkled. with searching eye and the
typical legal mouth. and much wearing
of wigs has had anything but a bene-
f1cial effect on his hair.
In Great Britain, of course, lawyer
Is either barrister or a solicitor ESQ
licitors do not appear in the courts).
But Sir Samuel Evans is one of the rare
exceptions who have been both. An
other Of those little Welsh attorneys"
he started as a solicitor In Meath,
matter Of thirty years ago. but after
ward became a member of the bar, and
created a record by taking silk"-that
Is. becoming a councillor, the highest
legal rank short of a judgeship. after
having been only nine years a junior.
Even that brilliant forensic genius, the
former Sir Rufus Isaacs, now Lord
Reading and lord chief justice of Eng
land, wore stuff" for eleven years be-
fore he was singled out for silk
In parliament Sir Samuel Evans was
a great favorite and proved himself
to be gifted with an impregnable vi
tally, being always even tempered and
never weary. case hardened attend
ant at all-night sittings, he grew posi-
tlVely 1ubilant as daylight approached
1t Is related, by the way. that on one
occasion. entering the house somewhat
noisily during an all-night sitting, he
woke up the home secretary But that
may be fable. Once he left the house,
after one of those nocturnal sessions, in
order to catch the $50 am train to
Swansea, where he had a big case COM
ing on.
In spite of the exhausting work of the
night, he was obliged to get up" his
the intermediate stations. where a long
wait was promised, he got out to have
a snack of food. but before he had
finished was obliged to make a frantic
rush for his carriage as the train was
on the move.
He succeeded in entering the omen
door of the guards van and reached
Swansea in safety. Naturally, his first
thought was for his briefs Running
along the platform to his former car
riage. he learned. to his horror. that a
ellow-passenger, imagining that he
had missed the train, had thrown the
bag through the window on to the plat
form of the station where he had
breakfasted. But in spite of this OBJ
stacle the tenacious Welsh barrister
won his case.
He became solicitor general in 1905,
when 1t was confidentially predicted
that he would lose a lot of money by
exchanging his legal practice for a
salary amounting, with fees, to about
$4,000 a year.
AS president of the high court of ad-
mira1ty. by the way, Sir Samuel is the
custodian of what is undoubtedly one
of the quaintest and most interesting
old books in existence. Dating back,
like the silver car. to the reign of Ed
ward III. 1t Is known as THE Black
Book of the Admiralty" and is the old
est compilation Of maritime law in ex-
istence Among other things, it con-
tains list of penalties for wrong-do-
ing at sea Remembering the spirit of