The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1921-01-27
NUMBER 81

period on the bench of the judge.
But "tempora mutanter," Chief JUS
tice Ryan writing as late as 1876, says
sadly: with all our boast of the pres
ent, judicial eminence is not what it
was" and yet, when he was appointed
to that Office at a time when he had no
reason to expect it, and in fact did not
expect it, he declared he had reached
the supreme ambition of his life
Justice Timlin, also called to the SUI
preme bench under circumstances the
most gratifying, in one of his pub
lished opinions intimates that his leav-
ing the forum for the bench was a mis-.
take he regretted. These expressions
may have been, after all, only made in
moments Of dependency or disillusion
such as come to all men, But the fact
is patent to every one who has spent
thirty or forty years of his life among
courts and lawyers, that we are losing
the ancient respect for the courts,
handed down by our Anglo-Saxon fore
fathers. In that loss we lose the great
est cohesive force in our democratic
government 1t is the truth that nei-
ther in the early day nor the latter, has
Ia place on the supreme or circuit
bench been a sinecure or a bed of
roses. Then and now it has always
meant to a conscientious Judge hard
and continuous labor. In the pioneer
period there was the added feature of
physical stress and exposure to the Gle
ments while going to and from the
places of their labors
1t was the same with the members Of
the bar To "traveI the circuit as the
early lawyers were expected to do, and
did, involved no little physical discom-
fort and bodily fatigue. 1t also in
volycd a good deal of expense in divers
ways. In the period of the hot quarrel
and excitement over the old Mauitowoc
and Mississippi River Railway litiga-
tion, | several times saw j. ID. Mark
ham, 5. A. Wood and other attorneys
start at daybrcak to drive to Oshkosh
spending the whole day riding in some
spring wagon, in order to argue some
motion or ask for some injunction the
day following. Wiunebago county at
that time formed part of the Fourth
circuit
In the early part Of these papers /
have spoken of how attorneys who
were good walkers would hike out to
Green Bay or Menasha to do business
at the land Offices. The late Judge j.
T. Mills has told me often that it was
his custom in the early years to send
his books and papers on to Madison q
week or so ahead of the meeting of the
supreme court, and a few days after
start out on foot and make the tramp
of about one hundred miles in time to
be present at the opening of court. He
said he did this by preference as il was
less fatigung than to ride over depths
of mud and slush or upon roads so fur
rowed by wheel ruts that they were
worse for travel than a plowed field
The difficulties of travel and also the
attendant expense were such that it
greatly hindcrcd and delayed the trans
action of business, and lawyers were
obliged to send away to outside attor-
neys much work they now do them
selves. Your client as a rule did not
feel as if he could afford to pay you
for the ten days or SO of time spent in
going to Madison by stage to argue his
appeal in the supreme court The re
suit was that in such work the local
bar became simply a feeder for a big
bar at Madison and Milwaukee
The local lawyer prepared the case
and wrote the brief sent the papers
and a retainer to Milwaukee or Mudi-
son attorneys who made the appear
ances in court, and received the credit
(whcn there was any and most of the
cash.
1t was not until after lapse of
twelve years that a case appealed from
the circuit TO the supreme court was
there argued by the local attorneys.
The case was that of the Chickerming
Lodge of Odd Fellows VS.. Mcdonald.
John r. Bentley was attorney for Nc
Donald and took the appeal, while b,
r. Anderson was attorney for the lodge
and won the case.
This was the first case in the supreme
court handled exclusively by the local
bar. There had been other cases, but
they had been managed either wholly
or partly by Madison or Milwaukee
lawyers.
(To be contuued)