Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-15

vere1y he criticised himself for so
long postponing one of the greatest
pleasures he ever enjoyed.
About fifteen years ago a negro
was indicted in Fulton county on a
charge of criminal assault. Feeling
ran high against. him. The court
appointed Mr.. Rosser to defend him,
in association with the late Mr..
Charles T. Hopkins, another giant
of the bar, and the late Mr.. John
E. McClelland, an intrepid fighter.
Mr. Rosser went into that case with
minute, palnstaking thoroughness.
If he had been arranging the legal
details of a bond issue for a public
utility corporation, he would not
have been more thorough.
He satisfied himself beyond perad
venture that the negro was innocent.
On the night before the trial he
walked the floor of his Office all
night And when he went before
the jury he so powerfully impressed
them with a belief in the negro's
innocence that they acquitted him
in five minutes. Mr.. Rosser put him
in a closed cab, took him to the rail
road station, bought him a ticket
to North Carolina, accompanied him
into the colored coach, and gave him
explicit directions on his journey.
And a few years later another negro
on the gallows confessed to the
crime of which Mr.. Rosser's client
had been accused.
That case was oneeof many in the
career of the great awyer who was
not too great to give his talents with
unreserVed abundance in defense of
some poor and humble and helpless
client.
Bar Standing Unique
Mr.. Rosser's standing at the bar
was unique. Judges held him in the
highest respect. Lawyers, knew
that as an antagonist he fought
with fierce passion and dauntless
courage-yet they knew that he
would never ask for any client q
single thing more than he honestly
believed his client was entitled to-
And they knew that after a battle
royal in the court room, where Mr..
Rosser would press his cause with
a gladiator's relentless fury, he
would walk through the door with
his arm around the shoulder of his
antagonist, RECALLING him with some
draught of wit from his inexhaust-
ible store of humor, or charming
his intellect with some brilliant play
of his master mind.
AS he worked on his law cases,
with indefatigable energy, so like
wise he studied in his leisure mo-
ments. His home library is a mag
nificent store house of literature,
history, poetry. science and other
works. He read the scriptures with
as much regularity as though he
had been a minister. A few months
ago in the trial of a case before a
federal judge in an eastern state he
quoted at length from the scrip
lures. At the close of his argument
the judge called him back to ask
him where he gained such intimate
familiarity with them. My father,
your honor, was Methodist preach
err, and I got the habit from his. :"
replied Mr.. Rosser.
Some years ago when president
of the Georgia Bar association, Mr..
Rosser, at the close of his term, de-
lvered an address on criminal law
which was generally pronounced to
be the most comprehensive and
learned and profound discussion of
this subject in the history of the
Georgia bar. In 1921, he addressed
the American Bar association at it's
annual convention in Cincinnati on
law enforcement. So powerfully did
he impress the assembled lawyers OF
America that he was asked to be
chairman Of the committee on law
enforcement, but he declined.
One of the finest papers of his en-
tire career was his memorial tribute
to his dead friend, the late Mr..
Charles T. Hopkins, which he read to
the Atlanta Bar association not long
ago, after Mr.. Hopkins death. In
this tribute he gave full play to his
marvellous range of learning and
gifts of language-and in it he eX'
pressed with beautiful tenderness
those gentle qualities which reposed
in his soul beneath his rugged eX-
terror. He and Mr.. Hopkins were
intimate friends. Nearly all of the
vacations of Mr.. Rosser were taken
with Mr.. Hopkins when they went
fishing together in florida waters
They were usually accompanied by
Co. P H. Brewster. In such mo-
rnents as these the gladiatorial fight
ing qualities of Mr.. ROsser vanished
from his completely and he became
as playful and entSuSiaStlc as Doy'
Headed School Board
Mr.. Rosser never sought public
office, preferring to serve in more
modest and retiring ways in various
civic and fraternal circles He was
deeply interested in Chi Phi affairs
He belonged to Capital lodge of ODD
Fellows and Comanche tribe of Red
Men. The only public office he ever
held, outside of being county attor'
ney some years, was the chairman
ship of the Atlanta board of educa,
| ton. There he strove in season and
| out of season to impress upon the
students, especially the high school
boys, that hard work and absolute
| honesty are the sole ingredients oil
the formula of success.
Mr.. Rosser is survived By his
! wife, who is a sister Of DR.. e. l.,
Connally; by one son, Judge Luther
z. Rosser, Jr., chief judge of the
municipal court of Atlanta; by three
daughters, Mrs. Joseph B. Eby, OF
! New York, and Mrs. Charles b
| Shelton and Miss Ruth Rosser, OF
| Atlanta; by one brother, DR.. Warren
Rosser, of Bolingbroke, Ga; and by
one sister, Mrs. r. L. Durrence, OF
| Statesboro, Ga.
The funeral will be held at the
residence at II o'clock Thursday