Evening star., 1932-02-07

ion and its free expression. And occa-
sionally he has spoken with playful af-
fection of his former enemies. When he
was approaching 80 he told a visitor
from south of the Mason and Dixon line
that he always thought Southerners put
on lot of side"
Perhaps" the caller suggested him
self unmindful that slavery had once
been the order of the day in New Eng
land-"that is because of an inherited
feeling due to the institution of slavery;
perhaps the presence years ago of
ServiIe class in the population has left
this relic"
The Justice looked little doubtful, but
aSsented.
DETURNING on the following day the
y visitor told the Justice he had been
taken severely to task by his wife for his
explanation of that side" to which jest
ing reference had been made. "She
says" he explained, that slavery had
nothing to do with it. No, after the
Civil War and reconstruction, so she says,
the South had nothing left but social
attitude"
yes" said the Justice, several years
ago a Southern woman said that very
thing to me at a dinner table. 1t made
me feel pretty bad"
In Washington Mr.. Justice Holmes
settled into a routine of life which must
have seemed to outsiders laborious and
monotonous For "a years he did not
miss a session of the Supreme Court, and
until he was Sc he walked from his home
to the Capitol, more than two miles away.
He kept his separate docket, in long
hand, with copiOus notes. At TO he could
have retired with full pay. When ques-
toned about rumorS that he would re-
sign he was accustomed to reply that he
would not quit until work ceased to be
fun. When Mr.. Justice BrandeiS ascend
ed the bench he was next in age, and
he was IS years the junior; Mr.. Justice
Holmes, however, disposed of more cases
than most of his associates, and he at
tackled them with high spirit and an IN
uuenchable zeSt. Even when he was well
past go he and Mrs. Holmes, so spright-
ly were they used to run together to fires.
Mrs Holmes died in April, 1929, after
honeymoon, their friends said, of 81
years.
The willingness of Holmes to take all
the cases assigned to him amounted to
little less than greediness. His prodigous
capacity for work and his fondness for
it astounded his younger and less ener-
getic associates. In Summer he went to
his place at Beverly Farms Mass The
=;
native (Which is as high compliment
as they coud pay him), and the old
Watchman at the railroad station is one
of his cronieS. Another valued pal he
nearly always looks up as he passes
through Boston; this man was captain
of the principal cabstand in the days
before the automobile and often drove
Capt. Holmes around the town; rather
sporty old fellow, informed on horse rae
ing and prize fighting and agog with
the doings of young blades about Boston.
Often he has regaled the Justice with
such matters
In the brown frame house at Beverly
Farms, Victorian and simple, the Justice
was accustomed to call to his aid his Sec
retary-each year a new sprig from the
Harvard Law School-in passing on the
multitude of cases, mostly writs of GER
tiorari, with which the members of the
court must deal during their ostensible
vacations The appointment to serve as
secretary to the Justice was, from the
first, a feather in the cap of any man,
and the year proved always to be rich in
memories. At once the Justice estab-
lished a relation not of master and man,
but Of bantering friendship. The former