Evening star., 1941-08-03

1liCoO evenings q toiAIAy SAo
bachelor sits on balcony of his Wash
ington home. He looks out on a dense
clump of tall trees, and through the
swaying branches, from time to time,
he catches glimpse of the dome of
the Capitol
Undoubtedly he must think of the
many things that went on there dur
ing the 27 years that have passed since
he first took his place on the bench of
the Supreme Court. Yet, the chances
are that his thoughts are not entirely
upon disputed points of law and the
changes in its Interpretation which he
SO vigorously opposed
The calm and quiet of the scene are
far removed from the turmoil and roar
of war, yet an invisible tie binds this
7e-year-old retired justice with what
is going on across the water. For Mr..
Justice James C. McReynolds has Gust
adopted SO children who are victims of
Europe's war and at the same time
offered to give $4,000, if 1000 more
subscribers could be found, to fund
to help the youngsters of Britain.
This was strange news-as unlocked
for as old Scrooge's sudden appearance
at Bob Cratchits Christmas party. For
on the bench Justice McReynolds was
known as an irritable man about whose
flinty nature many stories were cir
culated
I had only seen Justice McReynolds
before as the tall robed figure sitting
hunched between the Chief Justice and
Justice Roberts. At times he rested
his strong-featured domed head on his
hand. apparently paying little attention
to the arguments which were being
made. Suddenly leaning forward, his
thin-lipped mouth becoming harder, his
deep-set blue eyes narrowing to Sits,
he would plague, in a. sharp voice, the
frightened lawyer who stood before the
bench.
He seemed to have knack of sift-
ing out the salient points of a case, yet
often his cauStic questions helped the
man whom he interrogated 1t was said
that he obtained briefs and records be-
fore the cases were called 50 that he
was always prepared in advance for the
arguments which would be presented.
Whether one agreed with his point of
view or not, it was impossible not to be
impressed by the pointedness of his ex-
temporaneous remarks.
Seeing him in the court room gave
no inkling that this autocratic dispenser
of the law had distinctly human side.
A smile seldom crossed his face Few
his friends. He did not conceal his
likes and dislikes toward his fellow
members of the court. He believed in
rule of reason. Right was right and
wrong was wrong and there were no
halfway measures, no compromises
Moreover, what he thought was right
and the other fellows were wrong if they
disagreed with him, even If they were
the other eight Supreme Court justices.
How did it happen that the heart of
a man with this kind of nature goes
out to little children? What brought
about the change? Did some Marley's
ghost visit him and point out to him
by prophetic pictures the error of his
ways?
1t was questions along this line that
l intended to ask the other day when
I went to see him in his apartment.
But I did not. There was no occasion
Tor my doing SO. For I met a very
different man from the one I had seen
in court. The hard blue eyes were
tender, the stern mouth was mild. An
appointment which I was cautioned
might be trying, if not unpleasant,
stretched into an enjoyable visit of
three hours. BY the time I left I was
certain that silk robe had been a
disguise, which, although 1t added pomp
and majesty, hid the real man be-
meath it.
I began to suspect this as soon as I
entered the Justices honey living
room, with its deep-seated sofa before
the fireplace and its needle point chairs
Of which he is proud. No man, hard
and uncompromising, covers the walls
of his rooms with Audubon's prints of
birds, flowers from Thompsons Temple
Of Flora and quaint Victorian water
colors of dahlias and mignonettes.
I was few minutes early for nv
appointment, and while I waited !
glanced over the book cases which line
the lower half of the walls of Justice
McReynolds' living room A mans
books are sure clues to what he is.
I noticed Whitman's Leaves Of Grass, "
: AN American Doctors Odyssey" Mills
T. 4.