ABOUT LAWYERS, AND DULL.
Mr. Giddings was always much interested in all young men, and put
himself in their way and society, and while he affected nothing
juvenile, no man could make himself more winning and attractive to
them. It was said by his enemies, who were of his political household,
that in this, as in all else, he was politic; that he sought out and
cultivated every young man in the circle of his acquaintance; made
himself familiar with his make-up; flattered and encouraged him
with little attentions; sent him speeches and books, and occasional
letters, and thus attached nearly all the rising young men of
Northeastern Ohio to himself personally. This may have been one source
of his great and long continued popularity and strength; he thoroughly
educated at least one generation of voters.
However that may be, he was much in the old office where he had done
so much effective work, and laid the foundations of his position at
the bar, which was with those of the first in the State.
He associated on terms of the pleasantest intimacy with the young men,
and early evinced a liking for Bart, who, poor fellow, was ready to
like anybody who would permit him.
Mr. Giddings was at pains to impress them with the absolute
impossibility of even moderate success at the bar, without industry,
while with it, mediocrity of talents would insure that. "Of the whole
number who were admitted," he said, "about ten or fifteen per cent.
succeeded; and one in a hundred became eminent. Undoubtedly the
greatest lawyer in the world did not possess the greatest intellect;
but he must have been among the most industrious. Brilliant parts
may be useful; they are always dangerous. The man who trusts to the
inspiration of genius, or his capacity to get advantage by ingenious
management in court, will find himself passed by a patient dullard.
The admiring world who witness some of the really fine intellectual
performances that sometimes occur in court, haven't the faintest
conception as to when the real work was done, nor at all what it
consisted in; nor when and how the raw material was gathered and
worked up. The soldier in war is enlisted to fight, but really a small
part of his time is spent in battle; almost the whole of it is in
preparation, training, gathering material, manoeuvring, gaining
strategic advantages, and once in a while producing a field day, which
tests the thoroughness of the preparation. This illustrates the value
of absolute thoroughness in the preparation of cases. A good case is
often lost, and a bad one gained, wholly by the care or negligence in
their preparation. You really try your cases out of court."
Barton asked why it was that, while the world generally admired and
respected the bar, there was a distrust of its honesty?--at which
there was a general smile.
"Because," said Mr. Giddings, "there really are unworthy members of
it; and the bar, like the ministry and the medical faculty, being
comparatively a small body, is tried by its failures. The whole
is condemned in the person of a few; while a majority--the bulk of
men--estimate themselves by their successes. One great man sheds
glory on his race, while one villain is condemned alone. The popular
judgment, that lawyers are insincere and dishonest, because they
appear on both sides of a case, with equal zeal, when there can be but
one right side, is not peculiar to the bar. It should be remembered
that learned and pious divines take opposite sides of all doctrinal
points of Scripture, and yet nobody thinks of questioning their
honesty."
"When both are wrong," put in Wade.
"Now there are, nominally at least, two sides in a law suit--certainly
two parties. One party goes to Frank, here, and tells his side, most
favorably to himself, and gets an opinion in his favor, and a suit is
commenced. The other tells his side to me, for instance, and on his
statement I think he has a good defence. From that moment each looks
for evidence and law to sustain his side, and to meet the case made
by the other; and invariably we come to the final trial, each honestly
thinking he is right. We try the case zealously and sincerely, and the
one who is finally beaten, feels that injustice has been done. It is
the first task of an advocate to convince himself, and unless he has
already done that, he may not expect to convince court and jury; and
a man must be a poor advocate, or have a very bad case, who fails
to convince himself, however he may fare with a jury. You need never
expect to convince your opponent; he is under a retainer not to agree
with you."
"There is another thing about it," said Wade. "The bar and writers
talk about the ethics of the bar, and legal morality, and all that
nonsense, until there is an impression, both among lawyers and the
public, that there is one rule for lawyers and another for the rest of
mankind--that we are remitted to a lower standard of honesty. This is
all bosh; there can be but one standard of right and wrong; and that
which is wrong out of court, cannot be right in it. I'll have but one
rule. A man who will lie to a court or a jury, will lie anywhere--he
is a liar."
"Will you submit to that rule?" asked Giddings, laughing.
"I always have," said Wade, "and I wont have any other. Now of all
men, a lawyer can the least afford to be dishonest; for a taint, a
doubt of his honor, ruins him; and there cannot be a more honorable
body of men in the world, and never was, than the fair majority of the
bar. The habit of contesting in open court, in the face of the
world, engenders an honorable, manly highmindedness, free from the
underhanded jealousy and petty wars of the doctors. If a man lies, or
is mean, he is pretty certain to be detected and exposed at once. A
lawyer cannot afford to lie and be mean. And besides, I have observed
that there is really no healthy, manly development of intellect,
without a healthy, manly development of the moral nature."
"Now, Frank," said Mr. Giddings, "why not go a step further, and
perfect the man, and say that religion should add its strength and
grace, as a crown?"
"Well, Gid, I've no objection to your religion--that is, I have no
objection to religion--I don't know about yours--but I have known a
good many religious men who were very bad men, and I have known a good
many bad men to get religion, who did not mend their morals. If a man
is a good man, it don't hurt him to join a church, as far as I know;
and a bad man usually remains bad."
"Well, Frank, leave these young men to form their own opinions."
"Certainly; I did not broach the subject."
"They ought to become better lawyers than we are," said Mr. Giddings.
"Their means of education are far in advance; the increase of new and
valuable text-books, the great progress in the learning and competency
of the courts, as well as the general rapid improvement of the people
in intelligence, are all in their favor; they ought to be better
lawyers and better Christians."
"They couldn't well be worse," was the bluff response of Wade.
The young men remained pondering the remarks of their seniors.
"Well, boys," said Ranney, "you've heard the ideas of two observing
men. They give you the result of their experience on two or three very
important practical points; what do you think of it?"
"Ransom," said the ready Case, "is thinking who and what must be the
one hundred, of whom he is to be the one. They would be a sad sight."
"And Case," rejoined the ever irate Ransom, "that if John Doe and
Richard Roe, with a declaration in ejectment, could only be turned
into doggerel, he would be an eminent land lawyer."
"What has happened to Ransom?" asked Kennedy.
"I don't know," replied Case; "he has sparkled up in this same way,
two or three times. Can it be that an idea has been committed to his
skull, lately? If one has, a _habeas corpus_ must be sued out for its
delivery. Solitary confinement is forbidden by the statutes of Ohio."
"Never you mind the idea," said Ransom. "I mean to find a lawyer in
good practice, and go into partnership with him at once."
"Now, Ransom," said Case, still gravely, "you are a very clever
fellow, and devilish near half witted; and you would allow such a man,
whom you thus permitted to take himself in with you, one third or one
fourth of the proceeds of the first year."
"I would have no trouble about that," said Ransom, not quite feeling
the force of Case's compliment.
"Well," said Ranney, "I suspect that generally lawyers, desirable as
partners, if they wish them, will be already supplied, and then, when
one could secure an eligible connection of this kind, the danger is,
that he would be overshadowed and dwarfed, and always relying on his
senior, would never come to a robust maturity. Well, Kennedy, what do
you say?"
"Not much; I hope to be able to work when admitted. I mean to find
some good point further West, where there is an opening, and stop and
wait. I don't mean to be a failure."
"Ridgeley, what are your views?"
"Modest, as becomes me; I don't think I am to be counted in any
hundred, and so I avoid unpleasant comparisons. I don't mean to look
long for an opening, or an opportunity; I would prefer to make both.
I would begin with the first thing, however small, and do my best with
it, and so of every other thing that came, leaving the eminence and
places to adjust themselves. I intend to practice law, and, like
Kennedy, I don't mean to fail."
"Mr. Ranney," continued Bart, "what is the reason of this universal
failure of law students?"
"I think the estimate of Giddings is large," said Ranney. "but of
all the young men who study law, about one half do it with no settled
purpose of ever practising, and, of course, don't. Of those who do
intend to practice, one half never really establish themselves in it.
That leaves one fourth of the whole number, who make a serious and
determined effort at the bar, and one half of these--one eighth of the
whole--succeed; and that brings out about as Giddings estimated."
"Well, on the whole, that is not a discouraging view," said Bart, "and
for one, I am obliged to you."
Nevertheless, he pondered the whole matter, and turned to face calmly
as he had before, the time when his novitiate should end, and he
should actually enter upon his experiment.
"Now, Case, this is a serious matter. A young and utterly unknown man,
without money, friends, acquaintances or books, and doubtful whether
he has brains, learning and capacity, in some small or large town,
attacks the world, throws down his gage--or rather nails it up, in the
shape of a tin card, four by twelve inches, with his perfectly obscure
name on it. Think of it! Just suppose you have a little back room, up
stairs, with a table, two chairs, half a quire of paper, an inkstand,
two steel pens, Swan's Treatise, and the twenty-ninth volume of Ohio
Statutes. You would be very busy arranging all this array of things,
and would whistle cheerfully till that was accomplished, and then you
would grow sad, and sit down to wait and think--"
"Of the rich Judge's beautiful daughter," broke in Case.
"And wait," continued Bart.
"Oh, Bart! I glory in your pluck and spunk," said Case, "and I think
of your performance as Major Noah said of Adam and Eve: 'As touching
that first kiss,' said he, 'I have often thought I would like to have
been the man who did it; but the chance was Adam's.'"
"Ridgeley seems to be taken in hand by Miss Giddings," said Kennedy;
"that would not be a bad opening for an ambitious man."
"Of the ripe years of twenty-three," put in Case. "The average age
would be about right. She has led out one or two of each crop of law
students since she was sixteen."
"What has been the trouble?" asked Kennedy.
"I don't know. They came, and went--
'Their hold was frail, their stay was brief,
Restless, and quick to pass away'--
while she remains," replied Case. "Bart seems to be a new inspiration,
and she is as gay and lively as a spring butterfly."
"And worth forty young flirts," observed Ransom.
"Oh, come, boys!" cried Bart, "hold up. Miss Giddings is an attractive
woman, full of accomplishment and goodness--"
"And experience," put in Case.
"Who permits me to enjoy her society sometimes," continued Bart. "The
benefit and pleasure are wholly mine, and I can't consent to hear her
spoken of so lightly."
"Bart is right, as usual," said Case, gravely; "and I don't know of
anything more unmanly than the way we young men habitually talk of
women."
"Except the way they talk of us," said Kennedy.
"You would expect a lady to speak in an _un_manly way," remarked Bart.
"Of course, if we are ever spoken of by them, it is in our absence;
but I'll venture that they seldom speak of us at all, and then in
ignorance of our worst faults. We are not likely to receive injustice
at their hands."
"Bart, you must always have been lucky," said Ransom.
"I am doing my best not to be conceited and vain, and find it
confounded hard work," was the frank, good-natured reply.