now been amalgamated by the Public and Private Health Corporations,
what was known as the legal profession or men known as lawyers and
judges, had been gradually losing their characteristics as a class and
had been step by step merging into men of business.
One of the earliest changes was the disappearance of the lawyers known
as the real estate lawyer. Up to about 1890 there still remained
members of the legal profession who made a livelihood out of the
examination of the titles to real property. The obvious advantages of
a comprehensive title examination plant by large corporations known as
Title Insurance companies soon eliminated this particular subdivision.
The next important change arrived in a curious manner under the cry
for what was then known as Social Justice--a vague term which was then
advocated by many so-called "reformers" and ignorantly opposed by the
capitalist class, without any very clear understanding of what was
meant. So little was realized of the economic and efficiency values of
insurance against chance, that the beginning of the movement was
opposed. The movement resulted in certain obvious changes which
looking back upon them seemed inevitable and natural. This was what
was known as universal Employers' Liability laws. The principle soon
extending itself to all classes of accidents, resulted in the passage
of legislation which had been foreshadowed by the tremendous growth of
Casualty and Accident Insurance companies. Beginning at first with
laws holding the employer liable for accident, and afterward resulting
in the insurance of labor, it was gradually extended to accidents of
every nature, including injury from travel on common carriers and the
ordinary vicissitudes of life.
The result of State insurance against negligence and injuries of every
kind was that all claims for injuries were adjusted by the State and
the lawyers who lived by pursuing the neglect or misfortunes of
others, gradually became extinct. A certain distinguished and
conspicuous type was known by the term "ambulance chasers"--the exact
derivation of the term not being now, in 1947, entirely clear but
probably being related to some antiquated legal custom of succoring
the wounded--very soon disappeared.
The cases that arose from all commercial disputes became less numerous
as the more candid and intelligent dealings of the economic world
awoke better and more honest business standards. But long before the
disappearance of what was known as the commercial lawyer, there are
evidences that the former courts of law, even before their entire
abandonment, had fallen into a partial desuetude. Apparently disputes
of large magnitude never reached the courts. And the legal standards
enunciated by the courts were so entirely unrelated to the standards
on which the actual commerce of the world was conducted, that resort
was but little had to the arbitrament of the law of procedure in
court.
The entire change of personal and domestic relations and the greater
freedom from the institutionalism of semi-civilized communities,
_e.g._, the abandonment of all restriction on divorce, naturally did
away with the class of litigation that appeared in certain courts of
law dealing with marital or personal grievances.
In regard to what were known as criminal lawyers and criminal courts,
the different attitude which the public formerly had toward
unfortunate sufferers makes the existence of such a class or such
institutions almost unbelievable. As it is now inconceivable that we
should throw into unsanitary jails men and women who are mentally or
socially diseased, so is it hard to realize that during the
unintelligent period of which we are speaking, nay for many centuries,
there existed people who lived upon their misfortunes.
Naturally with the disappearance of litigation and lawyers the public
no longer tolerated the existence of the judges or courts. For a few
years they retained a hold upon the imagination of a small portion of
citizens who entertained a sentimental regard for the State
institutions of a civilization founded upon the unsound teachings of
eighteenth-century doctrinaires.
The period of the abandonment of the old courts corresponded with the
extraordinary development for what was called "moving pictures";
those pale, lifeless presentations without color, speech, or
substance, at which the people of a benighted age gathered for
amusement or entertainment! It requires imagination to conceive that
people were unfamiliar with the ease of communicating with any place
on the globe and reproducing exactly in form, color, and speech by
turning on a switch. The observer of that age must have been shocked
and surprised to find the solemn courthouses turned into what was
known as moving-picture palaces or as community centers for dancing
and social entertainments.
The change of class which the lawyers had gradually been undergoing to
simple men of affairs was not so abrupt as that for the judicial
officers, who were far removed from actual life. Various expedients
were attempted by which they could be preserved as a class. Their
former occupation being gone and the idea of pensioning not being
satisfactory, as there remained a large number of younger men on the
bench who might be of some value to the community, a system of court
cafés was evolved. Even to-day it is fast disappearing and for the
benefit of future generations it may be well to describe the last
remnant of an institution that held its position in the social order
for so long.
Human nature being always substantially the same, it was thought that
its demands for the dramatic action and stress of battle should have
some outlet. It was not thought wise to entirely abolish the arenas
for legal disputes, although the present Judicial Corporations with
their excellently organized departments were already rapidly
destroying all litigation. It was felt that perhaps humanity demanded
the bringing together of the two disputants so that they personally
might oppose their claims to one another.
It now seems incredible, in view of the absolute simplicity of
communication by Viviphone, that this should be thought necessary. The
need for romantic expression seemed to demand the opportunity for
personal presentment. The social workers who established these café
courts, did not realize that with the growth of a more intelligent
public point of view, the question of abstract justice was little more
than an application of customs and social standards to particular
facts; and that with the fall of the ideas of justice in the abstract,
there also fell the appurtenances of justice.
It may here be noted that the learned treatise of Professor
Humperdinck upon the recent discovery of certain statutes found among
the ruins of the Great New York Explosion is mistaken. The figure
which he described among others of the woman blind-folded and with an
arm extended as though holding something, does not represent as he
calls it, "The poor blind girl begging," but a figure of the Goddess
of Justice holding the scales, who was so long worshiped.
The growth of the court cafés was made possible by the amelioration in
the climate of New England effected through the alteration in the
course of the Gulf Stream. The inhabitants became accustomed to spend
more time in the open air so that the courts became popular. Existing
as places for the display of eccentricities and the airing of personal
grievances, they soon became extremely frequented as places of
amusement.
Whenever any litigant felt that there was any matter in dispute which
needed adjustment by some outside agency, he invited the other party
to come to the court. The judges occupied the position of proprietors,
_maîtres d'hôtel_, and waiters, whose business it was to make the
courts as attractive as possible. As their salaries depended upon the
amount of receipts and the courts were run upon a partnership basis in
which all shared the profits, the aim of the judges was to draw as
large amount of custom as possible.
The surroundings were in every way desirable. In the open air, under
spreading trees with the sunlight filtering through the leaves upon
the well-kept lawns, were spread tables covered with delicious fruits
and every delicacy that the human mind could devise in the way of
culinary delights. Rare wines, exotic flowers were constantly supplied
in profuse display. Luxurious divans and reposeful seats were
interspersed about. The most modern as well as the most famous
musicians furnished exquisite music, while flitting about in neat
white aprons partially concealed by their gently swishing gowns of
black, the attentive justices anxiously tried to add to the pleasure
and comfort of their customers.
With such temptations as these there was little wonder that the
opposing party accepted the invitation to attend court. Witnesses and
spectators crowded about, both on account of the novelty of the
institution and the opportunity for refreshment and amusement. The aim
of the judges was to incite the disputants to continue their disputes
instead of trying to pacify them.
The more vociferous they grew, the more noisy and passionate they
became, the better the crowds were held who came to observe the
performance. It was upon this clientele and the sale to them of viands
and comestibles during the dispute that the profits of the judges
depended. So long as there was a serious and energetic struggle the
spectators remained at the adjacent tables and trade was brisk.
Whenever, however, the litigants came to a full realization of the
absurdity of their position, either by the continued laughter of the
spectators at the public airing of their private wrongs with which the
public had nothing to do, or becoming tired of mere words and came to
diminish the ardor of their combat, the crowd would begin to dwindle
away. The judges quick to understand the loss of trade after vainly
trying to induce the litigants to new efforts, would gently and
suggestively push under their hands a pair of dice boxes or a pack of
cards and the dispute would sometimes end upon the throw of a die or
the turn of a card.
The reason that these court cafés have not long remained in vogue, was
that all actual litigants soon became so sophisticated as they
realized the enormity of the position and how unreasonable their
conduct seemed to the average man. Public sentiment was naturally
against such a waste of time and real performers became scarce.
Several of the courts were detected in hiring false litigants as
actors so as to draw the crowds. The performance not being genuine
soon lost its interest. The patrons left them and many courts became
bankrupt. So like their predecessors, those light-minded courts have
practically ended.
THE END
* * * * *
Justice to All
The Story of the Pennsylvania State Police
By
Katharine Mayo
Introduction by
Theodore Roosevelt
8º. Illustrated. $2.50
Theodore Roosevelt says: "It is a book so interesting and so valuable
that it should be in every public library and every school library in
the land." This State Constabulary in its romantic career has hunted
down crime, made raids into "Black Hand" strongholds, protected lives
and property from mob violence, and always risen to every emergency
where nerve and swift action are required.
G.P. Putnam's Sons
New York London
* * * * *
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