Show ao LAW AND LAWYERS j we have lately two or three times courts where law is argued or argued at by certain gentlemen designated members of the bar As many of our ofir readers have but little practical acquaintance quainton quain tan ce with the gentlemen aforesaid and the manner aforesaid in which they endeavor to honor their profession we have felt like indulging in a few remarks on the sub bub subject eject perhaps a few comments before we get through our text may be read in the words law and lawyers law itself is honorable it is presumed ined to be the result of the combined wisdom of a peoples representatives for the hon honorable oraie purpose of preserving peace order security of person and property and the nights rights of individuals and communities and i for punishing transgressors transgressor a awarding them punishment for their infractions of the regulations adopted in the form of statutes to maintain these desiderata t A glance will show that the layers not made for the truly peace lovin iovin loving 1 orderly derly upright honest man he lives abo above ve the lawf lawi law because 1 hla hia im cou course arse of conduct gano rs all its provis provisions I 1 without th 0 ut effort he in might 1 i pas pass s through life and alid never see the interior of a court of jus justice justlee tlde tide Ther there therease eare enre are just such men in the world fand aad if the world was bullof full fuli of them it would not be much worse than it is very likely it would be a great deal better at least we think so and we are diot riot alone in the belief it jtb follows then that the law is made mado for the disorderly the dishonest the tho litigious and the evil disposed this being the case in every lawsuit law suit sult it may be safely reckoned there is at least one party who has done a wrong of some kind and it very generally happens that both parties have not been straightforward straight forward upright and correct in their course when wo come to the criminal law one party is charged with a crime against the public he or she has ha s done or is charged with doing wrong and the people through their legal representative demand that punishment should be meted out if that wrong is ia proved while the law presumes that every person is I 1 s innocent until proved guilty now with sueh such a laudable object in v view ew it might naturally be supposed t hat that men who make the law a special study and devote themselves to its practice would be of all others the he most honorable upright exemplars of that course of conduct which honors the law not merely in letter but ia n spirit well weli they generally manage to keep themselves legally correct they are sufficiently posted in the letter of the statutes to avoid iii ill fringing infringing themi thorny but it is not so very unquestionable about the spirit of the wo we have no wish to cast I 1 imputations I 1 on the legal fraternity whether as individuals or as a body only so far Es as their course is olento open to severe strictures and directly contrary to the spirit and very cause for which laws are enacted it seems in most cases that the man of law is utterly regardless whether his aisi client be criminale g guilty or not alitae alms aims at is an acquittal if he defends he is bound to make his bi best est efforts for the clearance of the person for whom he is counsel he is under obligation so to do b his is professional obligation demands it and his fee confirms the de mand this he feels or says ho he feels and we accept the statement here is where the result of our late visits to the eouts courts couts comes in As the law was made madg to protect right and punish wrong we consider the duty of a lawyer is isif jf his services cannot be dispensed with to bring brine wrong to light that it may be punished doubtless some gentlemen of the bar would dispute this but they are given to disputing they live by it and ind many of them get fa fat tonit on it they call each other learned friend and 1 I learned brother it by way of courtesy and pitch into said friend and brother in what seems to be a very unfriendly and manner but of course it means nothing only some simpleminded simpie simple minded liane honest sv soul soui who did not know any better might think they were serio serious usi and look out for an awful explosion to follow preceded b by 3 the tempestuous call of pistols and toothpicks tooth picks for the cro ero crowd W d fy having been paid for doing something they seem to have hive made up their minds to take it out in talk and a n d in that respect the gift of continuance appears to be pretty generally distributed the way in which some of them go to work painfully reminds us of the court in which it was debated for two hours bours whether the quest question loii what did mary say should be put and when it was decided tha that it might the answer was she say anything A handful of fingers are run up through a bunc bunch hof of stubborn locks making the legal head look terrifically determined n d the index finger of the dexter hand is brought do down with solemn impression in the sinister palm the water is turned on the wheeland wheel and the talking machine be beins begins ins to grind of course the man of legal study was brought there to talk he has no particular desire to do it but he was paid for the job and like an honest man he goes toworu to work and talks he quotes law he objects to laws he pitches into legislators he eulogizes them he jumps from the united states to england steps over to france and flits off to ancient rome borne and is immediately after found nestling beneath a starry banned banner surmounted by a soaring scaring eagle whose wings are always spread but never aid the tho noble bird to fl fly away v his rapid journey has not tired him ire he mounts a legal courser cou iser iger and gallops from state to stae stale ransacking libraries handling defunct legal celebrities without gloves and throwing their renowned names around like chips in a strong wind he suddenly becomes pati patriotic lotic loyalea loy loyal alra aira radical rad Tad ical conservative philanthropic exclusive constitutional and darts back again to law having been terribly tedious from the beginning and all this waste of words all this his extended eloquence and frothy inspiration h has as been for what to defend some consummate scamp who by right tight and j justlee justice should have half his head shaved and be punished for his wrong doings we wish it understood that we have not drawn nor attempted to draw the the picture of any one man nor of any one case we believe a man can be as honorable and dignified in a linen duster and felt hat as in wig and ermine if hi his language deportment and course ar are i e honorable and but it does look to an unsophisticated mind like a woeful waste of time and a desire to frustrate the ends of justice to witness the manner in which some of the members of tue tuo bar open the gas gs bag and let the denous fluid escape if people were wise enough to settle their own difficulties amicably or get along without having any the few petty scarcely afford sufficient employment for so many legal rush rusk lights as are now striving to thrust themselves into 66 notice asa As a people we have very little respect for I 1 lawyers ayers as a class bel bei believing living that usually one can make disturbance and two raise the devil in any place where they locate still while people will infringe upon each others rights and the law must be had recourse to we think it would tend to dignify the profession fes sion in this as in some other regions if the legal gentlemen would aim at aiding the course of justice and try to talk common sense instead of defending crime and wasting valuable time with meaningless twaddle |