Chapter XXXII: The Bench and Bar (3)

There will be no sigh in this retrospect over the better days of long ago, no wail about the "good old times." The better days are now and the good times have come at last. The new generation of lawyers now entering upon their active career has reason for gratification that the facilities for the orderly, deliberate, tranquil trial and hearing of their causes, with the prospect that even and exact justice will be rendered in them, are greater to-day than at any previous period in the history of the county. There never was so good an opportunity for a young, ambitious, able advocate to win fame at the bar of Orange County as there is to-day. While the subjects of litigation and the conditions of business have somewhat changed in the last fifty years, human nature has never changed. Juries respond to-day as readily as then to the touch of a master spirit. When jurors ask nowadays why they do not hear such speeches at court as their fathers have told them about the answer generally given is that judges frown upon anything like display and hold the lawyers down to business. The business of an advocate is to make a good speech and no judge ever was able to stop a good speech. Let no young lawyer seek indolent refuge in the pretext that the judges will not give him a chance. Let him not, with difficulty, fold his restless pinions lest they be arrested in their soaring flight by judicial insensibility. No, the reason that forensic eloquence has so lamentably declined in Orange County lies not in the hostility of judges, but in the absorption of lawyers themselves in the merely material, sordid aspects of life, to the exclusion of any interest in those liberal arts and erudite pursuits which alone can anoint the hesitating lips with the honey of eloquent discourse. The field is clear for another Winfield or Gedney.

It is the fashion to say that the influence of the bar has declined--that the legal profession, as a body, does not enjoy the same measure of public respect which was paid to it in the early days of the republic, or exercise now that ascendancy over public opinion which once it exerted so powerfully and so naturally. It is true, indeed, that coincidently with the stealthy, sinister growth in the Northern States of the modern machine methods of party management the lawyer has been gradually and inevitably displaced as a leader of public opinion. It is only in the South that the influence of the lawyer among the masses is still unshaken because there the appeal of candidates is still made directly to the people who, through their primaries and in other republican ways familiar to the fathers and founders of the nation, express their preference and give effect to their choice.

But it is significant that, even in the North, whenever the people at large resolve to destroy long-standing abuses or odious machines, as, at stated intervals, they always proceed to do, they turn instinctively, as of old, to the plain, simple, honest, busy, practicing lawyer. Among the lawyers elected to the high office of governor of our State the three governors whose homely, direct, straightforward methods have most captivated the imagination and impressed the conscience of the passing generation are Tilden, Cleveland and Hughes, who simply brought to their duties the habits, the instincts, the training and the ideals of the old-fashioned country lawyer, whose first aim is always to protect the interests committed to his charge without any thought as to the effect of his course upon his own interests, popularity or future. This training, this tradition, this character of the true lawyer still happily survives all changes in political methods or party management and still constitutes the highest security the people have for the faithful administration of their laws, wholly un-swerved by selfish, ulterior or sinister purposes.

At the time, now forty years ago, to which my memory of the Orange County bar runs back, these honorable traditions were wholly maintained by a bar, the members of which still enjoyed a high place in the public esteem and exercised a profound influence upon public opinion, based upon the dignity and importance of their profession as well as upon their personal talents and character. The relations between the lawyers and the farmers were particularly close, confidential and agreeable. The soil was still largely occupied by men of character, education and intelligence who freely sought the counsel and society of their friends among the lawyers at whose offices and homes they were as cordially welcomed on a social or political call as upon a professional visit. The reason that the sons and successors of the lawyers of that day have, to some extent, lost touch with the interests of the soil is that the farmers of that day were not able to persuade their sons to become their successors. The saddest change that has overtaken Orange County in the last forty years is not in the character of its professional men, but in the character of its farming population.

Identified with the period included in the personal recollections here but partially preserved are several groups of fathers and sons who may for convenience be considered together; especially as a sufficiently consecutive view of the period has now been presented to admit, henceforth, of greater latitude in respect to time and order.

Joseph W. Gott, senior, died in 1869 after twenty-seven years continuous practice in Goshen, where he established the enviable reputation throughout the county of being one of the most honorable and high-minded men, as well as one of the most able and successful lawyers, known to his generation. His premature and deeply regretted death occurred before his only son could be admitted to practice.

Joseph W. Gott, Jr., was admitted in 1875 and since then, like his father, has practiced continuously in Goshen. No higher praise can be bestowed upon him than to say, that while he has, by his own vigorous intellect and independent character, won for himself prominence at the bar, he has never lost sight of the high ideals which animated his father.

The general confidence in his supreme honor and integrity which he has always enjoyed corresponds most touchingly to the confidence and respect always inspired by his honored father. With him is now associated in practice his own son, Percy Van Duzer Gott. These two are mentioned first in the group of fathers and sons because they are the only lawyers in Orange County, thus associated, who constitute and represent four generations of Orange County lawyers. For in them flows not only the blood of the elder Gott, but the blood of the Van Duzers and the Gedneys.

Isaac R. Van Duzer, who married in 1826 the older sister of Judge Gedney--their daughter, Charlotte, being married to Joseph W. Gott in 1847--was, undoubtedly, the most brilliant advocate, with the single exception of Ogden Hoffman, who ever addressed an Orange County jury. All the accounts of contemporaries and all the traditions of the bar unite in this verdict. Often have I heard Judge Wilkin, who as a boy heard him in Goshen, expatiate upon his transcendent powers. He died prematurely in his fortieth year, but the opinion entertained by his generation was that, had he lived, his name would have gone down to history with the foremost orators of his age. Of their distinguished ancestry at the bar of Orange County the Gotts may well be proud; for the junior member in the present firm is now the fourth in a line of lawyers whose practice and residence at Goshen have extended over a period of eighty-five years--from 1823 to the present time.

John W. Brown was admitted to practice in 1822, just one year before Mr. Van Duzer, to whom he was related, Judge Brown having married a Reeve, which was the family name of Mr. Van Duzer's mother. It is remarkable that if the practice of Judge Brown and of his own son, Charles F. Brown, had not been interrupted by extended terms of judicial service in the life of each--sixteen years in the life of the elder Brown and fourteen years in the life of the younger--the continuous practice of the two Browns would now cover a period of eighty-six years. As it is, their contributions in two generations to the jurisprudence of the State, at the bar and on the bench, cover a longer period than that embraced in the careers of any father and son associated with the legal annals of Orange County. I say still associated because, although Judge Charles F. Brown is now one of the two or three acknowledged leaders of the bar of the State, with his office in New York City, where his practice is largely in the Appellate Courts, he still retains his residence in Orange County and a nominal connection with the firm established in Newburgh by his former partner, Mr. Cassedy.

His own career has already been sufficiently treated in its appropriate place in this commentary. It only remains to add that his life-long veneration for his father's memory and his consistent emulation of his father's example supply an element of interest to his career and of filial tenderness to his character not appreciated by the thousands of his admirers, among the judges and lawyers of the country, who know him only through the cold medium of his published judicial opinions.

Judge John W. Brown was undoubtedly a great man. Serving two terms in Congress from 1833 to 1837; a prominent member of the Constitutional Convention of 1846; elected in 1849 to the Supreme Court and again in 1857, his life was one of unceasing activity, influence and power. His greatness as a judge may be inferred from the remarkable circumstance that no decision made by him was ever reversed by the Court of Appeals, of which court he was himself a member, under the system then prevailing, during the last years of his successive terms as a judge of the Supreme Court.

It is not strange that one who was born to the heritage of such a name should have sought to add, as indeed he has added, to its luster in a succeeding generation.

It was while Charles F. Brown was district attorney of Orange County that John W. Lyon became an official of the county through his appointment to the office of assistant district attorney. The career of the Lyons, father and son, now covers a practice of sixty-one years in Port Jervis, the longest period of continuous practice at the bar carried over from father to son, in Orange County.

Thomas J. Lyon, or, as his friends affectionately preferred to call him, Tom Lyon, was a man of great native talent and marked originality. Beginning life as a Methodist preacher, but coming to prefer the more extended opportunities for usefulness afforded by the law, his fame in the fifties soon spread from the Delaware to the Hudson. Throwing himself with ardor into the exciting political contests which marked this period, he was in constant demand as a campaign speaker and his political services were recognized by a lucrative appointment under the administration of President Franklin Pierce. Twice elected to the Assembly and once a candidate of his party for the Senate, his abilities always received the cordial recognition of the public with whom he kept constantly on good terms. The announcement that he was to speak at a political gathering was always sure to attract a large attendance of adherents of the opposite party for they knew they would be entertained by his sallies though they might not be seduced by his arguments.

His control over juries was due to a mingling of magnetism and humor. He could touch the chord of sentiment and the response was immediate. He could cover his opponent with ridicule and the result was contagious and convulsive laughter. No weapon is more powerful at any time than gentle banter and no one knew better how to employ its arts to the discomfiture of an adversary than Thomas J. Lyon.

His son, John W., inherits his ability and much of his originality. He, too, has always taken a deep interest in politics and he has been heard on the platform in every campaign since 1872.

He was the pioneer of the bar in that branch of the practice which has since assumed such proportions, railway litigation. He was the first to carry to the Court of Appeals many important questions, relating to the liability of the master for injury to the employee, which were settled by that court in favor of the positions contended for by him.

A most interesting feature in the genealogy of the profession is the fact that the daughter of John W. Lyon, Frances D. Lyon, is also a lawyer duly admitted to practice, having supplemented her studies in her father's office by a course at the Cornell Law School from which she graduated with honor, subsequently passing her examinations before the State Board. She is now engaged in practice with her father, to whom her aid is invaluable in the office, while she has also shown marked ability in her appearances at court.

Thus we have in the Lyons the only family in Orange County, except the Gott family, in which there have been three successive generations of lawyers bearing the same name.

Eugene A. Brewster and George R. Brewster cover a period of sixty years' continuous practice, the elder Brewster having been admitted in 1848. The judgment of his associates, placing Eugene A. Brewster in the front rank of the lawyers of his time, has already been expressed. Upon his death his son, George R., succeeded to his practice in the same office to which for so many years the friends of his father were accustomed to bend their steps and where they never received any but the most wise and judicious counsel. George R. Brewster inherits the sound judgment and conservative instincts of his father and well maintains the dignity and responsibilities of his honorable name and lineage. His public spirit and devotion to every worthy cause are among the most conspicuous of his traits of character. Possessed of ample means and under no spur of necessity he gives freely to the public all the time he can spare from a practice which has been attended with great success, one of the most notable of his recent legal victories having been gained in restraining the building of a railroad across his client's property.

His sense of civic duty has been strikingly exemplified in the conscientious performance of his duties as supervisor, though his acceptance of the office involved great inconvenience and sacrifice. His labors in behalf of St. Luke's Hospital have been of inestimable value to that noble benefaction.

In a community as conservative as Newburgh, where one minister is still acceptably serving his congregation for the fifty-second year and another for the thirty-fifth, it counts for something, and very properly so, that a man should be the son and successor of an honored, respected father. When Mr. Brewster died his son was made a director of the Newburgh Bank in his father's place and when Abram S. Cassedy died the same course was taken in the Quassaick Bank in respect to his son, William F. Cassedy.

The Cassedys, father and son, cover a period of fifty-one years' continuous practice, the elder Cassedy having been admitted in 1857. The high place gained by him in the esteem of the bar and in the confidence of the public has already been set forth at length. This confidence has been transferred to his son, William F. Cassedy, to a degree almost unprecedented in the career of a young practitioner but in every sense justified by his high character and brilliant talents. Mr. Cassedy has during the last few years managed and represented estates of as great magnitude as the estates represented by all the other lawyers of Orange County combined. He has a special talent for this important branch of the practice, but, like his father, can drop his papers and go to court with his case well prepared for trial. The ability with which he uniformly presents it to a jury is well reinforced by the same winning manner and pleasing personality which has endeared him to so many friends.

When Judge Charles F. Brown was in 1883 elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court, the firm of Cassedy & Brown, of which Abram S. Cassedy was then the senior member, was, of course, dissolved. When Judge Brown retired from the bench in 1897, Mr. Cassedy having meantime died, the names became transposed, the firm of Brown & Cassedy then formed, and still continuing, being composed of Judge Brown and William F. Cassedy. That this association of his name with that of his old partner's son should be pleasing to Judge Brown is a distinguished mark of that great jurist's confidence, esteem and affection which indeed, are shared by all, bar and public alike, who come to know the pure and lofty character of William F. Cassedy.

William B. Royce who with his son, Herbert B. Royce, is engaged in practice in Middletown, was admitted forty years ago, but being persuaded, while in the full tide of active practice, to accept the position of president of the First National Bank in 1875, his career as a lawyer was interrupted for seventeen years. Resigning this position, however, at the end of this period, he soon recovered his scattered practice and upon the admission to the bar of his son the firm of William B. and Herbert B. Royce was formed. This continued until the autumn of 1906 when, John C. R. Taylor, having been elected to the Senate, the firm of Taylor, Royce & Royce was formed.

Mr. Royce has greater capacity for public business than any lawyer who ever practiced at the bar in Orange County. His mind grasps readily, his tastes run naturally to, every phase and variety of town, county and municipal relations, improvements and enterprises, with all the important questions involved in them in respect to the proper distribution of public burdens. He is an authority upon corporation law in respect both to the organization and management of corporations. His power of clear statement, in respect to any involved or intricate situation, is very great.

There is one characteristic of Mr. Royce which is fully appreciated only by those who have been in a position to see its frequent effective exercise. He loves to settle disputes among neighbors and litigants. He has genuine talent for making each party see how it would benefit him to make some concession and even greater tact in pointing out how certain concessions necessary to the settlement will still leave the pride and dignity of the parties uncompromised. He absolutely has never failed in bringing about an agreement which he started out to compass. Sometimes, indeed, the perverseness of the parties has seemed to make the difficulties insuperable, but this has only spurred him on to renewed exertions. Those who know how unprofitable and unwise for both parties is any litigation which can possibly be avoided and, especially, any litigation representing only an honest difference of opinion, will realize the indebtedness of the public to Mr. Royce for those unselfish exertions and that salutary influence which, throughout his entire professional career, have been steadily, consistently and successfully directed to the promotion of peace and the soothing of angry controversy.

His son, Herbert B. Royce, who enjoyed the advantages of both the classical and law course at Cornell University, was launched from the first into the activities of a busy office. Having been elected special county judge he has enjoyed an opportunity, in presiding over the trial terms of the County Court, to impress his abilities upon the bar and the public to a degree and in a manner never before enjoyed by a special county judge in the entire history of the county. Before Judge Beattie's time the county judges were never very considerate to the special county judges. They regarded them as officers provided merely for the convenience of the bar in signing orders and they affected to think that there might be some serious question of jurisdiction involved in their trying and sentencing criminals, even Judge Hirschberg and Judge Beattie were never invited, as special county judges, to hold a term of court, but the judges, when they could not act themselves, always brought in a county judge of a neighboring county. Judge Beattie acted more generously to his official coadjutor and when it became necessary for him to surrender two terms of court. Judge Royce was requested to hold them. This service was performed by him with such marked ability and so greatly to the satisfaction of the entire bar and the public, that Judge Seeger, who succeeded Judge Beattie in 1907, and who was disqualified from sitting in any cases in which he, as district attorney, had procured the indictments, again summoned Judge Royce to the bench, when again he was enabled to give a public demonstration of his judicial fitness and capacity and to prove that it will never be necessary to call in a judge from a neighboring county as long as Judge Royce remains special county judge.

Finn & Finn is the name of the firm of which Daniel Finn was the senior member until it was ruthlessly dissolved by the untimely hand of death, which overtook him without warning in the very midst of an unusually active and prosperous career. Admitted to the bar in 1870 he began and, for thirty-five years continued his practice in Middletown, becoming one of the most respected and influential of its citizens as well as one of the ablest and most trusted of its bar. He was especially versed in the law of wills. Nothing appealed more strongly to his interest than the ambiguous provisions of a will and the difficult questions raised as to their proper construction. His opinions upon these were often submitted to the court with the result that his judgment was invariably sustained.

He was the most imperturbable of men. Nothing agitated or even ruffled him. He could lay down his pen to engage in an interview with some irascible client and, after it was over, calmly resume work upon his thoughtful brief at the very point at which it had been interrupted. This faculty, the result of training as well as of temperament, enabled him to accomplish a great deal of work. The day was never spoiled for him by some untoward incident, unpleasant letter or peevish client. Each day marked distinct progress in some appointed task.

Mr. Finn, who drew the will of Mrs. Thrall, was deeply interested in the noble institutions founded by her--the hospital and the library in addition to the park--and it was largely through his influence that her thoughts were directed to these beneficent objects. It was also through his careful prevision that her testamentary wishes in respect to an additional endowment for the hospital were not defeated by statutory precautions. Mr. Finn foresaw that she might die within the two months set apart, arbitrarily and without respect to testamentary capacity, by the inscrutable wisdom of the legislature as the fluctuating hiatus, that may or may not turn out to be the vitiated period, within which testamentary benevolence must be suspended; within which all tardy attempts of the passing soul to make its peace with God or restitution to mankind must be overruled and nullified in favor of worthless or distant relatives; but still within the last day of which the cunning physician seeking to cheat death of its prey and rapacity of its spoils, might so galvanize into convulsive life the dissolving frame, might so fan into flickering flame the vital spark that, in the race between greedy kindred and melting charity, rapacity will lose by a single hour. In the case of Mrs. Thrall there was no such dramatic suspense. She died twenty days after the execution of her will; so that the bequests in her will and codicil of twenty thousand dollars to Thrall Hospital, already founded by her, were declared void. But Mr. Flinn also advised her to give to her executors, Isaac R. Clements and Nathan M. Hallock, individually, absolutely and outright all legacies which might for any reason be declared void or ineffectual, and this provision was incorporated in her codicil. After this provision had withstood in the courts the attacks of relatives who claimed that it represented a secret trust, equally as abhorrent to legislative solicitude for relatives as a direct charitable bequest, Mr. Clements and Mr. Hallock, in honorable recognition of Mrs. Thrall's wishes, as expressed in her defeated bequests, but under no legal compulsion so to do, turned over to Thrall Hospital the twenty thousand dollars which came to them absolutely under this alternative provision. Thus were Mr. Finn's wisdom and foresight, not only in respect to his client's provision for the hospital but in respect to her bequest to the city of Middletown for its library, amply justified by the event. The bequest of $30,000, for the library was sustained by the courts. These noble foundations--the library and the hospital--constitute an enduring monument to the generosity of S. Maretta Thrall but are no less a monument to the learning, skill and prescience of Daniel Finn. The people of Middletown, though they have always recognized his virtues and his abilities, but imperfectly understand the full measure and extent of their indebtedness to his guiding hand and public spirit. It is simple justice to his memory that the incidents of his professional career bearing upon the public welfare should be embraced in any work professing to be history.

Mr. Finn's intense affection for and loyalty to his _alma mater,_ Hamilton College, was a very pronounced and interesting trait of his character. His only son, Frank H. Finn, also graduated from this classic institution of learning which numbers among its alumni that most intellectual of all living American statesmen, Elihu Root.

Frank H. Finn, upon being admitted to practice, entered into partnership with his father under the firm name of Finn & Finn--the name under which, notwithstanding his father's death, he and his present partner, Arthur H. Payne, himself also a graduate of Hamilton College, conduct their business. Every writ and process issued by the present firm runs in the name of Finn & Finn, thus perpetuating the potent influence, the fine example and the gentle memory of one of the purest and ablest of Orange County lawyers. It is unusual among lawyers to preserve the name, in a firm, of a deceased partner. The only instance I recall is that of James C. Carter, whose surviving partner, Lewis Cass Ledyard, has always, with a tenderness and delicacy of sentiment so in consonance with his own noble nature and chivalric character, kept Mr. Carter's name at the head of his firm, through all ensuing changes. The filial reverence shown by Frank H. Finn for his father's memory, his unwillingness to let his father's name disappear at once beneath the cold waters of swift forgetfulness, illuminates his own strong and sterling character. Called upon suddenly to assume charge of many intricate and involved cases pending in the office at the time of his father's death he accepted and discharged the painful responsibility with a dignity, firmness, manliness, courage and ability which commanded the admiration and won the affection of the community. Though he owes much indeed to his noble father, he has given abundant evidence of his capacity to stand alone. He and his brilliant partner, Mr. Payne, will bring no reproach upon the honored name still in their pious keeping.

Henry W. Wiggins came to the bar two years later than Daniel Finn. The business established by him in Middletown in 1872 is now carried on by the firm of Henry W. & Russell Wiggins, father and son.

Henry W. Wiggins is especially distinguished for his knowledge of the law of real estate, but his practice has always covered a wide range. I well remember an important litigation between mill owners in which Mr. Wiggins established the right of the upper owner to substitute a turbine for an overshot wheel and to take water at a lower depth, provided he did not use a greater quantity of water than before. His success was the more notable and gratifying because he was opposed by both Mr. Brewster and Mr. Winfield. But it has been in litigations involving the liability of the city of Middletown for damages that Mr. Wiggins has won many of his most conspicuous triumphs. He was, at intervals, its corporation counsel for many years, his son Russell now holding the position. It is safe to say that no city was ever more ably served and carefully protected than the city of Middletown was by Mr. Wiggins. No expensive condemnation proceeding in his charge ever proved ineffective because of some flaw or oversight. No suit for damages defended by him ever terminated in an extreme or excessive verdict. His caution, vigilance and conscientiousness combined with his sturdy independence in always standing his ground, in always adhering inflexibly to any position once, after due consideration, taken by him, have been of incalculable service to his clientage and have resulted in saving to the city of Middletown alone many thousands of dollars.

Russell Wiggins also has enjoyed marked success in defending the interests of the city. His recent victory in a case involving the validity of the provision in the charter of the city of Middletown making notice to the common council of snow or ice upon a sidewalk prerequisite to an action for injuries sustained in consequence of it, has attracted wide attention. Mr. Wiggins was overruled by the special term and by the appellate division which held that this provision exceeded the powers of the legislature and was, therefore, unconstitutional. But Mr. Wiggins succeeded in convincing the Court of Appeals, which, in an opinion embodying the arguments advanced by him, sustained the validity of this provision of the charter, with the result that all actions of this class are practically done away with, it is not surprising that all the cities of the State have been so impressed with the importance of Mr. Wiggins' victory that they are now trying to secure a similar provision in their own charters. It seems, indeed, somewhat hard that a total stranger, alighting from a train on a dark night, should be compelled to proceed at his peril along a city street, under conditions which physically exclude his either having or giving notice, but Mr. Wiggins ingeniously persuaded the Court of Appeals to say that this is a question for the legislature and not for the courts, thus establishing a new precedent, if not a new principle, in constitutional construction, in a case sure to become a leading one; sure to be cited for many years to come, in the courts of the entire country. In thus linking his name at the very outset of his career, to a leading authority, Mr. Wiggins has set for himself a hard task. He must now live up to his own reputation--which there is abundant reason to believe he is entirely able to do.

Cornelius E. Cuddeback, admitted to the bar in 1873, immediately established in Port Jervis the business now carried on under the firm name of C. E. & S. M. Cuddeback, his son Samuel M. having become associated with him.

Mr. Cuddeback early became prominent in all the interests of the community, social, business, legal and public--a position which he maintains by virtue of his unquestioned integrity, great ability and enormous industry. He was largely instrumental in straightening out the affairs of the Port Jervis & Monticello Railroad Company, and he has for many years been the attorney for the town of Deer Park and the village (now the city) of Port Jervis. He has also been the attorney for many public service corporations. His defense of the Barrett Bridge Company in a test case tried at Goshen in June, 1905, to determine the liability of the company for the deaths occasioned by the sweeping away of the bridge over the Delaware River in a freshet, furnishes a fine example of his characteristics as a lawyer. The defense was prepared with a thoroughness, exhaustiveness and comprehensiveness and conducted with a verve, vigor and vivacity which carried everything before it, sweeping away the case of the plaintiff as ruthlessly as the freshet swept away the bridge; leaving little for the jury to do but to register the fact that the defense had been completely successful.

Mr. Cuddeback finds in his son a lawyer well qualified to assume the burdens of his practice when he shall be prepared to lay them down.

All the living lawyers thus far considered, except the sons and daughter, will very soon be passing from the scene. The pages that bear this imprint will scarcely be flung from the press before the lawyers whose now familiar names they carry forward to a generation that knows them not, will drop away, one by one, from their accustomed places. So true is this, so strong is the author's sense that only, by slight anticipation, do these pages commemorate the departed, that nothing has been set down here which could not be truthfully and becomingly said if they had gone before who yet, for a little, linger. This, indeed, suggests the chief reason why the present record, to be of any value, should include the living; for long before this publication is superseded by a rival or a successor the figures it portrays will have passed from action to remembrance.

In connection with this thought it is proper to point out that the sketches and estimates now published bear this further resemblance to veracious and posthumous biography--they have not been edited by the subjects. The system adopted in some modern compilations of permitting prominent men to write their own biographies, or of procuring from them the data for less sympathetic treatment, has not been followed here. Indeed, with a single accidental and insignificant exception, not one lawyer has any knowledge of the scope or purpose of this undertaking or has furnished any information available for use in it. He who carelessly takes up this volume to read about others will be covered with modest confusion to find himself included in it. This is an attempt not to let a man speak for himself, but to collect and crystallize in definite forms of expression the floating particles of contemporary judgment upon his character. It is for this reason, besides others, that so few specific dates and irrelevant facts are given. They have not been asked for. They are not needed. They do not fit with the scheme of this work, which aims, perhaps presumptuously, but still consistently, to be a gallery of portraits, not a table of statistics. Of what possible interest is it to know the number of a lawyer's children, or the building in which his office is located? Character and achievement are the things that count.

It will be convenient at this point to return to the consideration of the leading advocates now at the bar of the county. No one recognizes more than advocates themselves their frequent indebtedness to the great lawyers who, undisturbed by absorbing, distracting and exhausting trials, apply to life's complex and varying conditions the immutable principles of the common law. It implies no disparagement of Winfield and Gedney to assume that the one often leaned upon the judgment of his partner, William F. Sharpe, and that the other often sought the wise counsel of his esteemed relative, Joseph W. Gott. At the same time it cannot be doubted that public interest has always centered upon the trial lawyer, for the obvious reason that the open field, the public challenge, the combat of intellectual athletes, the palm of victory appeal strongly to the imagination and dramatic sense. There need, therefore, be no apology for making prominent in a popular work those who engage the larger share of merely popular interest.

There is no man at the bar of Orange County, or indeed anywhere, for whom the term colorless would be so inept as it would be for Judge Albert H. F. Seeger. He radiates color. He is the incarnation of sunshine. He is the forerunner of gladness, sounding a proclamation of hope and good cheer wherever he goes. No one would suppose that he ever had a care or sorrow. Yet he must have had his share. He performs more perfectly than any man I ever knew that mission which Robert Louis Stevenson glorifies when he says:

"There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. A happy man or woman is a better thing to find than a five-pound note. He or she is a radiating focus of good will; and their entrance into a room is as though another candle had been lighted. We need not care whether they could prove the forty-seventh proposition; they do a better thing than that, they practically demonstrate the great theorem of the livableness of life."

But Judge Seeger can also prove the forty-seventh proposition. He can usually prove anything he sets out to prove, as lawyers opposed to him have often found to their dismay. And even when the law and the facts are all against him and you have him thoroughly beaten, according, to all the rules of the game, there will still be three to six jurors who strangely refuse to believe that anything but infallible argument could emanate from a personality so radiant. Not that his propositions always need the support of his personality, upon which, indeed, he never consciously presumes. He always builds up a strong, solid, telling, convincing argument, delivered with unaffected earnestness and artless sincerity.

And his sincerity really is artless. While he is personally the most popular man in Orange County and while such preeminence can only be attained by the use of popular arts, yet in his case they are entirely legitimate and unstudied. He really does feel kindness when he seems to. He really is interested in the things which interest others. He really does love their babies, their dogs, their horses--anything, in fact, but their automobiles. His bubbling spirits and effervescent mirth, his ready wit and sparkling sally, the ring of his laughter and the spell of his bonhomie are all the genuine expression of a rich, ardent and impressionable nature.

It might be thought that such a man would be a time-server. Far from it. There is not a trace of the demagogue in his composition. Much as he would naturally desire to retain his remarkable popularity he would fling it all away, if necessary, in the performance of his duty or in the defense of law and order. He showed this unmistakably when as district attorney he boldly held at bay the lawless mob, at a personal risk which his official duties did not call upon him to incur. Knowing then that he would soon be a candidate for a higher office he cared not whether he made friends or enemies, whether he lost votes or gained them; he simply saw his duty and went straight for it. As it was, the very forces he antagonized respected him. When this genial friend, this blithe companion became transformed into the stern, unyielding, inexorable officer of the law the very mob he awed retired to worship him, and when the time came it voted for him.

This mingling in Judge Seeger's character of the sterner and softer elements, of courage and tenderness, manliness and simplicity, firmness and forgiveness, has inspired in the people of Orange County a respect and affection such as rarely attends upon a public man. His election to the office of county judge was inevitable whether the "organization" had been friendly or not. If it constitutes high qualifications for this responsible position to possess a character noble and sincere, a disposition just and fair, a judgment sound and true, a mind well trained and informed, a knowledge of the law wide and various, a knowledge of human nature keen and close, a sense of public duty deep and earnest, then is the county of Orange indeed fortunate that a judge as respected as John J. Beattie should be followed by a successor so worthy as Albert H. F. Seeger.

From painting to stenography; from stenography to the law; from the law to the recovery of a judgment for eight hundred thousand dollars in 1906--that is the condensed history of Thomas Watts. As the painting was, not of pictures but, of houses, it will readily be seen that he is the most consummate embodiment of that familiar phrase, the self-made man, that the Orange County bar possesses. After working all day painting, often walking back several miles to his home, he spent his evenings studying stenography. After acquiring this art and while pursuing its practice as a court stenographer he studied law assiduously, following carefully also the course of every case that came under his notice in court and drawing out the able judges and lawyers whom he met in conversation that was not less instructive than edifying.

Born in England, about the same time that Judge Seeger was born in Germany, and brought to this country at an early age by his parents, as Judge Seeger was also, the career of both men is a striking illustration of what may be accomplished in this land of opportunity, without the social influence of generations of local ancestry, by sheer pluck, perseverance, energy and ability.

Mr. Watts is a very nucleus of abounding and super-abounding energy. He generates energy by a process of spontaneous mental combustion. His mental activity is more continuous and intense than any I have ever known. His mind never goes fallow, but seems to be constantly fructified by the floating pollen in the business, legal or intellectual atmosphere surrounding him. It is of course inevitable that, with such a temperament, he should repeatedly cross the path of people who would like to have him keep out of their way. But Mr. Watts is so constituted that where other people are there would he be also; and he is always willing to keep out of their way by letting them step aside.

Yet, despite all his initiative, aggressiveness and combativeness with respect to those who can meet him upon equal terms, he is tenderness and generosity itself to the weak, the helpless and the dependent. He has been known to pour out his bounty for years upon those who appealed to his sympathy or invoked his aid. He has, in a marked degree, the English love of fair play and is as ready to acknowledge a mistake as he is to resent an injury. Often brusque and impulsive in his manner when no offense is intended, and quick to regret when it is, he is always surprised to find that others are not so ready to forget as he is to forgive.

The fighting qualities of Mr. Watts are never shown to better advantage than when he is asserting the rights of the poor and weak against all the resources of corporate or individual wealth. He never tires. His tenacity cannot be shaken. No reversal of the first judgment dismays him. He enters upon the second or third trial with as much vigor and vim as upon the first. In one case he more than doubled upon the second trial the verdict obtained upon the first trial. Indeed he has led in the securing of large verdicts, having obtained the largest verdict in a death case ever rendered in the county and the largest verdict, with one exception, ever rendered for personal injuries.

The judgment for eight hundred thousand dollars to which reference has been made was obtained by Mr. Watts in an action brought by him for a contractor against a railroad company for extra work in the building of a branch, disputed by the company. Mr. Watts examined and cross-examined all the witnesses and, with the aid of his office force, prepared the final argument. He was opposed by the finest legal talent in the State and the case was tried before that learned, eminent and profoundly respected judge, the Honorable Alton B. Parker, sitting as referee. The case involved many intricate questions of which Mr. Watts exhibited entire mastery. His management of this case marks the zenith of his ability and reputation as a trial lawyer. A lawyer who, before such a tribunal, wins such a case, involving such large interests and attended with results of such magnitude, for the judgment was not only obtained but settled, has established his place, beyond all question, in the very front rank of the trial lawyers of the State.

Mr. Watts excels in cross-examination. In a case brought by him for injuries resulting from the explosion of a locomotive boiler, the judge hesitated at the close of his case about letting it proceed, but finally ruled that the railroad company should go on with its proof, reserving the questions that troubled him. Mr. Watts thereupon took the defendant's witnesses in hand and on cross-examination he so completely established the liability of the company out of the mouths of its own witnesses that all thought, not merely of non-suit, but of defense even was abandoned and the company was thrown into a panic. It made an offer in the recess and when the court convened again to resume the case it was announced as settled.

Mr. Watts' addresses to the jury are marked by pith, point and piquancy. He emphasizes the salient features of the case and lets all minor or subordinate issues take care of themselves. His sturdy defense of his client's rights, his strong individuality and his intellectual force combine to make him a formidable opponent.

Perhaps no lawyer at the bar of Orange County ever received a more emphatic, pronounced, unmistakable tribute of personal regard than John C. R. Taylor, of Middletown, received at the election of 1906, when, in a district opposed to him politically, he ran over four thousand ahead of his ticket and was elected Senator by a majority of over twelve hundred. The good opinion of him thus expressed by his fellow citizens has been confirmed by his broad, patriotic, statesmanlike course at Albany, which has attracted the attention and commended him to the approbation, of the entire State, without respect to party lines. The purity of his character, the singleness of his motives, the soundness of his judgment and the independence of his action carried him in a single session to a position of weight and influence usually acquired only after several terms of legislative service. Senator Taylor is one of those public servants who believe that the State is a great business corporation of which the Governor is president and each Senator a trustee. Under this conviction he refuses to consider either party advantage or private interests but seeks to ascertain solely what is best for the welfare of the people and the cause of good government. Whether he can repeat his phenomenal success at the polls under less favorable conditions is of course uncertain. But whether he does or not he has set an example of clean, straightforward, high-minded methods in politics and legislation which will long be remembered in his district. He has set a standard of political morals which will have to be satisfied by any successor who hopes to retain the mandate of a now aroused, vigilant, exacting and independent public conscience.

Senator Taylor's success at the bar was almost as immediate as his later success in the Senate. Early in his practice he went to Kingston to try a case against one of the leaders of the famous Ulster County bar and obtained a verdict of $10,000 in an action against the town of Shawangunk for damages resulting from a defective bridge, a verdict which was subsequently paid after passing the ordeal of all the courts. Judge Clearwater who presided over the trial and whose qualifications as a critic will be conceded, since he has himself made both the bar and bench illustrious, told me that he had never seen a case more ably tried and presented than this case was by Mr. Taylor.

Senator Taylor has the courage of the true lawyer. When a few years ago he was engaged to defend a client accused of a shocking offense, people went to him and said, "Why, you will be ruined if you defend that man." He simply replied, "He is my client and I shall stand by him to the end." Senator Taylor not only was not "ruined" but he completely reversed public sentiment which had been misled from the start, and established his client's entire innocence of the charge against him in a crushing cross-examination of the first witness which demonstrated its complete falsity.

Senator Taylor's professional ideals are as high as his political ideals. He is an honorable foe, a straight lawyer, a cultured gentleman.

Michael N. Kane, of Warwick, the most beautiful village in the county, if not in the State, also received at the election of 1906 a vote for the office of supreme court judge which strikingly attested the admiration and regard in which he is held by his fellow citizens in the county and district. He ran several thousand ahead of his ticket but this was not sufficient to overcome the adverse majority caused by the creation of the new ninth judicial district out of the river counties. Mr. Kane has securely established his reputation as a trial lawyer of conspicuous ability and success. He is frequently employed as counsel in important cases and has never failed to satisfy the expectations of both attorney and client. His preparation of cases for trial is complete and masterly.

In the appellate courts his arguments are marked by a learning, lucidity and power which always command attention and usually assent.

The breadth of character and fineness of moral fibre which have contributed so largely to his professional success are displaced in all his relations to his professional brethren, in which he is the pattern and exemplar of uniform courtesy, consideration and indulgence. While never imperiling the interests of a client to accommodate a professional brother he is always able to find a way to accommodate him without injuring his client. He never takes refuge in the transparent pretext that his client will not consent, which is the customary formula used to cover, though it does not conceal, professional churlishness. In the very cases in which Mr. Kane has been most generous to his opponents he has had the most complete ultimate success; thus furnishing to his brethren of the bar an object lesson from which they may learn that courtesy to each other is entirely consistent with perfect loyalty to their client.

Mr. Kane's public spirit has always been a noticeable phase of his character. His pride in and devotion to the interests of Warwick have endeared him to his community which not only respects him as a lawyer but esteems him as a neighbor and honors him as a citizen.

Ferdinand V. Sanford is another citizen of Warwick whose abilities entitle him to rank among the trial lawyers of the county. Fluent in speech, cultivated in manner and refined in character, his personal charm imparts weight to his opinion and impulsion to his utterances. He, too, is deeply interested in his beautiful village, the citizens of which have bestowed upon him many marks of their favor and confidence. His prominence in its affairs led to a most interesting experience in the summer of 1906 when he represented his village at the brilliant and imposing pageant held In old Warwick in England at which he upheld the reputation abroad of American oratory in a most graceful, felicitous and eloquent address.

Darwin W. Esmond, of Newburgh, prepares his cases for trial more thoroughly than any lawyer I ever knew. His trial brief is comprehensive, elaborate, and minute, even containing instructions in reference to the cross-examination of the witnesses expected to be called by his opponent. Every case likely to be cited by his opponent is discussed and distinguished. Every pitfall into which his opponent might seek to draw him is pointed out and provided against. If he should die the day before a case is set down for trial and it should be thought best, notwithstanding, to go on with the trial, any experienced trial lawyer could, on a moment's notice, take his brief and try the case without consulting an authority, seeing a witness, or even talking with the client. He would find his opening to the jury outlined for him, the statements of the witnesses arranged in the order in which they should be adduced, the authorities bearing upon a motion for non-suit carefully analyzed and, finally, the points to be dwelt upon in the submission to the jury clearly emphasized.

It is needless to say that such painstaking industry implies the most conscientious devotion on the part of Mr. Esmond to his client's cause--a devotion as earnest and intense when the amount involved is small as when it is large. His theory is that a small case is just as important to a poor man as a large case is to a rich one and that the measure of duty, of fidelity and of devotion should be the same in each.