ORDROXAUX
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ORDRONAUX
but everyone who knew him loved him.
He was fond of children, but they seemed
to stand in awe of him, to fool that hero
was a being beyond their comprohonsion;
and this was always a matter of great
regret to the good doctor. Among his
intimate friends wore Jo-^eph White
Moulton, the historian (with wliom he
made his home for a number of years)
and also WiUiam Cullen Bryant and
Parke Godwin.
He was a man of simple and most economical life. For years he limited his expenditures for his daily luncheon to twenty-five cents; being remonstrated with upon this matter by his friends, lie allowed himself thereafter the princely sum of forty cents. He told these friends, in all seriousness, that the matter had cost him deep and prolonged thought, as well as the extra fifteen cents. When they laughed, he added, with a sheepish grin, that he beUeved it w^ould be a good rule for him to take warm water and dried apples at luncheon, since it was a fair inference that the former would swell the latter. He denied himself many pleasures for the sake of saving the money they would cost. He used to do his own sewing, and bought the material and made his neckties. Sometimes he bought provisions, and took them to his room and cooked them.
He was fond of books, and was an authority upon them; yet he had not a large library. He had ample means, but motives of prudence and economy would ever cause him to consider the advisa- bility of purchasing.
He was a communicant of the Episco- pal church at Roslyn, and a regular attendant at the services, and most earnest in his responses and singing. During the absence of the rector he would occasionally conduct the services him- self and read a sermon — usually one of Jeremy Bentham's.
He was a veteran of the Civil War, and, on Memorial Day, and at the funerals of deceased members of his Grand Army post, he would don his uniform and march with the rest.
The doctor was a man of enormous
intellectual activity. Not only did he
attomjit to keep up with all the advances
of medicine and law, but he was a pro-
found theologian. He was reported to
have, and doubtless did possess, a greater
knowledge of theological dogma and
ecclesiastical history than the great
majority of accredited ministers and
professors of theology. He never prac-
tised medicine actively, but, in the legal
profession, was recognized as a keen,
close rcasoner, and, though he had but
little reputation as a lawyer before the
public, was employed to write briefs in
many of the celebrated cases which
occupied public attention from 1900
back to the early seventies. His work as
a lawyer was done in the same way that
all of his labor was performed, quietlj'
and without ostentation.
He was a man of great melancholy at times, and on such occasions was well- nigh inaccessible even to his intimates. The depression of spirits was partly temperamental and partly due to the fact that he had never had a real home, or, in fact, a real boyhood. It was also possibly due in part to the gradual decay of medical jurisprudence as a subject for instruction in the medical colleges and law schools. In a number of letters to the present writer the doctor plays upon this theme at (for him) considerable length and with great sadness. To Dr. Ordronaux the subject of medical juris- prudence was not a merely intellectual affair, but something which touched the emotions deeply : he was greatly concern- ed for the future of legal medicine, and insisted that the colleges did not know what they were doing in rejecting so important a branch.
He died at about 3 a. m., Monday, January 20, 1908. At three the pre- ceding afternoon, he had been stricken with cerebral apoplexy. Inside of sixty seconds he lost consciousness, and then, little by Uttle, he went into a still deeper sleep. He had always greatly feared lest he might some day be a charge on others, and had often expressed the wish
