PRACTICE OF LAW IN JVEIV YORK CITY. 2$ entire branch of trade, without competition and with the mini- mum of responsibility, chooses New York City as its real field of operations. Private wealth has become so common that a man worth only a million is mediocre, and a comparison of any one of our richest citizens with Croesus would be odious. Our local law business — not necessarily litigated — keeps pace with this concentrated wealth and commerce. The law enacted by our legislature and declared by our courts to meet our local exigen- cies is so much and so varied that New York is among the great- est law states in the Union, if not the greatest. Not reckoning the Federal, Surrogates, and criminal courts, our twenty-five (at times twenty-seven) judges of civil courts of record in New York City began business in October, 1895, with calendars aggregating nearly twenty thousand issues, at law and in equity, awaiting trial under the ministrations of a bar so crowded that we have one lawyer for somewhat less than every three hun- dred of the population. Besides this, there are all the cases on first appeal to the General Terms, and the vast business of ex parte and contested motions. On an average this would give each member of our bar less than four pending litigations. As a matter of fact, some lawyers in lucrative practice pass long periods of time when they have no litigations at all. On the other hand, the calendars reveal some lawyers having a large proportion of the cases, who are in no wise conspicuous in the profession. The bar generally could not be supported out of the litigated business. Its steady support comes from ofifice or non-litigated work, and this is true in the long run even of those firms that practise heavily in the courts. This — but not this alone — should chill the untried youth who comes to us with a constitu- tional yearning for immediate forensic triumphs. The crowd in the profession signifies more than mere members; nowadays this crowd has a higher average of training, ability, and purpose than ever before. Moreover, it counts many men who have all these qualities and independent means to boot; and who can cheerily bide the period when, as is jocosely said, they have no business, being young lawyers. All kinds of occupa- tion here, professional or commercial, are so filled that a man mistakenly fitted for a given career finds little to hope for in change. But what activity shall he resort to, to keep off rust or melancholy.? 4
