THE PHILADELPHIA BAR
haps any other member of it. This brought up the subject of Jeremiah S. Black. The Justice said: “Black, as a man, was simply abominable, but there was no one who appeared before the court to whom it was so agreeable to listen. In hearing him you felt that you did not care a damn whether he was talking about his case or about any other case, but there was a wealth of illustration, a knowledge of the Bible and of Shakespeare wrought into his arguments which made you feel that you would like him to go on forever. On one occasion he had a case arising under the Civil Rights Bill from South Carolina, in which, characterizing the position of the other side, he said that there was no decision in any court in Christendom which would justify it. He then reached into his pocket for his silver tobacco box which was always there, took it slowly out, put into his cavernous jaws a mass of the tobacco and, as if it had just occurred to him, continued: ‘Yes. there is one case which may apply. It is that of Dido vs. Carthage. There you remember the land was bought by hides and the amount was determined by so many hides covering the ground. It occurred to one casuist there that the hides might be cut into strips and more land be got under them in that way. Now that case may be an authority for the other side.’
“He never was a sound lawyer. When he first came down to Washington, he had only been in the habit of getting ten and fifteen dollar fees, but he soon found that he could get almost any sum and he afterward charged enormous fees.
“Toward the latter part of the time he used to argue for the listeners and pay less attention to the law and would maneuver so as to postpone his cases until there were hearers. We humored him, more or less, in the matter. After the report of the Electoral Commission he, for the purpose of abusing us, appeared before the Commission. He said the most dreadful things. If it had been a court he would have been locked up for contempt. I would have locked him up for contempt within ten minutes after he began. Judge Strong, who had been a great friend of his, refused, afterward, for more than a year, to recognize him. At length, when Strong was going to Europe, Black wrote to me saying that what he had said was in a public capacity, that I had not taken personal offense at it, and asking me whether I would not see Strong and endeavor to present it to him in this light. I did so and they became reconciled. The more outrageous things Black said never were printed.”
This brought up MacVeagh who said with an assurance which is natural to him: “Strong felt it because he could not rid himself