The Man in Court | Page 8

his seat on the bench. The trivial pleasures of being heralded and
having the spectators rise when he enters have lost their charm, but he
would feel uncomfortable without them. The gray-haired clerk hands
him the list of the cases for the day. The anxious court attendant asks if
he shall open a window. The judge sniffs audibly and orders the steam
heat to be turned off. The court attendant does so and brings his Honor
a glass of water. When the judge sits down in the revolving chair he is
on the bench and the court is in session.
The fact of the matter is the judge is a pretty decent sort of person. The
trouble is that the surroundings are all against him. In the first place his
whole job is one that makes him live up to a part. For five or six hours
a day he has to sit still in a stuffy court-room on a leather chair under a
silly canopy of wood or plush and pretend that he is the whole thing,
that he knows it all, and that whatever he decides is absolutely right.

Let him waiver or be uncertain in his decisions and woe is it to him. No
one thinks much of a judge who does not know his business or at least
does not pretend to know it.
How anyone who has been long on the bench can retain any sense of
proportion is remarkable. Whatever he says and does in court is final
and apparently approved. If his decisions are reversed they do not
affect him seriously; he has tried so many cases that were not appealed,
and the greater proportion of those that have been are affirmed. The
reversal comes a long time after and does not hurt his feelings. In any
event, he was trying to do the best he could and human nature may be
fallible, although, as far as he can see, the whole world of the little
court-room where he sits has conspired to show him that he is divinely
endowed.
His position is not exactly one of bluff, but he is the central figure of
the stage; like the actor's profession the judge's job makes him an
egotist. Take for example the essential elements of his knowledge of
the law. He is the Jus Dicens, the one saying the law, the name of judge
being derived from the two Latin words. He is supposed to know the
law, at least he ought to know court procedure, and the law of his State
thereon by heart. In New York State, for example, the Code of Civil
Procedure is five hundred thousand words long. He is bound to take
judicial notice without being told of all the statutes of the State
Legislature, which are being passed at the rate of six hundred a year.
He is also supposed to know the laws of the United States passed at
Washington, and to be thoroughly familiar with the latest decisions of
the Supreme Courts of the United States, and those for the past 125
years. He must understand and look as though he knew beforehand any
decision of the courts of his own State cited, which are conveniently
and neatly printed in 219 New York Court of Appeals Reports, 173
volumes of the Appellate Division Reports, and 96 volumes of the
Miscellaneous Reports, to say nothing of the opinions and decisions of
other courts that are not printed at all. His knowledge of the law is a
fearful and wonderful thing; he must have an oceanic mind.
It is told that one of the leaders of the bar had formerly a young man in

his office who with advancing years and reputation was elected to the
bench. Before the first of January when he was to take his oath of office,
the old employer and friend sent for him. When he arrived he was
greeted as follows: "Joe, I've sent for you because I wanted to see you
before you become a judge. I am very fond of you and I wanted to see
you once again as you were, because after you go on the bench you are
bound to become a stuffed shirt, for they all do."
That so many escape is one of the wonders of human nature. That they
retain their humanity is due to a disposition of Providence to temper the
wind to the shorn lamb. The position necessarily takes away all
initiative. In politics the judge is recognized as being a "dead one."
After a few years on the bench only the exceptional man can fling off
the shackles of his profession and get back into real life. He ceases
from fighting, he is not energetic.
As a good judge he must be