USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 18
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you wish the court to assign you counsel to defend you?" In the same stolid manner he replied, "I don't care what the court does." Whereupon the court spoke up and kindly advised Edward O'Conner that if it was his wish, they would appoint an attorney to defend him on the charge, and he answered that they might appoint an attorney for him. The court did appoint a competent attorney to defend him, and his case was tried in open court, but the testimony was too plain and clear against him, and he was convicted by a jury of his countrymen, of petit larceny, as charged in the indictment, and I had the mortification to see before my own tearful eyes my former boy schoolmate and play-fellow now sentenced as a man to the chain-gang, where he had to appear in zebra striped clothes before his fellow-citizens, with a huge iron ball and chain attached to his leg, at hard labor on the turnpike, before his fellow-citizens ! A hard lot, indeed ; a hard case, indeed, and Edward O'Conner, the former good, amiable, handsome youth was, as a grown man, " a hard case," and this conviction and this sentence, and this ignominious service, totally extinguished the last of any spark of goodness that might have been in him, for afterwards he became a confirmed villain and scoundrel, and only lived with his like, and in his case there was no application of the scientific, homeopathic, Latin maxim, "similia similibus curantur," for he was lost forever. This is a sad story, a sad fact.
LAWYER FLINN AS AN IRISH ORATOR.
There was Jacob Flinn, a curious man and a curious lawyer, a member of the Legislature, and once a judge of the Criminal Court of this county, established by politicians, his friends, for the purpose, no doubt, of
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making him a judge, and abolished by the Legislature in order to get rid of the judge.
I once heard a most eloquent speech in the old court house, Common Pleas court room, made by Jacob Flinn. The occasion was an Irish "Repail of the Union" meeting, and the court room was literary crammed and jammed with Irish patriots and democrats, and never did a speaker get such hilarious and rapturous applause as Jacob Flinn got, speaking in most enthusiastic and glowing terms for a repeal of the Union of England and Ireland. Never were Irishmen better pleased than with the in- flamed orator of the evening. I remember an eloquent sentence of Flinn's speech. Speaking of the Irish patriots, he came to Robert Emmet, and eulogized the martyr most profusely. At last he said :
"Talk of the epitaph for Robert Emmet-who will write it ? I will tell you, fellow-citizens ! We, WE will write it; we will pluck a quill from the wing of the American eagle, and, sharpening the pen, we will sharpen the words, so as to strike a sharp blow, a great blow, for the freedom and independence of Ireland !"
What could be more eloquent to the excited Ameri- can-Irishman or Irish-American than this ? Jacob was a favorite, and he deserved to be, with the warm-hearted and ardent and liberty-loving Irishmen.
JACOB FLINN AND THE OLD DEMOCRAT.
On another occasion, at a Democratic political meet- ing at the old court house, I heard Flinn deliver himself, and this time he began most eloquently. But there was a great difficulty and a great obstruction to the continuous eloquence of the gifted orator. Right before the speaker sat an elderly democrat, a man known as a good man
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and a first-rate democrat to the whole party in the country and always recognized as a democratic power in the land. On this occasion, he had, before he came to the meeting, no doubt, been drinking a little Bourbon (as he was "one of them,") too much, and his sober wits and senses, for the nonce, had deserted him. He at first kept interrupt- ing Flinn's speech with friendly, pertinent and imperti- nent questions, and this confused and bothered Jake, and in the flow of his eloquence the speaker had not time to attend to the episodes suggested by the pertinent or im- pertinent queries of his old, familiar, democratic friend. At last, the old man, with more influence upon him, got vexed and exasperated, and yelled out to the extreme pitch of his voice :
"Jake Flinn ! (hic) Jake Flinn ! are yur a (hic) dem- ocrat or not ?"
Flinn-" Why, my old friend-why do you ask such a question ?"
Old Man-"(Hic) Wh-y-you-don't-answer-my questions-y-ou (hic) don't-know-what it is-to-be- a-dem-o-crat !"
Flinn-" What is your question, my good old demo- cratic brother?" (pacifyingly.)
Old Man-" (Hic) Why, I want-to know-how about (hic) "Old Hickory?" Here (hic) you've-been talking-for a whole hour (hic) and you-haven't said- a single word-about-G-in-c-ral Jackson !"
Flinn-"Well, well, my Jackson friend, I will 'come to Hecuba' after a while."
Old Man-" (Hic) HICCUP-be-damned! (hic) I want to hear (hic) about G-in-e-ral Jackson."
This was too much for Flinn and his fellow demo- crats. A loud and boisterous guffaw broke forth, at the
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expense of Flinn, and not succeeding in pacifying the old man, or getting him immediately silent or sober, Flinn was obliged to yield the floor to the next speaker and re- tire from the court room amidst confusion worse con- founded, both with himself and audience.
JACOB FLINN AND ANOTHER OLD DEMOCRAT.
On another occasion, Flinn, who was a first-rate stump speaker, was going the rounds of the democratic meetings in the rural townships of this county, and one night, while he was orating with all his strength in a dem- ocratic meeting in the old frame school-house at New Haven, Crosby township, an obstreperous, old, and old- fashioned democrat would insist upon talking to, and interrupting Jake. The old democrat was too well and too widely and favorably known, to be treated harshly or insulted back by the speaker. So Flinn again and again tried to pacify him, but he could not at all, succeed. At last, in very despair the orator cried out, " Do-do-for God's sake, just stop a moment, my old friend, until I get out this important idea -- you get me all scattered-and I can't keep the thread of my speech."
Old Democrat-" I don't care for the thread of your 'speech. I want the rope of democratic principles to be held on to, or we will get shipwrecked."
Flinn-" Now do, kind friend, keep silent for a little. Let me get out this idea. You scatter my brains so that they are all over the ceiling, and I can't go on."
Old Democrat -- " Well, Jake, I'll stop till you throw the democratic rope up and get vour brains. I had begun to think myself that you had lost them somewhere. They seem clean gone."
And so the old democrat ceased his interruptions,
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and Flinn, recovering his scattered brains, went on, and growing warm and eloquent with no further interruption, made a capital democratic speech, holding on fast to the rope of true democratic principles, as the old chap sug- gested-a rope not of sand.
JACOB FLINN AND THE BULLIES.
Flinn was a brave and courageous man. In phy- sique he was very large, six feet high, square built, and very strong, and he was a dangerous man for an oppo- nent, however athletic he might be, to handle. He could whip his way through wild cats, if necessary. But he had moral, as well as physical courage. One night he was addressing a Democratic meeting in the country, and some dissatisfied Whig in the audience cried out in the midst of Flinn's eloquent harangue, at some extended statement that Flinn had made, " That's a lie!" Flinn looked and saw where the "lie" came from, and he coolly left the rostrum, and coming down among the audience, singled out the malefactor, took him deliber- ately by the shoulders, and hustled him out of the front door of the meeting house, and then as deliberately walked backed up the aisle to the rostrum, resumed his place, and went on with his speech, commencing where he left off, as if nothing at all had happened. Flinn was not a man to be fooled with, or insulted at any time. One day I saw him knock a man with his huge right fist, and send him from the pavement to the middle of the street. The bully deserved what he got. He had grossly insulted Mr. Flinn, who, good and whole souled fellow that he was, never did any one an injury or resented one violently without proper cause-never provoked a quarrel, and always tried to avoid personal altercation. He had much
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genuine ability and many virtues, for which we may well remember him.
JUDGE FLINN AND THE MAN CONVICTED OF ASSAULT AND BATTERY.
On one occasion a man was tried and convicted before Judge Flinn in his criminal court for assault and battery. It was in proof that the man was on a spree at the time he struck and beat the prosecuting witness. When it came time for the sentence of the man the judge asked him if he had anything to say. The man said that he knew little or nothing about the affray, and he presumed that he was drunk at the time.
Fudge-" The court presumes so, too. We know Mr. B., that you are a good, honorable man if it were not for these sprees of yours. We will try you this time, by a very light sentence to the jail of the county, for the period of twenty-four hours, and you may go over to the jail by yourself, and deliver yourself up to the jailer, for we will not disgrace you, by putting you in the hands of the Sheriff. Now go."
And the man did go right over to the jail, but the jailer told him he could not receive him. He had no evidence that he was convicted, and he didn't support loafers there. Whereupon the man came back to court and reported the refusal of the jailer to receive him in jail to the judge, when the latter ordered the clerk to make out a mittimus, for the man, and with that he sent the man back by himself to the jail, and the jailer, who on taking the mittimus, and then the man and locking him up for twenty hours, was suprised and confounded beyond measure.
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JUDGE FLINN AND THE LAWYER ON THE JURY.
I must not forget to tell of Judge Flinn and his part- ner in the law, whom he placed on the jury on one occa- sion in the Judge's Criminal Court. There was an im- portant criminal trial coming on, and it proved to be dif- ficult to secure the presence of a jury-that is, the whole twelve. The judge had ordered the sheriff to call by- standers, or talesmen, as they are called, to serve on the jury, and by dint of perseverance, the sheriff had secured eleven jurors, but the necessary twelfth one was wanting, and there was no good bystander left to call from the now scant auditory. At and in this juncture, anxious to get on, the judge said, "Mister Sheriff, call Oliver Brown to take his place, and serve on the jury." Now, Oliver Brown was present within the bar of the court, and he was a lawyer, and more or less than that, he had been the partner of Judge Flinn in the practice of the law, before the latter came to the bench. The sheriff called Oliver Brown and ordered him to take his place upon the jury. " What ! me"-exclaimed Oliver Brown-" me on the jury? I am a lawyer and claim my privileges as such, and appeal to the court."
Fudge Flinn-" Take your seat on the jury, Mister Brown ; you will make a good juror; the court is well acquainted with you and your pretensions. Your doubt- ful plea that you are a lawyer will not avail you here. Take your place."
So the Lawyer Brown was made a juror.
JUDGE FLINN AND THE OBSTINATE JUROR.
Another one of Judge Flinn : In his Criminal Court, in an important criminal case, the witnesses had been examined, the lawyers had delivered their arguments and
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the court had charged the jury, and the jury had gone out, and they stayed out all day, and they stayed out all night, and until late next morning, and then they were brought into court by the sheriff by the order of the court, and the foreman announced that they could not agree upon a verdict, that it was impossible; that they stood eleven to one, and that one was so obstinate that he would not assent to the others that the verdict should be guilty.
" Who is that juror?" impatiently asked the judge.
" It is Mr. - Swazey," replied the foreman.
"Mr. Sheriff," said the judge, "take that juror, Swazey, back to the jury-room, and there let him remain, barred and locked up, till he agrees with the rest." No sooner said than done. The obstinate juror, Swazey, was taken back to, and locked up in the jury-room by the sheriff, and, there he remained, and remained and re- mained, but he would not give in; nor bars nor bolts would bend or turn his judgment, and at last the court or rather the judge, had to discharge him, as he had already done the rest of the jury, and remand the prisoner for another trial.
This was a ludicrous but high-handed proceeding for a judge, and a serious, stiff, and stout-handed proceeding for a juror.
JUDGE JOHNSON AND THEOPHILUS GAINES.
Judge Johnson, in early times, used to defend a great many criminals, and he was frequently troubled and vexed and annoyed by the prosecuting attorneys, When Theophilus Gaines was prosecuting attorney for Hamilton county, there was one time an important murder trial be- fore the court, and Judge Johnson appeared as counsel to defend the man accused of murder. Now, the judge
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was a great fellow to defend murderers ; he was a great and busy and bustling advocate before the court and the jury in their behalf. Theophilus Gaines was a prosecu- ting attorney of a good deal of strong common sense, and what he might have lacked in law, he made up in his peculiar, winning ways. In the case at bar, Gaines troubled Johnson very much by interrupting him in his speech, when, according to Gaines, he was not stating the testimony as it was. Every once in a while Gaines would jump up in his place and state that the gentleman was not stating the testimony as it was delivered, and again and again he thus interrupted and troubled Judge Johnson. At last the judge grew very nervous and irri- table under the interrupting reflections of the prosecuting attorney, and turning around from the jury to the court, he said, in hæc verba:
"May it please the court, I am much annoyed by the frequent interruptions and corruptions of the prosecu- ting attorney. He is like a sore pimple on that part of a man's body which is used most in sitting down-he is very small, but he is very annoying."
JUDGE JOHNSON ON NANCY FARRAR.
When the poisoner, Nancy Farrar, a long time ago, was being tried for murder in the first degree, and was being defended by lawyer Rutherford B. Hayes, now president of these United States, Judge Johnson was attending the court, and as the prisoner was being examined before the court and judge by the phrenological and anthropological witnesses as to her mental capacity, Johnson seemed to be very much interested. Nancy Farrar had a very peculiar head, and still more peculiar face. Her forehead was broad and low, her eyes very
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wide apart, and her nose looked like two noses joined together, and her mouth below that, was long and wide and protuberant, so that it looked really much like that of a catfish. Johnson heard the testimony of the phre- nologists and anthropologists, and then coming to the bench he said, sotto voce, "Judge, those learned doctors may testify as they like, but I have deliberately come to the conclusion, on proper inspection, that Nancy had for a father the god Jupiter, from her expansive os frontis, and for a mother, well, by her nose and mouth development, I should think, a mud catfish, and I am human and humane enough, not to hold her responsible as a human being, she being the product of a god and a catfish."
JUDGE JOHNSON AND JUDGE PIATT.
When Robert Warden resigned his place upon the bench of the Court of Common Pleas, a long time ago, Donn Piatt was appointed by the Governor of the State, as judge in the place of Warden, and there was much comment among the members of the bar as to what sort of a judge Piatt would make. On one occasion, in a coterie of lawyers, Judge Johnson was asked his opinion of the newly-appointed Judge. "Well," replied Judge Johnson, "I think the members of the bar have great occasion to congratulate themselves, for, as Piatt knows nothing of law, he will go upon the bench without any legal prejudices." The coterie of lawyers were entirely satisfied with the prospect, for they disliked judges of legal prejudices, and soon unprejudiced Judge Piatt mounted the bench with tolerable satisfaction.
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DONN PIATT AND THE BAR.
Lawyer Donn Piatt once quit the bar, and ceasing for the time to be a lawyer, went into the wholesale manufacturing of whisky-the very best of the oldest Bourbon. When expostulated with by some of his friends for deserting the bar, he said in all earnestness : " He had not deserted the bar, he loved the bar, and was so much attached to it that he concluded to go into a wholesale business to supply it, and the bars all over the State would be much better off, and the judges too-of good old Bourbon-for that matter." His friends ceased expostulation, knowing that Donn had the truth and the fact of it-almost.
LAWYER DONN PIATT AND THE ODIOUS TAX LAW.
Donn Piatt was in days of yore as full of wit and humor as any man at the bar, in addition to being a good lawyer, and for a time, a good judge. Donn was not a mere lawyer, he took part and parcel in a good many other good things. He was quite a politician. and he used to make an excellent stump speech, and the democrats were very fond of Donn. The Whigs of the legislature of 1842, being in a majority under the leadership of Hon. Alfred Kelly, of Columbus, then in the senate of Ohio, passed and established a most odious tax law, taxing all personal property of every body, and requiring every body to swear to their returns of property for taxation, and this for the first time in the history of the State of Ohio. The law was particularly and peculiarly odious and obnoxious to the hard-fisted democracy, and there was not a democrat, or a democratic newspaper in the State but condemned the Whig law, as an instrument of the vilest
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wide apart, and her nose looked like two noses joined together, and her mouth below that, was long and wide and protuberant, so that it looked really much like that of a catfish. Johnson heard the testimony of the phre- nologists and anthropologists, and then coming to the bench he said, sotto voce, "Judge, those learned doctors may testify as they like, but I have deliberately come to the conclusion, on proper inspection, that Nancy had for a father the god Jupiter, from her expansive os frontis, and for a mother, well, by her nose and mouth development, I should think, a mud catfish, and I am human and humane enough, not to hold her responsible as a human being, she being the product of a god and a catfish."
JUDGE JOHNSON AND JUDGE PIATT.
When Robert Warden resigned his place upon the bench of the Court of Common Pleas, a long time ago, Donn Piatt was appointed by the Governor of the State, as judge in the place of Warden, and there was much comment among the members of the bar as to what sort of a judge Piatt would make. On one occasion, in a coterie of lawyers, Judge Johnson was asked his opinion of the newly-appointed Judge. "Well," replied Judge Johnson, "I think the members of the bar have great occasion to congratulate themselves, for, as Piatt knows nothing of law, he will go upon the bench without any legal prejudices." The coterie of lawyers were entirely satisfied with the prospect, for they disliked judges of legal prejudices, and soon unprejudiced Judge Piatt mounted the bench with tolerable satisfaction.
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DONN PIATT AND THE BAR.
Lawyer Donn Piatt once quit the bar, and ceasing for the time to be a lawyer, went into the wholesale manufacturing of whisky-the very best of the oldest Bourbon. When expostulated with by some of his friends for deserting the bar, he said in all earnestness : " He had not deserted the bar, he loved the bar, and was so much attached to it that he concluded to go into a wholesale business to supply it, and the bars all over the State would be much better off, and the judges too-of good old Bourbon-for that matter." His friends ceased expostulation, knowing that Donn had the truth and the fact of it-almost.
LAWYER DONN PIATT AND THE ODIOUS TAX LAW.
Donn Piatt was in days of yore as full of wit and humor as any man at the bar, in addition to being a good lawyer, and for a time, a good judge. Donn was not a mere lawyer, he took part and parcel in a good many other good things. He was quite a politician. and he used to make an excellent stump speech, and the democrats were very fond of Donn. The Whigs of the legislature of 1842, being in a majority under the leadership of Hon. Alfred Kelly, of Columbus, then in the senate of Ohio, passed and established a most odious tax law, taxing all personal property of every body, and requiring every body to swear to their returns of property for taxation, and this for the first time in the history of the State of Ohio. The law was particularly and peculiarly odious and obnoxious to the hard-fisted democracy, and there was not a democrat, or a democratic newspaper in the State but condemned the Whig law, as an instrument of the vilest
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oppression and tyranny. They all said it opened a very wide gate for fraud and perjury. Donn was making a democratic stump speech, and he got upon the subject of the obnoxious and odious Whig tax law, and he said : "Look at this diabolical and abominable law, fellow citizens, why it appoints a tax assessor to come into your house and examine all you have got. One of these fellows came into the house of a female client of mine the other day, and looking under the bed and bedstead, after pulling up the valance of the bed and holding up his nose, he had the grossest imprudence and impudence to say to my female client, that 'there was a strong smell of fraud here.' Another instance, fellow citizens, one of these chaps came into the unfurnished room of a poor woman, and had the impertinence to ask her for a list of her goods and chattels. She said she had none. The tax man would not believe her, and insisted on knowing every thing she had, and at last began to denounce and threaten her with the law. The poor affrighted woman at last told the publican in very despair 'to look under the bed and bedstead, and if he wasn't an ass, there he would find all the assets she had got.' "The old woman had the tax-gatherer that time," continued Donn, " and she said the next time, that he would come around, she would give him such a set-to of assets with the broom- stick, that he would not come into her house again." The anecdotes so pleased the people, that Donn being too somewhat of an artist got up the famous lithographic political pictures, of the " Strong smell of fraud," and " All the assets I've got," and they had an immense political circulation throughout the whole State.
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LAWYERS KETCHUM AND HEADINGTON.
George Ketchum and Nicholas Headington, both good lawyers in the very late days of the old court house, were partners in the law, and the name of the firm " Ketchum & Headington, attorneys at law," glared out in blazing and blazon golden letters, before their office on Third street, in this city. There came a countryman from Colerain township into the city one day, and having like old Solon Shingle in the play, a celebrated cow case, he was hunting on Third street for lawyers to attend to his case. He read many of the signs of the lawyers, but none of them exactly suiting him, he finally discoverd the sign of Ketchum & Headington, and he read it aloud to himself, " Ketch'em and Head'em-in-town, attorneys at law-them's the fellers," and he went into their office and employed our friends George and Nick, not old Nick, for both were then young in the law and in age, for his cow case.
JUDGE HEADINGTON AND THE CONTUMACIOUS CONVICT.
Lawyer Headington-once partner of George Ketch- um, the clever lawyer and gentleman-became judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was particularly dis- tinguished for a blonde, sandy complexion and flaming red hair, and inflammable brains underneath it, - as this story will show, somewhat to his discredit, perhaps. It was sentence day in court-a bad, irritating and irritable day, to a criminal judge to be sure,-and the judge had sentenced a number of prisoners to the penitentiary for various terms of years. At last he came to a contumacious burglar by the name of Hayman. The convict was bidden by the sheriff to stand up in the prisoner's box, and asked
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by the court if he had anything to say why the sentence of the court should not be passed upon him. The prisoner gruffly and sullenly replied that " he had nothing to say, but he was not guilty !" The judge said to him the evidence plainly showed his guilt, and that he was a bad man and had committed a bad crime, and he severely lectured him ; and then he sentenced him to the peniten- tiary at hard labor for five years.
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