USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 27
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Stalee-" The devil !"
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And with this he suddenly left his place and the court room, and went immediately over to the jail on Sycamore street, hurrying as fast as he could, and, arriving at the jail, he thus addressed the turnkey : "Mister Jailer, the court now orders the discharge of that inebriated individ- ual whom I brought over here for being drunk in con- tempt of court, some weeks ago."
"All right," said the turnkey, and he and Stalee went back into the jail after turning the big key, and, unlocking the big iron-grated door, there they found the poor fellow, dirty and slovenly for want of a change of clothing, but most thoroughly and completely eradicated from liquor, and entirely sober, and Stalee said to him : "The court thinks you have been in jail long enough, Mr. Mc-, and now orders me to discharge you." The poor man, evidently running over with thanks for small favors, meekly replied : "Thank you, sir, and the court, too. I am glad to get out of this." And so Stalee took the man out of jail into the free and open air, and told him to go home and " say nothing about it." The man did not require this wholesome advice from Stalee. He wouldn't have told any of his folks where he had been for the world, and to this day they perhaps, have never been informed. The jailed man luckily was an unmar- ried man, but he told what folks he had, that he had taken a trip to the lakes, and had enjoyed himself very much ; and he, if he is now living, does not know of the wrong done him innocently and unintentionally, by dutiful Sta- lee, who thought sure that the order of the court was to put the drunken man in jail. Stalee did not say a word to the court after he released the ignorant and uncon- scious man from jail, till a long time afterward, when he remarked to me, casually, "That man was all right; he
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had put him out of jail, and now, every time he met him on the streets, he always made a bow to him (Stalee) and repeated his thanks for releasing him from that loathsome place," where he was confined for so long a period of five weeks, and he (Stalee) now never said a single word to him about the misventure, but let him remain in his hap- piness on account of his final release. Well, Stalee knew that if the man was informed, a suit of heavy damages against him on the civil side of the court might have been the result, so he prudently and wisely said nothing about his great mistake in wrongly interpreting the order of the court.
STALEE'S DEATH BY SUICIDE !
But I must narrate as a finale, this sad, serious and fearful recollection. This queer, quaint, singular, eccen- tric and erratic old genius, known and beloved by every judge upon the bench and every member of the bar, this faithful, sincere, honest, and diligent and dutiful good old man, ended his days by his own hand! Who could have thought it? Who could have dreamed it? Yet, so it was. He died by poison administered to himself by his own hand. Surely we know not of the troubles the heart of our neighbor bears. Who can tell the deep, deep, con- cealed sorrows of another? To the world, Stalee was all apparent joy and gladness ; to himself, a burden which could not be borne. Up to eleven o'clock of the morning of the day of his death, he was scrupulously and diligently attending to his duties as deputy sheriff in my court. Just before that hour, the case on before the court requir- ing the presence of lawyer Mitchell, I sent him to the door of the court house to call the lawyer, I heard him from the bench call out loudly, "Thomas G. Mitchell-
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Thomas G. Mitchell -Thomas G. Mitchell, Esquire." And that was the last duty he ever performed in or out of court. After this duty he came before the bench, to me, and said : "Judge, I wish to be absent from the court house for a while. I desire to go to my home, as I don't feel very well, and rest awhile, if you will "permit me." "Certainly," said I, "friend Stalee, if you don't feel right, go right home and stay so long as you please and get yourself well." He then thanked me, got his hat, and went out of the court room, and that was the last in this life that the members of the bar ever saw of poor, mortal Stalee. It seems that, on leaving the court room and court house, he plodded his weary way towards his home, situated on Race street, just above and adjoining what is now Washington Park, then a grave-yard, and its nearness very suggestive, no doubt, to our old friend ; and stopping at a drug store on his way, he purchased a quantity of morphine, took it to his home, mingled it with a pint of milk, in his chamber at his home, and drank it down, swallowing it all at once, and laid himself on his own bed, and before one o'clock in the afternoon, he was a corpse. The sad news was immediately con- veyed to me, just as I had the court opened in the after- noon after recess, and I announced it to the bar and ad- journed the court, and repaired at once to the house of Stalee, and there I found his purple and livid body, a cold corpse, stretched at full length upon his bed, and there, over those remains, I shed tears profuse, and full of questioning woe.
" Alas! poor Yorick, I knew him well, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, Of most excellent fancy."
Of course, the body of this good man, so well thought of and remembered, was followed to the grave
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at his funeral by the judges, and the lawyers, and the officers of the court, and a large concourse of his fellow- citizens, notwithstanding this his own last unfortunate and fatal act, and every one at the grave thought, if they did not exclaim aloud, ".Requiescat in pace," and all who knew him, afterwards preserved peaceful and permanent memory of him. He was a good man, of untarnished character, and as an officer, has never been excelled in the execution of official, ministerial duty. He was pecu- liar, eccentric, and sometimes erratic, but his peculiari- ties, eccentricities, and errors seldom or never did any harm to any person either in or out of court. At last, he who had been serving summonses nearly all his life, was himself served-indeed, served himself-with an impera- tive summons for his immediate presence in a higher court. And may we not think of him, and ardently wish of him, that he is still engaged in the performance of uses much higher and greater than those he performed on earth? He died upward of three score years of age, and it seems that his long experience had so disgusted him with this life, that with his own hand he felt himself called upon to put an end to it. But for this, we shall not judge him-we can not, for we are not wise judges of one another. Who can wisely judge his neighbor in this life?
THE PATIENT LAWYER, AND THE SLEEPY, HOLLOW, SLEEPING AND SNORING COURT.
There was a long and tedious case pending in court, the noted case of Hepworth vs. Longworth, and the arguments of the veteran lawyers engaged, were long, dry and tedious, for they were all upon the siccum legem, and of course required nothing for their elimination or illumination, but Lord Bacon's siccum lumen. Lawyer
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Fox was in his prolix though substantial argument, and Judge Johnston was upon the bench, the famous judge, one of whose chief boasts in life, it used to be, that he was born and reared on "Yaller Creek and its mean- derings " in Eastern Ohio. Lawyer Fox argued, and argued, and argued, and the judge listened, and listened, and nodded, and nodded, which the able lawyer at first accepted as assents and assenting to his own learned and bright legal propositions, and of course he glowingly and gloryingly proceeded. But the repeated nods and noddings of the court, were but "the prologue to the swelling act" of a profound sleep, and at last, with his- arms a-kimbo, and resting upon them on the plane of the bench, the judge leaning his head close down upon them positively slept, and snored. The veteran lawyer now stopped suddenly in his speech, and the sudden cessation of the monotonous and sleepy moaning running of the arguing mill, as suddenly awoke the judge, and he gathering himself together, and rubbing his eyes-ex- claimed, "go on Mister Fox, go on, what did you stop for?"
Lawyer .- "I stopped because the court was taking a nap, and I thought I would wait until the court's nap was out. I flattered myself all along, that I was addressing the attentively listening judge from Yaller Creek, but I timely found, that I was arguing my case to Rip Van Winkle of Sleepy Hollow ! and I thought I would wait until he 'swored' or snored off !! "
Court-"Go on-go on-go on Mister Fox with your able and interesting argument, and reserve your smart, personal reflections for some other better occasion, when the court will be amused, and laugh !" The lawyer went on, and the court slept no more. Like Macbeth,
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the learned counselor had murdered the sleep of the Yaller Creek judge, and he slept no more! and there was considerable boisterous and laughing wakefulness in the court room, which much aided and abetted the ensu- ing wakefulness of the now attentive and wakeful court!
LAWYERS JONES, AND APPLEGATE, AND THE OLD COURT.
Two sober-minded, sober-sided, and sober-tongued, lawyers, were Jerry Jones, and John Applegate. They were not either of them very profound lawyers, but they made their way by dint of hard pleading, and hard plod- ding. They were engaged on opposite sides, in quite a case before the old court, one day ;- and the case was full of fine law points, which bothered them, and the court, on account of their botheration, a great deal more. At last, as sober-sided as they both were, they became somewhat exasperated at each other, and indulged in some rather gross personalities. Finally said Applegate : " I will undertake to lay down the law of this case to brother Jones, in a way that he does not like." This roused Jerry, from his seat, and he suddenly arose and declared in much excitement. "I would like to know, how the gentleman is going to lay down the law to me. Why, may it please the court ; in the whole course of his law practice, I never knew him to pick up any law-and I would like to know, how in the name of law, he is going to lay down any law to me ! That's what I'd like to know."
The Court-" Gentlemen, let us take care of that. We are the proper persons to pick up, and lay down the law of this case, and we will take care, that we do it, for both of you!"'
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LAWYER DICK CORWINE AND THE EXCITED AND RESPONSIVE IRISH JUROR.
Lawyer Richard M. Corwine was a showy fellow in the law, and out of it. There was no man that I know of who could make more favorable first impressions upon his fellows, and particularly strangers, than Dick Cor- wine, and it was a common remark that nobody was ever introduced to Dick, and enjoyed the pleasure of a slight acquaintance with him, but who thought him a great man, and he really did have a great deal of merit, and was a good lawyer, and an eloquent advocate. He was once a partner of Oliver M. Spencer, who was so dis- tinguished a judge of the new Superior Court, and he too was once a senior partner in the practice of the law, of Rutherford B. Hayes, who is now the President of the United States, the firm being Corwine & Hayes. Well, Dick was decidedly an eloquent advocate before a jury. He was once counsel and advocate in a criminal murder case, and the defense he set up for his client was " se defendendo" or " se offendendo" as Shakespeare's grave- digger has it-self defense-and in the progress of the trial, he had witnesses to prove it too. It came the time for Dick's argument, and great speech to the jury, and he waxed exceeding eloquent, and he got the jury in sympathy with him almost to fever heat, and he was about to conclude, and he vociferously declaimed : " Gentlemen of the jury-now put yourselves in the place of my client-he, a small diminutive man, and the deceased, a great, brawny, stalwart butcher, who rushed upon my client with the ferocity of a lion or a tiger, with a large butcher or bowie knife in his uplifted right hand, and would have cut his heart out then and there, if my
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client had not prevented him by shooting and killing him on the spot. Under such circumstances, what would you all have done, gentlemen of the jury? I say, what-what would you have done?" Here Corwine noticed the only Irishman of the jury in a high state of nervous sympa- thetic excitement, very uneasy in his chair, and turning suddenly to the Irishman, the excited orator boldly and loudly . proclaimed : "My friend from Ireland, what would you have done under circumstances like these? What-what would you have done?" The Irish juror could stand it, or rather sit it out no longer, he sprang from his seat in the jury box, and flinging up his arms and hands in a flush of terrible excitement, he screamed out, in response to the orator : " Shot the d-d spalpeen, on the spot, by the eternal thunder !"
This was enough-this was a wonderful triumph, and the eloquent advocate said not another word, but sat down, and left the case, and the fate of his client to the mercies of the twelve jurors, who, after the charge of the court, retired to their room, and soon afterwards brought in a verdict of NOT GUILTY! and Corwine and his client rejoiced in great joy !
LAWYERS EELS AND TOM GALLAGHER.
Samuel Eels was an early young lawyer, and Tom Gallagher not so early, but quite up to snuff when he was in a corner. Lawyer Eels, from the East, and of east- ern education as he was, prided himself mostly on his respectful and dignified manners and ways, at the bar, while Tom Gallagher, of Irish descent, if not Irish born, cared little or nothing about those things. When he went into a case in his Irish bull way, or his bull Irish way, he went in to win, and no matter, without a why
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or a wherefore. He and Eels were on opposite sides engaged in a hard, knotty case, and naughty Gallagher did not care a whit for the dignity of lawyer Eels, and thought he was putting on too many airs, and he resolved to comb him down at the very first opportunity. Eels had much more knowledge of the law than Gallagher, and Gallagher had sufficient knowledge of law, to know this. Eels would raise fine, very fine legal points from time to time upon Gallagher, until even his Irish wit was at a great loss to reply to dignified Eels, or even understand- ingly keep up with his continued raising of legal objec- jections. At last, lawyer Tom, in absolute despair, made a direct appeal to the court, and said-"May it please the court, my learned, and smooth, and oily opponent makes entirely too much stir in these legal waters, he reminds me of his snaky, squirming brothers in the waters-nay, he appears to me a great deal more slippery than eels. He turns, and squirms about so much that it is impossible to hold him-I mean, to the case. He is worse than eels."
Court-" Mister Gallagher we cannot see it so. If we are allowed to suggest, we think, in the conduct of this case, you are very much more squirming, if not more slippery-than-Eels.
THE BROTHERS, LARZ AND CHARLES ANDERSON.
Lawyer Larz Anderson belonged to the bar of the old court house-but having married a daughter of the millionaire Nicholas Longworth-he gave little or no attention to law except as it concerned the affairs of Mr. Longworth's large estate. Larz Anderson was a good lawyer, however, and a polished gentleman, and was much liked by the old members of the bar. His brother Charles,
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whom I knew as a fellow student at Miami University, became quite a distinguished lawyer as well as a polished gentleman ; and also became of some account in politics, and was once elected by the people of Ohio, as their lieutenant-governor. They were both Kentuckians, but came to this city in young age, and settled permanently among us. Charles was much given to the drama, and at a great benefit for the poor of Cincinnati in the month of February, 1855, he appeared in the character of Hamlet, enacting the scenes of the third act. This was at the old National Theatre of this city. Some ten years after this, at another benefit for the poor, given at Pike's Opera House, he enacted the whole of Hamlet, with great approbation and eclat. So that it was well said of him, he was as fit for the winsome walks of the drama as he was for the perilous paths of the law. In either capacity, as lawyer or actor, he acted well his part and there the honor laid, and it used to be said of him, he was a first rate actor in both professions-law and the drama-notwithstanding an indignant adversary advocate in a case in court-once, directly pointed at him before the court and jury-and proclaimed by way of manifest- ing some contempt for the way he managed his cause. "Lo! the poor actor!" But Charles Anderson was a good lawyer as well as good actor, and a gentleman in every sense of the term.
LAWYER COFFIN AND HIS DEFEATED OPPONENT.
Lawyer Charles D. Coffin, having come to this city to practice law, in the year 1842, was a member of the old bar of the old court house, and an excellent one. He recently died at the advanced age of seventy-six years, and, during his long life, possessed of such equanimity
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as he was, he never gave offense to any one, or received offense from any one. He was here, lawyer and (twice,) judge of the old and new Superior Court, and as both or either, he was always the inoffensive gentleman. His name was the only thing about him which afforded any sort of pretext for even repartee against him, and this never offensively. On one occasion, I remember, a dis- tinguished lawyer was unsuccessful in a case tried by him and lawyer Coffin, and he was quite sore over his defeat, and, when twitted about his having been beaten by Coffin, he remarked, "Yes, I was beaten,-but it was not my fault ; and it did seem to me that I was trying that case in a graveyard-that my death knell had come long be- fore I got through, and when we did get through I found all my efforts were buried by, if not in, a splendidly pol- ished Coffin !"
LAWYER POWELL AND HIS ALMIGHTY AMBITION.
Lawyer Thomas (General Thomas) Powell was a curious example and specimen of unrewarded ambition. He was but a very young lawyer of the old court house, having come to its bar in its last days. But he came to the bar with the ambition of a Napoleon Bonaparte, and expected to conquer or die. He was tolerably able, as well as ambitious, and by appointment, he made once a pretty good assistant prosecuting attorney, for a single term of court. He was at divers times, a candidate for the legislature, and at all times a candidate for anything, and everything. Governor Reuben Wood did appoint him once, his Adjutant-General of the militia of the State- and this was how, he became, and was called General Tom-and he was as mighty as General Tom Thumb, and much mightier with the sword, than with the law or
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the pen, and not mighty in either, or all. Lawyer War- den was talking with General Tom one day when the latter, then quite a young man, was going to offer him- self, for no one else would do it, as a candidate for judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio, before the Democratic State Convention, convening at Columbus. Warden expostulated with Powell, and told him, he was too young to be a judge, particularly of the Supreme Court of the State.
"No matter about age," rejoined Powell, " all great things are accomplished in young, energetic age."
" But you are too ambitious, General ; you ought to abide your time."
" No time like the present for success," replied the young adjutant-general of the militia. Warden was quite out of patience, and he said to the very ambitious lawyer-general.
"Why, General, I do believe you would be a candi- date for President of the United States, if you had but a single proposition."
"Wouldn't I, though," said overleaping, ambitious Tom, "wouldn't I, though; you just suggest it, and I will be a candidate in a minute."
Exasperated Warden again urged-" Why, I believe you are prepared to take the place of the Almighty, if he called you." This was by no means a stumper to Tom, for he replied :
"Just let the Almighty make the call-I will at once respond-see if I don't."
HOW THE IRISH LAWYER GOT HIS CLIENT OFF.
There was an Irishman indicted for murder in the second degree, killing another purposely and maliciously
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but without deliberation or premeditation. The murder occurred on Plum street, in this city, and was a plain case of manslaughter at least, by the testimony in the case. It was in the year 1848, that the trial took place before the old Court of Common Pleas, and a jury-just after the Mexican war-and it was noticed by the prosecuting attorney, during the trial, that the prisoner at bar, was . dressed in a military suit and soldier cap of the volunteers of the Mexican war, while his curiously eloquent lawyer, contrived to make a great parade of him in uniform, though not with timely uniformity, before the court and the jury. The testimony was through, plainly convicting the man, be he soldier or what not, and the prosecuting attorney did not think it worth while to occupy much time in his arguments. But not so with the Erin go-brag attorney, he occupied nearly the whole day with his rambling, disjointed, scattered, inherent, and incoherent Irish speech to the jury. The prosecuting attorney interrupted him every once in a while for misstatements of law and fact, but finally got tired of it, relying upon the good sense of the jury to correct the Irish blunders and mistakes. At last the Irish orator neared the end of his speech, and he thus concluded to the jury, all sympathizers, it seemed, with the Mexican war, and the brave Mexican volunteers, who left their home and country to fight for their country, against a foreign foe.
"Gintlemen of this intilligent jury, my client was a Mixican volunteer. He is now forninst you in his military garments, in which he preceded the army of Gineral Winfield Scott, and climbing the wall of the beautiful city of Mixico, erected a hole in the aforesaid wall, and in that hole so erected, erected the pole and flag of the Star- Spangled Banner, which now first floated to the breeze
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on the walls and in the halls of the Montezumas. You will not, before Almighty God, I am sure, retire into your paceful room, and then and there, convict such a notable Montezumean !" And the Irish attorney took his seat, in sort of Irish triumph. The prosecuting attorney mis- interpreting the intelligence of the jury, took no notice of the blundering Irish oratory in his closing speech, and the court charged the jury, and the jury went to their room, and soon returned with a verdict of " not guilty," to the surprise of court, bar, witnesses, and the crowded audience, and to the positive amazement of the Irish lawyer himself, and his client.
Moral :- Never trust too much to the intelligence of a jury, there may be, if not a cat, a Mexican volunteer in the meal.
A CURIOUS INDICTMENT.
Among the old indictments of the old court house of a very-very long time ago-was one charging one Nicholas Bealer with the crime of adultery, charging him with "then and there deserting his wife, and then and there, having carnal intercourse with a certain Ann, otherwise called Nancy Wiggins, to-wit: at a certain fixed locality, upon the banks of Duck creek, and all the meanderings thereof, in the township of Columbia, in the county of Hamilton aforesaid." A good indictment if one could prove it all, as laid. The Venus if not the venue, was well laid on.
A CURIOUS RAPE CASE BEFORE THE GRAND JURY.
There came a German female (if that is not a paradox) into the private office of the prosecuting attorney one day, and bitterly complained of a man for committing
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a rape upon her, and she wanted the man indicted and prosecuted, and sent to the penitentiary. The prosecut- ing attorney examined and cross-examined the woman, and in short, found from her own statements that really, no rape had been committed. It was one of those cases which Ben Fessenden used to say in court, was a case of rapee, because the woman was up to snuff, and not a case of force and violence, and against the will. The prosecuting officer accordingly advised the woman that she had no case, and she must not go before the grand jury, unless she could make out a stronger case, and the woman left the office. Soon afterwards the grand jury was in session, and from day to day, were engaged in examining witnesses, and finding true bills of indictments. One day, the prosecuting attorney, after getting through with some important business in court, went up into the grand jury room of the old court house, and as he came in, the foreman of the grand jury announced to him, that they had just found by an unanimous vote, a true bill of indictment against a German man, (naming him) for the horrible crime of rape, and it was certainly one of the most horrible cases they had heard of in the whole course of their lives. The prosecuting attorney inquired about the woman witness, and soon found that she was the woman who had been in his office, and he then and there told the grand jury, that there must be some great mis- take about this. He immediately sent deputy sheriff Stalee, to look up the witness, and bring her back to the grand jury room. No sooner said than obeyed with Stalee, and the German woman was brought back. And now the prosecuting attorney proceeded to cross-question her before the grand jury, and he did it closely and sharply, and showed that she had been at his office, and
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