USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 5
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Then standing on the distant hill, With boyborn fancies wand'ring free, I saw no specter'd form of ill Rise in the bright futurity; But.all, instead, was joyous, clear, Buoyant with hope, untouched with fear.
O, these were boyhood's cloudless hours, And sweet on wings unsullied flew. But·pride soon dream'd of loftier bowers, And wealth her golden luster threw O'er tempting scenes, as false as fair, And bade' my spirit seek her there.
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And I have sought her-nor in vain, I might have piled her treasures high, But that I scorned her sordid reign And turned me from her soulless eye, I could not delve her dirty mine,
And would not worship at her shrine.
I would not stoop to flatter power, For any vile or selfish end ;
I would not change with every hour My faith, my feelings, or my friend, And least of all would I intrust My hopes to the accursed dust.
The God that reared the woodland heights, And spread the flow'ry valleys wide, And waked within my mind delights That spurn the lures of human pride, Did stern forbid in accents known, To worship aught beneath His throne.
'CHARLEY HAMMOND' AND HIS TEMPERANCE SPEECH.
I remember a pretty good thing in tradition, about editor, and lawyer, and orator Hammond, which, though just a little at his expense, I feel bound to tell. In 1841 or '42, when the great Washingtonian Temperance move- ment was exciting and exercising all the people of this country, editor Hammond became very much enlisted in the cause in the columns of his very influential paper ; and day after day he gave his editorial influence to the spread of the great movement.
Now Charley Hammond had all of his life, been in the habit, as all Western men were, in those early days, of taking a "drop of the critter" once in a while, and he used to do this openly, and above board. When his paper poured forth maledictions on intemperance, and encouragements for the Washington- ians, he did not forego his own Bourbon, individually and personally. But he happened in at a Washingtonian temperance mass meeting, one night, at the great hall in
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the south side of the old Cincinnati College building, and being perceived by the audience, he was called upon for a speech. He at once obeyed the unanimous call, and mounted the elevated platform, and made one of the very best and most eloquent temperance speeches, to the great satisfaction and gratification of the great audience. After he got through, he was much congratulated by his friends for the success of his speech ; and with a few of his intimates he left the meeting, and getting into the street, in the dark, he slyly observed to some of them : "There is a time for all things ; there is a time for tem- perance speeches, and there is time for a good practical drink, and this time has now come. So come, let's go around to the " Bill Tell " and take a drink. The famous " Bill Tell " coffee house was situated on the same square, around the corner on Fifth street. Those in his confi- dence, accepted the invitation, one of them observing however : " if we go to the ' Bill Tell,' somebody will tell on us."
"No matter for that," replied Hammond, "shall I not take mine ease at mine inn"-"because thou art virtuous, shall we have no more cakes and ale?"
And they went to the "Bill Tell" and they took a drink of Bourbon, and as appears, somebody did tell, on them.
THE WASHINGTONIAN JUDGE, AND THE TAVERN KEEPER, AND LAWYER MILT MCLAIN.
During the Washingtonian Temperance excitement among the people, following the drinking orgies of the hard cider campaign of 1840, for the election of Tip- pecanoe and Tyler too, by way of tremendous reaction, it became somewhat a hard and difficult matter for tavern
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keepers to obtain a renewal of their licenses for keeping tavern, and selling liquor, from the old associate judges of the Court of Common Pleas, who had been in the habit under the law, of granting those licenses :- and unless a man making application to the court, was proven beyond all doubt, to be a man of good, moral character, he could not obtain a license at all, from the court.
At one time a good old tavern keeper, away out in Whitewater Township, petitioned the Court for a renewal of his license, to keep tavern and sell liquor for another year; and so well known was he for good moral character, which he could abundantly prove by all his neighbors, that he felt cock sure of getting his license, notwithstanding the Washingtonian Temperance excite- ment among the people. So he appeared in court, with all his neighbors to back him in good moral character, and the assistance of that wiry advocate and lawyer, Milton McLain, who exerted all his earnest energy and active ability for his client.
The three associate judges were upon the bench, and holding court, and Judge Morse, the senior asso- ciate presided, and he had become an emphatic, positive, and distinctive, declared Washingtonian. The other two associates, though not declared Washingtonians, were nevertheless under the influence-not of old Bourbon- but of the new Washingtonianism of the times ; and they were quite prepared to follow in the wake of their senior brother in the matter of granting or rather not granting, licenses to sell liquor. Lawyer McLain for his client pre- sented the petition with some considerate remarks to the court, and then proceeded to examine his host of witnesses on the good moral character of his client, and proved by
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many neighbors; the excellent good moral character of his client clear beyond what he expected. It was the day in court for hearing applications for tavern licenses, and many applicants, also of good moral character, were present in court, with their witnesses, awaiting the result of the application of our good moral Whitewater friend and fellow citizen, in most patient expectation. The case through with testimony, lawyer McLean addressed the associate judges eloquently on the excellent good moral character he had proved for his client, and in triumph exclaimed, that " there was not a man in the whole county, who could prove, and by so many witnesses, such an excel- lent good moral character as his client and himself had done," and sat down, and confidently, and with much assurance, waited results. The two end associate judges laid their heads together, and at last nodded assent to their presiding senior Judge Morse, who finally braced himself and looking carefully about, and around, said with grave, and sober and serious unction in extended nasal tones : " The court have agreed unanimously to decline and refuse this application for a tavern license. We think that the applicant from Whitewater Township, has proven himself to be entirely too good a moral man, to be engaged in selling whisky!
What a start, to lawyer and client ! What an alarm and amazement, to the hundred applicants, of good moral character, in attendance on court ! What an obstruction to further business ! What a stopper to the bottle !! The tavern keepers all left the court room, in single file,-one by one.
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LAWYER MILT. McLAIN, AND THE IRISH WITNESS.
In an important case of homicide, on trial in the old Court of Common Pleas, it became on the evidence, a matter of grave doubt, as to whether the killing of the victim by the prisoner, was in self defense, or not; and therefore as in all doubtful criminal cases, the character of the defendant for peace and quietness, became a matter of the utmost consequence. The defendant was a born Irishman, and had a good many Irish friends, and they were present to prove his character. The testimony for the State being through, lawyer Milt. McLain, counsel for the prisoner, called Barney O'Grady to the witness stand, and Barney O'Grady was duly sworn. He was a great, burly, raw-boned Irishman, recently from the land of Erin go Bragh.
Lawyer-"Well, Mister O'Grady, do you know Michael Lafferty?"
Witness-" Well, begorra, I do !"
Lawyer-" Do you know his character for peace and quietness?"
Witness- " His char-ac-ter, begorra-for pace and quietude-did your honor say?"
Lawyer-" Yes, for peace and quietness ; his charac- ter?"
Witness-"For pace and quietness? Begorra, his char-ac-ter is as good as your'n or any other spalpeen ! Be jabers, that's what it is, any day !"
Lawyer-"Don't be excited Mister O'Grady, you are on the witness stand, and you mustn't swear, or call names."
Witness-"I won't, begorra, your honor! but I didn't swear, or call names-I spaked for my frind."
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Lawyer-"' Well, tell us the char-ac-ter, of Michael Lafferty?"
Witness-"Well, my frind Mike Lafferty is a bully boy, that's his char-ac-ter ; a rale bully fellow, and for pace and quietness, he is paceful as a droomdary and as quiet as a babby. I seen him once in the ould counthry, at Donnybrook fair, and wid his shillelah he cracked the brains of everybody foreninst him, but nary a bit did he strike his frinds, begorra. He was as paceful as a droomedary, and quiet as a babby, begorra !"
Milt. McLain dismissed the witness from the stand.
LAWYER WYKOFF PIATT, AND THE PREACHERS, AND THE WASHINGTONIANS, AND HIS TEMPERANCE ORATION ! AND THE DEMOCRATS !
A singular, unique, positive, eccentric, and erratic genius at the bar in days of yore, was J. Wykoff Piatt, Esq. Of all singular men and lawyers, he was perhaps the most singular. He was a good lawyer, learned and practical, and was always ready to attend to any case at any time and anywhere-before a magistrate, arbitrators or before the court-in his office, in the tavern, in the street, on the river, on the canal, or at his home. With all this, he was gifted with curious and very attractive eloquence. He was an orator in Piatt's way. You should have seen him at the bar, on the rostrum, in the forum, or on the stump. It was all one to him. He always knew and understood himself, and was always prepared to do his duty-or otherwise! He had a very high pitched tone of voice: something running off into the screaming falsetto. It was neither tenor, alto, nor contralto, but it was all these mixed with bari- tone, and deep bass sometimes, although I believe in my
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heart he would have scorned base uses of it. He was fully six feet high, tall and slim, with full and rugged features, darkened with black, shaggy eyebrows and raven black hair flowing over his forehead in fussy, silken lines, when he was speaking. He looked some- thing like an Indian, and often acted like a savage-like an unmitigated war-whooper. Indeed, on all occasions he was a good actor to a purpose, and never failed to give full satisfaction to himself and to his audiences. He would commence in his high-toned voice, and soon develop, by his volubility, that he was no common talker or orator. He would prolong a sentence by a slow nasal twang ; he would stop in the midst of a sentence and give a snort and a blow with his mouth and nose, and proceed again ; he would stand still ; he would move about, anywhere and everywhere, and sling his arms to every point of the compass, and then he would turn round and round, until you would begin to think that he was an animated spinning-top, and all at once he would subside, and with his snort and his blow, and his piping tenor or falsetto and gruff bass all mixed up, he would pause-not for reply, but to get strength to go on again -.. and thus he would keep it up until from very exhaustion he would give up the ghost of his eloquence.
This was J. Wykoff Piatt, Esq. He was man, law- yer, and politician-a democrat, a thorough democrat, a great democrat, a unique and all-pervading democrat, and had wonderful influence in, around, and with and through the democratic party. Indeed, for many years he was the distinctive and acknowledged leader of the democrats of Hamilton county, and he rejoiced in it, wallowed in the joy of it. The democrats thought, hunt the world over, there was nobody alive, like Piatt ! He
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was the true blue and the bully boy ! the b'hoy of b'hoys -a regular schemer and screamer.
When about the year. 1840, after the hard-cider campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" had been gone through and the battle won, the great Washing- tonian Temperance movement, as a great reaction from hard cider and rum, seemed to take possession of the people of this country, Piatt was a power among the boys of the democracy, who flourished in great and abiding numbers in this county. The Washingtonian movement reached Cincinnati, and was a grand success ! The pious people were in it-the preachers were in the movement, the doctors, the lawyers, and the whig poli- ticians ; but the democratic politicians had not succumbed as yet, as they "never- hardly ever" did. They were then, and always, for uncontracted and uncontrolled free- dom in whisky, as in all things. How to get the demo- crats enlisted in the progressive and progressing cause- that was the question. With the preachers of the city, and some of the good deacons, it was at last solved-the problem was demonstrated-quod erat demonstrandum! It was resolved by all orthodoxy that Piatt, the leader and the great orator, should be invited, and enlisted in the great cause, if possible and practicable. Accordingly the leader was seen, and he was coaxed, and cajoled, and wheedled by the preachers and deacons, but for a long time his conversion was not a success ; indeed, “a damned defeat" was experienced. The preachers laid aside their pulpit and their church ways, to persuade Piatt, for they felt confident and well assured that if Piatt would speak in their cause the numerous hordes of the democracy would be with them, and would be saved for all purposes. They again approached Piatt with num-
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bers and great influence, and so insidiously plied the orator and leader that he at last yielded his reluctant and most unwilling consent to hold forth for them. All completely aroused, the next morning newspapers of the city announced in double-leaded lines, and great flaming posters, pasted upon every vacant space in the city, pro- claimed that there would be " a grand Washingtonian mass-meeting at the court house next Saturday night, and the people would be addressed by the people's great democratic orator, J. Wykoff Piatt, Esq. !!! " and these posters flashed with the large printed names of almost all the leading, demure, and sober citizens of the city, who, hearing that Piatt was engaged, were anxious to append their signatures to the loud-blazoned call. Sat- urday night came, and the old Court of Common Pleas room of the old court house was more than thronged with masses of citizen-on the floor, in the bar, on the bench, and in the gallery, every place was full of people. Inside the bar, just before the bench and behind the lawyers' great long table, sat the preachers of the city., all in a row, to give color and encouragement by their presence and smiles, if need be, to the grand orator of the night. One of our chief citizens was called upon to preside, and vice-presidents and secretaries too numer- ous to mention, were duly nominated and appointed by the meeting, for in those days the meetings did these things themselves, and were not instructed or commanded by committees of any sort or kind whatsoever.
Meeting duly organized and all things ready, Mr. Piatt, in brass coat and blue buttons, was introduced by the president on the bench of the Common Pleas, and he took his majestic stand before the assembled people the great majority of whom were unterrified democrats of
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the true blue, and no mistake, who came to hear Piatt, and see what the great democrat could have to say in behalf of the stringent and tyrannical temperance move- ment. With a great snort and a great blow and a fume, and with very high pitched tone of voice, Piatt com- menced his "F-e-l-l-o-w C-i-t-i-z-e-n-s!" in his own inimitable style. He told them that for himself, he had always been a temperance man. Nobody had ever seen him under the influence of liquor, he never was drunk, and therefore in heart and soul he was with them in this great temperance movement, which, beginning in the East, was now sweeping the mighty West, and he went on, and he went on, and he went on, and he went on, and he snorted and he blowed, and he fumed and he foamed, and he moved round and round, and he flung his arms and hands in all directions-up, down, right, and left ; but though he had now consumed about three- quarters of an hour in talk, and all this grimace and manifestation, not a single bit, not one iota of applause did he get from the crowd, except from the black-coated and white-necktied, and long-faced deacons and preach- ers in a long row before him. Piatt wondered at this, and sometimes hesitated in his falsetto. He was used to being received with great acclaim, and applauded and applauded again, by voice, hands, and feet, to the very echo. What was all this? No cheers, no clapping of hands, no stamping of feet to enthuse and inflame the orator ! What was the meaning of all this? Piatt had not been used to this kind of treatment-never before ! What was the matter? The silent and stolid, unterrified democrats who made up the assembly for their orator, stood dumb, stock still, and not one sign of approval or encouragment from them. Piatt was confused, abashed
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and discouraged, but he proceeded on slowly, hesitat- ingly, and somewhat bunglingly. At last he bawled out in piping, fife-sounding notes : "Those against this great temperance cause are in the habit of appealing to the Scriptures for the justification of their whisky imbibing, and dram drinking, and they think they triumphantly point us to the example of the great Saint Paul, who told his fellow Timothy ' to use a little wine for his stomach's. sake.' "
Just at this very instant a democrat of the old school, a big, burly, boisterous butcher boy-a man of the pri- maries-came into the door of the court room, and with his ears catching the last part of the sentence of Piatt's screeching voice, " use a little wine for thy stomach's sake," and thinking, convivial as he was, that Piatt was now advocating the great cause of whisky, and wine, and democracy, broke out with stentorian lungs, and voice of force of thunder: "Go it, Piatt! Give these temperance fellars h-ll !! " This was enough, this was the master stroke ; the democracy were for the first time of the evening stirred and awakened, and cheer after cheer, shout after shout, and hurrah after hurrah, went up and made the old court room, and the very welkin ring. This was the first universal break-out of applause, and this was quite enough to show and convince Piatt at once where the sentiment of that meeting was, and he turned round and round, and he snorted and he blowed, and he fumed and he foamed again, and he faced about and about, and slung his arms and his hands, and at last exclaimed, in screaming and screeching tones, louder than any fife or piccolo the world has known :
" Ah yes, my fellow-citizens-my fellow d-e-m-o- c-r-a-t-s !- and the good Saint Paul was right- right-
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all right ; use a little wine for your stomach's sake, f-e-l- l-o-w c-i-t-i-z-e-n-s! take a little wine, and a little whisky too, for that matter. Look at these long-faced, white, pale-nosed fellows before me!" and with a snort and a blow, and a fume and a foam, and a turn round and round, and throwing his arms and hands, and pointing with his long index finger at the row of preachers and deacons before him, he despairingly cried out : "Look at them ! there !- there ! !- they all look like they were dying of the d-y-s-p-e-p-s-i-a!"
Gracious heavens ! what a noise followed and con- tinued ; what a shout and a hurrah from the throats of those again free, unfettered, and untrammeled, and un- tamed, fierce steeds of democracy !
They yelled with delight, they clapped their hands and stamped their feet with joy, till one would have thought, with the poet Holmes, of the occasion :
" When all thy mountains clap their hands in joy And all thy cataracts thunder, "That's the boy !'"
Alas ! and alack-a-day ! alack-a-night ! for the dea- cons and the preachers, and their brethren, and their " sisters and their cousins and their aunts !" They were literally dumbfounded, decapitated, and nothing was left them but confounded dismay and exceeding hasty retreat, and of this, with their legs left them, they readily and hastily availed themselves. Each deacon, each preacher took his hat, and his spectacles, and his cane and hustled off amidst the crowd, to the door of the court room and the outer door of the court house as fast as legs could carry them, and left the orator and his Bourbons alone in their glory-the one to proclaim the glad tidings of liberty and whisky, and the others to enthuse him by their proud and fearless acclamation. What boldness and
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assurance upon the part of the democratic orator, and he was much celebrated for these, to turn round and change the base of his operations in the very face of the enemy ! Who ever heard just the like?
LAWYER WYKOFF BEFORE THE JURY.
I was well acquainted with Mr. Piatt, in his later days, and he was my friend, and I was his friend. I used much to admire him, for his legal ability before the court, and before the jury, and before both ; and with all his interesting and sometimes amusing singularities, peculiarities and particularities, he was a man of great power of synthesis, analysis, and curiously advocating eloquence. It was good to hear him before a jury ; he al- ways seemed in most earnest earnest, and indeed, always was; with his tall and commanding form, he would stand close up to the jury, and talk and talk to each and every- one of them, conveying to each and all, what he had to say. His eloquence absolutely oozed out of his finger ends ; even out at the very tips of his very long fingers.
I saw and heard him one day in rather a remarkable and funny case. The proprietor of the large red brick cotton factory, that used to be a long while ago, at the corner of Plum and Third streets, had been sued by a number of the girl employees, for their wages. The evi- dence in the case developed, that the girls had been very diligent and industrious in their cotton work generally, but they had a way of assembling untimely, in the back yard of the cotton mills, in crowds, and when so together un- mindful of time, they would talk and talk together, and stay out longer than was strictly right, or useful to their employers. The thing got to be a nuisance to the pro- prietors, and they discharged some of the girls for
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neglect of duty as they alleged, and this was, spending too much valuable time in the back yard. Their claim before the court and jury included their wages, and damages, for wrongful discharge, and was on appeal from the court of a justice of the peace. Wykoff Piatt represented the girls, and their claims, and was very earnest, persistent and piercingly eloquent for them. You should have heard him pleading the cause of the young girls, who by the way, were present in the court. He would foam, and fume, and snort, and blow; and going up closely to each juror, he would point out his long forefinger, just in their faces, at their very noses ; and then, he would step back again, and forward again, and fling himself about and around, so that it was absolutely impossible to take your eyes off of his antic gymnastics and gyrations ; and you had to attend to him, and to what he was saying.
"Gentlemen of the jury," said he, "these rich pro- prietors, swollen, and bloated in their wealth, make the flimsy excuse for discharging and not paying these poor working girls, because they spent too much of their time in the back yard. Indeed, indeed, a flimsy, mean and con- temptible subterfuge for these lordly and lordling defend- ants ! What were these young girls doing in the back yard, gentlemen of the jury,-what were they at -what were they doing there? I tell you, gentlemen of the jury, they were there engaged in their necessary business as a committee of the whole-the committee of the hole- gentlemen of the jury !! And with his long forefinger pointed, and his tall form stretched to its fullest length, and a fume and a foam, and a blow and a snort-in highest falsetto voice-advancing forward, he would repeat, " the committee of the whole-of the hole-gen- tlemen of the jury-of the hole !!! "
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Colonel Piatt ( for we used to call him "colonel," too - he had so much kernel in him,) won his case for the girls, as he ought to have done, the jury having found full for the plaintiffs, rendering a nice verdict for the committee of the whole, or the holc! And the court and the bar, and the working girls, and everybody were entirely satisfied therewith, except, perhaps, the poor and rich defendants, the proprietors of the cotton and cottoning factory.
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