Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present CenturyGibbs, Mifflin Wistar
History
Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century
Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar
African Americans
It is not without considerable trepidation that an infant limb of the
law shies his castor into the ring, puts up his shingle announcing that
A, B, or C is an "Attorney and Counsellor at Law." His cerebral column
stiffens as, from day to day, he meets members of the bar, who
congratulate him upon his advent, and feels his importance as he waits
from day to day for the visit of his first client, but collapses when he
arrives and with ghostly dread salutes him and prepares to listen with a
disturbed sense of an awful responsibility he is about to undertake.
For, side by side with his client's statements there seem to appear in
stately majesty all the adjuncts of the law: First, the inquisitive
glance of the judge, like a judicial searchlight, scans him as he rises
to defend Mr. Only Borrow, charged with larceny. Will he be able to
think on his feet at the bar as he did in his chair in his office? Will
he succeed or fail in stating his case, with eye and ear of every
veteran of the bar intent on his first utterance? How about the jury,
that unknown quantity of capricious predilections? Will they give him
attention, or will their eyes find a more congenial resting place?
Unbidden, the panorama insists on prominence. He attempts the most
nonchalant air, tells Mr. B. to proceed and state his case. This was not
the first time that he had been requested to perform this incipient step
of the law's demand, and he does it with such astuteness and flippancy,
and how he had been wronged and persecuted by the plaintiff, that tears,
unbidden, are ready to glisten in your eyes. Injured innocence and your
sworn duty to your profession inspire courage and induce you to take his
case. Later on the tyro will have learned that it was highly probable
that Mr. B. would not have called on him but for the fact that he was
not only out of cash, but out of credit with able and experienced
practitioners.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account