The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No IIVarious
History
The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
The Physiology of the Medical Student from facetious pens was reached to
us over the Atlantic by friendly booksellers some years ago; and we should
have had by this time "the Physiology of the young Attorney." He is a good
subject for dissection; there’s plenty of venous humor in his composition;
and oh! a deal of nerve!
Talk of exploring expeditions to the Arctic regions as offering specimens
of courage and prowess; or of scientific excursions into the wilds of
Africa to the same purport! These instances are trivial compared to the
courage and prowess yearly displayed by hundreds of attorneys who plunge
into the ocean of litigation in order to swim towards the distant buoys
which the sun of prosperity always cheers with enlivening beams.
Don’t waste sympathy in this connection for the young Sawbones. _His_
thirst for action can be slaked at pauper fountains. For _him_ the
emigrant’s chamber, the cabin of the arriving ship, the dispensary, the
asylums, the hospitals, and the poor-houses, are always open; and if his
"soul be in arms," there are (Heaven knows) "frays" in this city numerous
enough for any ambitious surgical eagerness.
But for the aspiring attorney where are the avenues open for gratuitous
action? Do merchants nail up promissory notes upon awning posts for
attorneys to seize and put in suit? What "old nobs" of Wall-street are
willing to put themselves "in chancery" to oblige Hopper Tape, Esq., your
humble attendant upon the Where are the courts possessing suits without
counsel?
We may be told of unfortunate wretches who murder in drunken fits to whom
counsel are assigned. But what are ten crusts of bread per annum among a
thousand hungry dogs?
Thou must face the truth, young college boy, who now and then dost stroll
into court-rooms, or who dost lounge away an hour in a friend’s law office
admiring his books and piles of papers—thinking the while of the time when
thou wilt have graduated and obtained permission to hang up thy
pomp-gilded "shingle:" _thou must face the truth_! The counsel who so
attracts thy admiration, in thy court-room lounging, has fought weary
years with myriad obstacles; there are the ashes of many nights and days
of toil and struggle sprinkled upon his hair; he has fought his way (from
where thou sittest a listener to where he stands a speaker), as if through
an Indian gauntlet file. There were a hundred mouths waiting for the first
crumbs which came to his impatient legal digestion; and a hundred envious
heads and hearts to worry him if possible into a dyspepsia over those
crumbs. He has began with an office in a fifth story, and _climbed down_
towards the street. He commenced to hive his honey near the roof! While
out of his office he climbed a professional ladder, the holding on to
which tasked all his powers of physical, mental, and pecuniary endurance.
Face the truth!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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