ANNUAL BANQUET. I live up in the woods, in the somber forest that covers the northern half of Wisconsin, a forest almost tropical in its jungle-like luxuriance. It is on the great divide between the waters of the East and the waters of the West. On one side and within a few miles of my home, the streams flow eastward and northward to the Arctic seas, and on the other side the waters flow westward and southward to the great tropic gulf. These waters cool and refresh the southern seas, and warm with their balmy currents the far off frozen north. I give you this just as a specimen of what I could do in the line of beautiful thoughts, if I wanted to, (Laughter and applause)—just a sample of what I might do if I had the opportunity and the inspiration. Now, gentlemen of the Illinois Bar, that same unfamiliar book to which I have already alluded says, "It is better to go to a house of mourning, than to a house of feasting." I do not think the prophet or psalmist or whoever it was who wrote that melancholy sentiment could have anticipated this occasion. I find it much better to be here than any where else I know of. A house of mourning, even if it was approved of by a psalmist, could not beat this. No I am glad to meet so much good fellowship and so much kindly good will toward your friend from the country. one appreciates it more than he does. I thank you. (Applause.) PRESIDET TULEY: The next toast, Gentlemen and Ladies, is "The Country Lawyer in Town". The gentleman who is to respond to that toast probably intends to give us something of an autobiography; I do not know whether he is a country lawyer in town or a city lawyer in the country, I know that he poses in both relations when he is running for office. Now I will leave it to him to tell us which he is and to describe himself, Mr. Samuel Alschuler. (Applause.) ANNUAL BANQUET. MR. ALSCHULER: Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen:-I have been accused of a great many crimes and misdemeanors, sometimes justly, more times unjustly, but it remained for this conspicuous occasion to bring forth the accusation that I was a poser; but if a declarations of principles is wanted I presume I will have to declare myself and get off the fence. I presume I was selected to respond to this sentiment because I was supposed to belong to that somewhat large and growing, but very select and high-toned class who are living in the country and practicing law in the city, trying to practice law in the city. There are a good many obstacles in the way of one so situated, among them I fear is a sort of feeling that we are trespassing upon somebody else's preserves; that we ought to "shinny on our own side," so to speak, and, if we live in the country, to stay there and practice law if we can, but not come to Chicago for the purpose of taking away perhaps an occasional fee that, by right of prescription and perhaps a sacred sovereignty, belongs to the fellows here. Well, there is something in that. I do, upon those rare occasions, like angels' visits, few and far between, when a fee is handed to me, accept it with a sort of mental reservation and a feeling that after all I am depriving one or more of the six thousand members of the Chicago bar of something that belongs to him. I do have that feeling, but I try hard to overcome it. (Laughter). But let me suggest that the position of the country lawyer in the city is not wholly indefensible, much as our city brethren would like to have a tariff, a sort of a protective tariff put upon us to keep us out; not that we hurt them very much, but you know there is supposed to be a sort of sanctity and rugged honesty about a man that comes from the country and has not become used to the ways of the city, and the city bar fear that such views of us may get abroad in the land and that we may work up a little practice here; so there has ANNUAL BANQUET. been sort of a disposition to put a protective tariff upon us and in some way keep us out. But the question that has not yet been solved is in such a case would the foreigner pay the tax? (Laughter). As I have suggested, our position is not wholly indefensible. I feel that out of considerations of justice and by way of a sort of reciprocal relation, we are entitled to come here and get a few of the pickings of the profession, because much in Chicago depends upon the country. Who, let me ask, if it were not for us country people, would buy your gold bricks; who would purchase your masonic temples; to whom could you display and show the explosion on the lake front (laughter); where would you find the sucker who comes here and gives up his hard earned earnings for no consideration, if it were not for us country people? Who pour the unlimited wealth gathered from the resources of this great iand, who pour it here in unstinted quantity but we country people, and do you yet begrudge these country people the privilege of sending away a few of their lawyers to come to Chicago to get back a little of it? But after the rapacity of your landlords and your hotels and your restaurant keepers and all these are satisfied, they take precious little back to the country. So I say that I feel that we have a sort of half right, at least, to be here and try to take out an existence. I had hoped to be able tonight to relate to you a lot of jokes and witticisms for which I thought I had made some preparations. Looking over a stock of books one day I came across a copy of Joe Miller's Joke Book, published a century and a half ago. I thought with that, the next time I was assigned to a duty of this kind I would indeed be able to bring to the attention of a delighted audience, witticisms such as they had never heard before; but, alas! a member of 'he bar from the country came into my office and borrowed it, and so delighted was he with it that I never got it back, and I have no doubt it has gone floating around the country ANNUAL BANQUET. and everybody has had it but me; perhaps Judge Cutting has had it; perhaps some of the gentlemen who are yet to address you have had it and they will have the benefit of those new and refreshing witticisms and confer them upon you instead of my being able to do so. I come from the country as a humble member of the bar; we have done our share toward the repressing, if you please, of that spirit which finds expression in one of Bobby Burns' poems, where he says: "A fig for those by law protected, Liberty's a glorious feast; Courts for courtiers were erected, Churches built to please the priest." Where we have tried to teach the lesson of the bravery and the manhood, that it requires to go into the courts, and we have tried to bring those ideas with us here into Chicago to help do missionary work for the benefit of us all. asked the "Why," he back Yes, Chicago is a glorious place, it is a wonderful place. We country people are a long time in appreciating its great advantages, it is great in so many respects that one scarcely dares to talk about it. Why it is said that in New York a Chicago man was telephoning one day and he price; the telephone girl said it was fifty cents. said, "in Chicago we can telephone to hell and twenty-five cents." "Ah," said the girl, "that may be, but that is all in the city limits." (Laughter). We in the country coming here after a little time get used to such magnificent distances and other wonderful things; get used and accustomed, after a while to them-I hope to, but nearly three years of attempt has so far not sufficed to make me seem as to the manner born to all this vast variety of things that finds exemplification in Chicago. Why, think of it, Ladies and Gentlemen, did you ever stop to contemplate that tonight a banquet of lawyers of a great Bar Association is being held ANNUAL BANQUET. in the city of Chicago in a prohibition district? (Laughter). I might say, "hence these tears,” (laughter) but I won't. Now in the country perhaps we do things a little differently because we have not, in most places, a prohibition district, but it is interesting to think that in view of all the opportunities which the city of Chicago presents, a meeting of the Bar Association should be held in a district which presents these advantages or disadvantages, which each one will denominate according to his own feelings. There is a great difference between the practice and the practices in the country and in the city. Sometimes in the country I think we prepare our cases with a good deal more care. My mind goes back to a time not very long distant when I was practicing in the country, when a lawyer in our county who has since carved his name high upon the roll of political fame, was trying a case which showed the mark of great preparation. It was a sidewalk case against the city and he was questioning his client, an ignorant old fellow-the only de fense against the action was the claim that he was drunk at the time. He said to him, "Now, sir, how were you walking along there, along that sidewalk, at the time of the accident?" The answer was, "I was walking with all reasonable and ordinary care and diligence." (Laughter and applause). I find in Chicago there is not at least the overtraining that sometimes happens in the country where the volume of business is not so large. I had a little experience of that in one of the courts here. I was examining a witness who was the secretary of a lodge and I wanted to show that he received a certain paper in his capacity as Secretary of the Lodge, and I said, "Now, sir, in what capacity did you receive that paper?" "In an envelope," he said. (Laughter). Now that could not happen in the country. We in the country sometimes have our lawyers, when they have a great case go back to the foundations of the law, |