Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/371

dark eyes uniting sadness, humor, and kind ness. His movements were easy and digni fied. His manners were grave and reserved, but eminently courteous, considerate, and patient. His voice was one of the most melodious and charming that ever fell upon the ear of a friend, and even death has not

stilled its echo to me. Charles A. Rapallo. Judge Rapallo was born in the city of New York in 1823, and always lived there. His father, Anthony, an Italian, came to this country early in this century, and was prominent as a lawyer and a linguist. The judge's mother was a sister of Hannah Gould, the poetess. The judge was edu cated exclusively by his father, never at tending school or col lege. He began the study of law at four teen, in his father's office, and practised in the city until 1870. THEODORE He was devoted to his profession, and never was engaged in politics nor held any public position. He was elected to this court in 1870, and in 1880 was defeated by Judge Folger for the office of chief-judge. He was re-elected an associate judge without opposition in 1884. He died in 1888, at the age of sixty-five, leaving but one survivor of the original judges elected in 1870. Judge Rapallo was best known among his brethren of the bench and in the consultationroom. Even in the reports his reputation will never be so great as it deserves, for he was not a brilliant or attractive writer; and

yet he probably had the finest legal mind in our State at the time of his death, — a born and intuitive lawyer, who saw quickly and clearly what others groped for, and could state his reasons so forcibly and plainly that the wonder was that there should ever have been any doubt. I do not know that he was at all accomplished outside of the law, and it is certain that he made no figure in the world of society, letters, or politics. In another place I have written, and I cannot do better than to re peat here : — "It is probable that no judge on the bench was less known to the people by personal as sociation than Judge Ra pallo. His reputation was exclusively profes sional. He lived a re tired life, moving and breathing in an atmos phere of judicial investi gation. He was not a famous judge, nor be fore his elevation to the bench was he a remark ably distinguished or well known lawyer; and yet if the opinions of his surviving brethren MILLER. on that bench could be taken, no doubt they would unanimously and readily pronounce him the ablest of their number. Such, we are in clined to believe, would also be the opinion of the bar, without in any sense underestimating or failing to appreciate the marked learning and accomplishment of his associates. Judge Rapallo had a great brain, sustained by a herculean body, which enabled him to perform enormous labor; and he had such a calm, unemotional, almost stolid way of looking at legal questions as so many logical propositions to be worked out by unerring revolutions of mental processes, that he was as little liable to bias and as little likely to go wrong as any judge who has lived in our times.