Pennsylvania and Federal Courts. 'The Philadelphia bar in Colonial and infant Re publican times, and all throughout my own career, as well as in this present time, would not surrender in point of learning, tact and honors to the bar of any other city, abroad or at home. My favorite member, when I was a youngster, was David Paul Brown, who lived long enough to be known to thous ands of the present generation. He was a born orator; and if hypnotism had been then a current explanation for moulding the will-power of men, he could have been termed a Svengali, if we assume the ju rors to be Trilbys. Were he now living, he would have been a centenarian by two years. He had the good fortune to have a father with fortune who could give him a liberal education, and of a social and busi ness standing to afford his only son a fine launch upon well oiled professional ways. In his school days, David Paul was taught drawing and painting in oils, all the modern languages and fencing. He was termed by his legal preceptor, the famous William Rawle, an Admirable Crichton. Like Thomas Addis Emmet, Brown first began the study of medicine and with the great Doctor Ben jamin Rush, who said to his father, ' David will make a great physician, but I think he would make a greater lawyer.' Brown al ways said, referring to this remark of Dr. Rush, ' I was rushed into the study of juris prudence.' "Not a client nor a fee came to him dur ing his first year after admission, but, at the beginning of his second year, luck came to him in the person of an apprentice-girl, whom he found standing in the center of a street-crowd that was sympathizing with her for having been in their sight beaten by her master. Brown escorted her before a mag istrate, who took her complaint. Her vol unteer advocate soon pressed her wrongs before a jury and obtained the punishment of her barbarous master, after a display of ora tory which became Brown's start in his pro
fession, and thereafter, young as he was, he never lacked clients. He possessed a re markable flow of language, a musical voice of varied tones, logical as well as simply persuasive methods of presenting a case, readiness at cross-examination, seemingly in nate knowledge of human nature, and inti mate acquaintance with history and the vari eties of literature. But to his genius he added intense industry, for he was always a disciple of Plod, even after he had made his mark. Like Daniel Webster, Brown was ever fas tidious in his dress (as well as in address), and his blue dress-coat and moleskin trous ers became as much his personal trade-mark as did the Websterian coat-collar of velvet, the brass buttons, and the buff vest of what is now known as the Li Hung Chang yellow color. In one of Brown's speeches, after hav ing heard himself taunted by an adversary before a jury as a mere flowery orator, he thus burst forth : ' Oratory is not a castle in the air or fairy palace of frost-work, destitute of substance and support. It maybe compared to a magnificent temple constructed of Par ian marble, sustained by pillars that shall endure for ages, exhibiting exact and ad mirable symmetry, and combining all orders, varieties and beauties of architec ture.' "I have always fancied that Daniel Dougherty took David Paul Brown as his model, for never were two orators so much akin in methods. Brown had Quaker blood in him, which somewhat restrained his bursts of passion, but Dougherty's veins held Milesian blood, and in invective as well as in pathos and imagery I found Dougherty to be Brown's superior. When Brown died, Dougherty's star in the legal firmament grew brighter, and he became his admitted successor for extorting verdicts. Excepting those two, there was little other grand oratory at the Philadelphia bar, but there were more deeply learned lawyers, for instance, John Sergeant and Horace Binney or William M. Meredith, and Jere
