A Noted Law Firm.
463
perpetual atmosphere of law, and not like July and another during brusque November: similarly Van-der-pool could be either tran him who became Sir William Jones. quil or brusque. Rut it seemed foreign to Vanderpoel seldom alternated his atmos Green's nature to be ever brusque, so also phere of more or less legal fog with a second Vanderpoel was a ary atmosphere of belles lettres and poesy. to partner Cuming. I doubt if Vanderpoel ever read poetry or good actor: the which Green was not. fiction except as they were sometimes dis Nor Cuming, who was as gentle by nature as the poet Keats, whose portrait he much covered in the law reports in his exception ally large private library of law books which resembled. The interco"urse between the — like that of Chiefthree partners was Justice Charles 1'. ever sweetly cordial, Daly as already and indeed, affection noted in a previous ate. It is doubted n u m b c r of THE whether a cross tone Grken Bag — be or a splenetic look gan with the Year was ever exchanged books, or Plowden, among the trio, or and came down ever a jealousy en serially to the very gendered. Each was last edition of Kent as much a part of or the last volume partnership ma chinery as are the of Federal Reports. pivots and wheels Yet by the aid of "Reviews" Vander of a Waltham or Waterbury watch. poel kept neck and neck with current They all became literature, and be popular with judges, court habitues and came " enough up associates. I fancy in it " for illustration that the word " pet in argument. Van tifog," or the phrase derpoel was a master "sharp practice" of cross-examina J. R. CUMING. was never heard in tion. He possessed side or outside of at timesjust the rasp ing voice that could stir a recalcitrant witness the well-appointed offices in the Tribune building of Vanderpoel, Green and Cuming, into confusion whenever occasion so de manded. Green was more at ease before a to be applied to any of them. I also fancy that if Judge Brown of the Federal District questioning and interrupting judge than con fronting the witness chair. And yet there Court of New York City, or Henry W. Bookstaver, now judge of the State Supreme have been few lawyers who like Richard Court, or the dashing advocate John J. Henry Dana and RufusChoate, for instances, McCook, or the shrewd Francis Lynde could bestride the scales of justice and there equally balance the beam both at nisi pri us Stetson, — partner of Grover Cleveland dur and in baneo. One partner fully realized his ing the latter's recess from office, or Gen. Stewart L. Woodford, the distinguished and Knickerbocker name — meaning when trans lated from Low Dutch into English, "of the ornate orator, or Morris Phillips who ex pool "; for the pool is one thing in tranquil changed law for journalism, or William
