Rufus Choate. he reached his home with his nerves shat tered after a long trial in court. He said that under these conditions even a' half hour of reading a favorite author cheered and re stored his mind. His sentences when speak ing before an audience seemed to refuse to end. A new illustration or variation would strike him before he could come to a paus". Still, notwithstanding that his style was sin gularly involved, and that his sentences would grow into paragraphs, there was no want of clearness either in thought or ex pression. They are said to be the longest sentences ever written, and were not infre quently two and even three pages long. Someone humorously remarked that they seemed like life sentences. Although it has been said of his mental clearness that there was never such a boy, or later such a young man in college as Rufus Choate, it was not entirely his natural ability which won for him his subsequent brilliant career. His extensive reading, coupled with a most retentive memory, made him rich in literary acquisitions which were closely inter woven in his mind with an extensive legal learning. His exhaustless literary resources were such that among the members of the bar it was said, "he touched nothing that he did not adorn." It is also stated of him that in his career at the bar he at first amused and then stunned his competitors. In spite of his 'abundance of learning, both classical and legal, and!his readiness of expression, he had. however, singularly enough, a cer tain distrust of his own powers, and he was apt to be doubtful beforehand whether lie would succeed in what he was going to undertake. He had also a brooding appre hension while doing his most absorbing work that his faculties might fail him. He knew that his nervous organization was fine and delicate, and that it was not as carefully hus banded by him as it might be. He found great pleasure in reading Latin and Greek, but in the early part of his life,
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with the exception of English, he had little fondness for modern languages. In the lat ter part of his life, however, he felt that Ger man would so enlarge his literary scope that he became an excellent German scholar, and also learned to read other European lan guages with some facility. He read with a system, for he had little faith in desultory reading. He said it was a waste of time. A friend of mine who knew him well told me once that it was Mr. Choate's practice to commit to memory a verse of poetry everv day. He read while at his meals; if he had a car riage to take him to his office he covered the seats with books which he devoured on the way; wherever he journeyed he crowded his trunk with books. In fact, every pleasure was irksome to him unless he could have re course to his favorite literature. Even at two o'clock at night he would frequently be at work in his library. We now come to speak of him as a law yer. As Gibbon listened to Burke with delight, so the younger members of the Suffolk Bar sought every opportunity to hear Mr. Choate when it was known that he was to address a jury. It was with great success that he defended criminals. Also in his treatment of civil cases, whether for the defendant or the plain tiff, he was generally successful. Among leading lawyers at the Suffolk Bar he was regarded as the most formidable opponent whom they met in court. A distinguished lawyer, now living, who tried a certain case against Mr. Choate, tells me that the latter stated, speaking of his case, that it was the weakest he had ever undertaken; but this same lawyer adds, Mr. Choate won it all the same. At one time it came to be said of Mr. Choate that no one defended by him for crime was ever convicted. His powers of per suasion were such that jurymen were led
