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HESPERIAN STUDENT.
LINCOLN,
FEimUAKY, 1872.
OUR PAPER.
We Issue this number of tho Studknt as
the organ of tho State University of Nebraska.
Heretofore its ownership has boon limited to
the Palladlan Literary Society ; but during tho
present tenn.it has.bcen transferred to the
students of the whole University. The Regents
.it their last session, by ft liberal donation,
placed tho pajwr upon a permanent founda
tion. It now remains for our students to prove
whether it shall be one of interest, and fully
equal to other college journals. Every student
should feel that the key of its future success is
in his keeping. Let us dclermiuc to make a
paper of which we may feel proud. Let the
students and friends of tho University respond
liberally to the enterprise, not only by enlarg
ing the subscription list, but al60 by forward
ing to us all items likely to be of interest to
our very intelligent class of readers. By so
doinir, we anticipate iborcaion why the Univer
sity of Nebraska may not publish as interest-
ins and pithy an oraun as Its friends can
desire.
To Contributors.
We arc thankful lor the contributions re
oclrcd during the lust month, and hope thqir
number will be increased. Anonymous articles
will not be read by the editor. The name of
the writer must invariably accompany every
lainmunicalion. It is also desirable that con
tributor spread themselves over as little space
as possible. The editor must bo free to abrc
viatc or correct at pleasure, but tho writer will
notbemada, respoafriblo for any thin griie has
not written.
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"-X-" ViJ-W VS. JUSWiE.
Turning over an old number of tho Galaxy,
inycy.o falls upon the following statement,
relative to the lato James T. Brady :
v "He was counsel is 52 capital cases, in not
uc of which was he ever unsuccessful, except
itiVthat of Bcall, who was tried by a court-
martial, at Fort Lafayette, on charge of being
. 'spyiand gcMrilla.' "
Tho appreciative, but unreflcctive reader,
who pondered this in its day, was doubtless
(ot in admiration of the cleverness and subtle
ty of Mr. Brady's intellect, and of the personal
Magnetism thaUrnust have contributed to a
aucce6 eo reniaikablc. If admiration induced
liim'fb push his inquiries into matters of pri
vate history, he found very much in the great
lawyer to command unqualified respect, if not
indeed veneration. The life-long devotion to
his mother and Bisters, the ready sympathy he
vcr manifested with distress, the constant
cultivation of poetry and elegant letters, and
the submission of his spiritual nature to reli
gious authority, were sufficient peculiarities, in
n age of unbounded Belf-assertion, to render
him nobly conspicuous and even lovable. Con-
aidering these various elcn.ents of suoom or
piaiscin Mr. Brady's career, the appreciative
but unreflective reader, utterly missed the
prodigious significance of the passage wo have
quoted from the Galaxy.
But the reflective man must have read that
professional record with profounder insight.
In him it induoed thoughts that could not
much have differed from these: Mr. Brady
was defendant's couusol in 52 capital cases, 51
of which he successfully carried through.
fTip.y-oe criminals, then, ho turned loose to
imperil human safety anew. Fifty-one times
by intellectual strategy he vanquished law,
thereby weakening its power in subsequent
cases to bind the individual and public con
cience. Fifty-one time he '.nade it apparent,
that if a villain can procure tho services of a
lawyor sufficiently able and unscrupulous, he
need not hesitato to commit murder, in so far
as this world's penalties aro concerned. Fifty
ono times ho demonstrated that divino and
human btatutcs, in tho opinion of courts and
juries, are not necessarily binding. Fifty-one
times he illustrated the fact that law, as hu
ntnnly administered, has no necessary connec
tion with justice.
Fifty-oue are a good many times. Fifty one
admitted violations of a statute, in any given
direction, constitute a rule.
Let It bo granted that in some of the caws
wherein Mr. Brady was defendant's couusel,
there wore extenuating circumstances, by the
operation of which the person arraigned waB
justly extricated from extreme penalty.
But is it posible to supjiose, that in his entire
practice of 51 consecutive cases, every culprit
was fahcly charged, or was justified by the
omnipresent right of self defense! If Mr.
Brady had sometimes been successful, there
would have been stronger probability of jus
tice. But ho cleared every murderer for whom
ho appeared. Tho worst case, as well as the
most deserving, was safe in hi8 hands. Brady
being the lawyer, his client was secure, no
matter what the law and evidence, the common
sense of the jury, or the intelligence and moral
soundness of public sentiment.
The methods of Mr. Brady in liciting or
suppressing testimony, and his lines of argu
ment, in addressing juries, wore, of course,
closely watched by other attorneys, who re
produce thcin in many quartern. Thus the
criminal courts are more and more becoming
mere gladiatorial arenas for intellectual ath
letes, whose highest ambition is to triumph
over law and public opinion, teerebfefjjiaiBg
for themselves profit and rcpufcUqvSMBCth
. - M
sinuous ttKvtiiM legal practice.
Bat just h&c, we shall fc Inet with the
question "May an attorney refuse case; or,
having taken one, may he fail to do his utmost
lor his client?" To which but one answer can
well be returned. An advocate's management
of any case, must and will, depend on bis sense
of moral obligation. If he is a man of sensitive
conscience, he will go just such lengths for his
client, as bis conviction of his client's inno:
ccncc will justify, but no further. If he is
anxious, above everything else, to prcterve hii
own honesty, and furnish the world an ex
ample of uprightness in the face of temptation,
he will never, under any circumstances, lead
his powers to defeat a duly enacted law. Ho
will act upon tic theory that the displacement
of law, in tny single instance, is attended with
immeasurable danger to all law that the destruc
tion of one righteous statute is the sure fore
runner of the destruction of every legitimate
bond of human society.
Wtmust inevitably thlnkthat he who accepts
a "forlorn case,-' all the while secretly feeling
that his client is guilty, and strains cfery
sinew to make him appear innocenk-aLhy-l
persuasion, brow-beating, trickery, ahd mis
handling of law and fact, forces an unrighteous
verdict, is hardly less criminal than the villain
he shelters from penalty. Uc is certainly, to
the extent of his higher abilities mere partieept
criminis than the clumsy fellow who gives
physical aid and comfort in such common waya
as helping break jail, or furnishing a horse to
facilitate escape. Indeed, the moral difference
between knavishly unlocking a prisoa.door
with a skeleton key, and unlocking it by legal
obliquities, is largely is favor of the former
method ; for it does not pretend to be reapecU
ble,but skulks undercover of silence and dark
aess. How strange that society views with
such different eyes he maa who opens the
doer of a jail by ratens of a cold-chisel, and
the advocate who quite as immorally does it
by a lover of sophistries.
The very incidents commonly employed to
exemplify legal greatness, aro such as indicato
utter indifference to moral integrity and to
crime. But where success rather than love of
justice, where Eclf-projcctiou into the fore
ground of motivo rather than reverence of law
and obedicuco of authority arc habitual inspi
rations, no man deserves to bo called illustrious
and go oIV tho stage with clamor of applause.
Rather should tho public verdict stamp him a
participator in crime, n man ns deadly danger
ous to tho outward aspect of society, as ho is
morally criminal to himself.
But, in the present constitution of society,
we n hardly hope for correct popular esti
mates. It is to bo feared that success, or what
is termed such, will perpetually have its part
in moulding public opinion. And yet, success
must always be far from a. true test of a right
causo. If it were murder, and, in fact, all law
lessees, would seem the correct thing in most
instances. Brady's can bo found to mako hand
some and subtle apologies for everything.
But alter all their fallacies, some of us will ever
feel that crime can never be anything less than
crime ; and that the advocato who shields n
fierce and guilty spirit from merited punish
mentno raattei under what preposterous
color of law is himself partaker of tho guilt
ho defends. If he is triumphant in 51 cases,
he inflicts 51 dangerous stabs on tew, order,
and society ; and 51 times docs gi
to his own moral nature. His
encouragement and consolation
but a matter to be deplored by all
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BaBBT.
i TTft lm oftiyjraual. a m te. ;s.
various kinds may be seen in the
What tke Mlcracepe JtirtwaJp.
Lewmbotak tells ua of an intact set with
the kreciiQ which twetUy4lYea Millions
tn'secliof v
cavities of a grain of sand
Mould is a forest of beautiful trees, with the
branches, leaves and fruit:
Butterflies aro fully feathered.
Hairs are hollow tubes.
The surface of our bodies is covered with
scales like a fish ; a single grain of sand would
cover one hundred and fifty of these scalee.aad
yet a scale covers five hundred pores. Through
these narrow openings the sweat forces itself
like water through a slvc.
The. mites make five hundred steps in a
6Ccond.
Each drop ef stagnant water contains a
world of animated beings, swimming with as
much liberty as whales in the sea.
Each leaf has a colony of insects grazing on
it like cows on a meadow.
Mobal. Have some care as to the air you
breathe, the food you eat, and the water you
drink. Hearth and Home.
different
Afcent Aitk-ra
Tho time and effort spent on varleus !
productions
thors.
Johnson said he calculated when writing for
a magazine, that if ho wrote ono page a day ho
would at tho end of ten years havo writton ton
folio volumes.
" When n man writes," said he, " from his
own mind, ho writes vory rapidly. The great
est part of a writer's time is spent in reading.
A man must turu over half a library to write
ono book."
Prescott said ho composed many a chapter
of " Ferdinand and Isabolla " whlfo galloping
over tho hills, or wandering among tho chest
nut shades of his favorite walk in autumn.
Thirty and forty pages of print were aa or
dinary inorningVwork for Walter Scott He
once said to a friend, "When I get tho paper
before me, it commonly runs oil' pretty easily."
With so much facility did ho write that ho fre
quently had a novel, a poem, and reviews for
quarterlies on hand at the same time.
Ono of tho largest and best of Byron's po
ems was written in ten sittings, and in two
davs another was completed.
In fourteen years Baxter wrote and pub
lished sixty volumes.
Popo toys, " To take more pains and em
ploy more lime cannot fail to produce more
coinplcto pieces."
The first six books of tho Eneid were writ
ten in seven years : the last six in four years.
This poem was left unfinished, and at his
death Virgil wished it destroyed ; but Augustus
placed it in the hands of Varius and Plautud,
who corrected it and gave it to the world.
David Livingstone says, " Those who havo
never carried a book through tho press can
form no idea of the amount of toil it involves.
The process has increased my respect for au
thors and authoresses a thousand fold. 1 think
I would rather cross the African continent
again, than undertako to write another beck.'
Christian Advocate
KbkIMi 8ywayBM.
A JTelce a PrefeMor.
A pretty good story is told on one .of the
Professors of the University, which ruassorae
tbing in this wise :
Two or thvee of the young ladies who recit
ed to him were in the habit ef coming to the
ckss with their faces disfigured by the um of
black adhesive plasters, which, we understand,
is aa obsolet Parisian fashion resorted bythose
of unfortunate cemplcxiens to set off the rest
of their face. The Prof, thinking hlia girls
were laboring under tho misfortune of boils,
fever sores, and the like, refrained for several
days from calling on them to recite, as he
sympathized with his pupils in their supposed
affliction and theught to call them up in the
presence of tho whole class would only con
tribute unnecessarily to their aggravation and
embarosment. It was some time before the
Professor found out that these plasters did sot
betoken the presence of any sore or other mis
fortune, but like the paint and feathers of the
Indian were only intended to ornament and
beautify.
The Prof, who was thus "codded" was not
the professor of Aesthetics. Either the Teach
er or pupils need posting :pf course wo will
not say which. Madison Democrat,
A little girl was looking at the itictu
nwnher ot shine, when mm txthhic
wlMtaflockof Mtlpal We oorrarttin'
Itaytaf: Jktt a jnyjpafcWiliS li ilMUilgS5iSy
hawAiaf a fleet St sheep is called a loci.
And we here may add, far the Benefit of the
foreigner who is mastering the intricacies of
our languago in respect to nouns of multitude,
that a flock of girls is called a bevy, that a
bevy of wolves is called a pack, and a pack of
thieves is called a gang, and a gang of angels
is called a host, and a host of porpoises is
called a shoal, and a shoal of buffaloes is called
a herd, and a herd of children is called a
troep, and a troop of partridges is called a
covey, and a covey of beauties is called a gal
axy, and a galaxy of ruffians is called a horde,
and a hordo of rubbish is called a heap, and a
heap of oxen is called a drove, aiid a drove of
blackguards is called a mob, and & mob of
whales is called a school, and a school cf wor
shippers is called a congregation, and a con
gregation of engineers is called a corps, and a
corps of robbers is called a band, and a bond
of locusts is called a swarm, and a swarm of
people is called a crowd, and a crowd of gen
tlefolks is called the elite, and the tlite of th
city's thieves and rascals are called the roughs,
and the miscellaneous crowd of the city folks
is called the community or tho public, accord
ing as they are spoken of by the religious
community or the secular public. Ameriean
Educational Monthly.
A Rciftfe Next Spring.
Mr. George W. Gratton, Emigration Agent,
has just returned from Now York, whore ha
has been engaged for tho last five months in
organizing colonies for emigration to Ne
braska. Mr. G ratton informs us that there will prob
ably be about forty families from Orleans
county.
From Wyoming county, twenty-fivo famille.
Oneida and Onondaga united fifty families.
A colony is also organizing in Columbia
county.
Mr. Gralton has dono a good service in this
work, and we hope all ho expects from it will
bo realized.
Mr. Cornolius Schallor, Agent of the Bur
lington in England, writes to us that one thou
sand English emigrants will leave that country
for Nebraska early in the spring.
These are merely straws indicating the di
rection of the wind on this subject of Immigra
tion, which will pour 100,000 more people fata
Nebraska in the next eighteen month than it
sew contains. -Omaha Herald.
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