< Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf
There was a problem when proofreading this page.

Editorial Department.

mission to the bar in April, 1882; although qualified for admission a year earlier, such was his conscientiousness that he delayed his appli cation for admission until he deemed himself better fitted to take upon himself the degree of counsellor. In partnership with his father, he entered at once upon the practice of his profes sion; and no clients were ever served with more fidelity than his. Of a keen intellect, and as unerring a judgment as is seldom vouchsafed to mortal man, he was in all respects a safe counsellor, an able, prudent, and discreet at torney. He held many positions of public and private trust; and the fidelity and care exercised by him in their management increased the es teem and confidence of the community, which he enjoyed from the beginning. He was coun sel for many of the leading business institutions in Burlington; and the fact that in the short term of his practice he accumulated a larger sum than the average earnings of the younger part of the profession was a sure test of his capacity as a lawyer. Accidentally wounded when young by a pistol-shot, he never enjoyed robust health, and a disease of the bowels finally terminated fatally as he was nearing his thirty-fifth birthday. Of his age, he was probably the best educated lawyer in the State; and while perhaps shrinking from contests in jury trials, he never made an argument in the Supreme Court without im pressing ihe judges that he thoroughly under stood and was master of his case. Austin Agnew Martin, one of the brightest and most promising of the younger lawyers of the Suffolk Bar, died at his home in Boston on April 1. He was a son of the late Dr. Henry A. Martin, and was born in Roxbury, Mass., Nov. 3, 1851. He entered the Roxbury Latin School in 1860, and graduated at Harvard College with the class of 1873. He then entered upon the study of the law in the office of his maternal grandfather, the late Judge Crosby of Lowell, and attended the regular course of lectures, and instruction at the Boston Law School. He was for a time a student in the office of Messrs. Jewell, Field & Shepard of this city, and was admitted to the bar in 1876. He was a promi nent member of the Union, Athletic, and Country Clubs of Boston. At an early age Mr. Martin developed a rare 30

229

AUSTIN A. MARTIN. literary taste, inherited largely from his father; and his keen appreciation of what is best in literature, and his thorough acquaintance with the works of the most eminent writers made him a most delightful companion and conver sationalist. He was himself a writer of uncom mon ability, and his clever paraphrases of some of the reported legal decisions are unsurpassed. The readers of the " Green Bag " can bear wit ness to his remarkable talent in this direction. An enthusiastic lover of Nature and of all out door sports, he found his greatest pleasure in long rambles about the country, in fishing, shoot ing, riding, and boating; and during the last six years of his life, when he bore constantly the burden of a certain knowledge of an incurable disease, he still found a keen delight in these out-door expeditions. High-spirited, sensitive, and with the nicest sense of honor in every thought and act, he was true and loyal in his friendships, and in every act whether public or private. Those who knew him best found out his sterling worth. At the age of thirty-eight, young, courageous, and hopeful, his life here is ended; but his memory will long be warmly cher ished by all those who were fortunate enough to know him.

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.