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The Green Bag

to do so. the facts is I bought the land in the year 1881 and paid for it in the year 1884 after I had learned for a fact that it was im proved, and I paid the tax on it in the year 1885. brother I am just an old rhumatic cripple and have been for the past 8 years, but I think I ort to have protection under the U. S. Flag: dont you. ive wrote to my eturneys to know what they think about it, and I feel to hope that you will write me as soon as possible what you can or will do. it loocks to me just like saying that Fagan never entered the land to say that I didnt pay tax on it and didnt own it. dont it look so to you. may god bless and save all his dear people is my prair for Christ sake (amen Respectfuley W. S. M THREE RULES FOR PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS Rule 1. Should a conversational oppor tunity appear, seize it without hesitation. Occupy it with your entire battery. Should the other fellow have seized it, be not dis mayed; a few deep breaths and your loudest tones will dislodge him. Self-assertion here is the thing. This is the genius of the Ameri can. He does not wait for opportunities to seize things; he makes the opportunities— and seizes the things. Rule 2. Should your friend be telling an incident of personal history to illustrate a point, do not suffer yourself to show the slightest interest in what he is saying. Such interest would encourage him and prolong the narra tive. It would also betray weakness on your part. Even when he shall have finished (should you be unable to prevent his finishing by an interruption), do not express the slight est interest, beyond a double-reefed smile. Indeed, the smile has an element of approval that sometimes invites an encore, and I should not use it unless my friend looked too fatigued to encore. Rule 3. Having gotten a full-Nelson hold on the conversational opportunity—proceed. State a fact, an incident, and anything, so long as it leads up to your professional self. Remember that legal self of yours must be the Rome to which all your statements lead. Allow nothing whatever lo lure you into a by-way leading from Self—from Self is No

where. This is a great rule.—Stanley B. Bowdle, in Law Book News. COMING INTO COURT WITH CLEAN HANDS An Ohio lawyer writes to the Green Bag as follows:— I send a small item that may appeal to you. It is an actual fact. I was present in the office when he made the statement alluded to. But do not connect me in any manner with the story, because the man is a "bad man" and would probably damage my face if he discovered that he was the subject of an item sent in by me. In a recent case before an Ohio Court, Judge K , dismissing a bill in equity, severely criticised the complainant for failure to present a case appealing to the conscience of the Court. A few months later, another case in which the same complainant was in volved came on for hearing. On the morning of the trial he applied at one of the offices in the Court House for permission to "wash up a little." After a long absence in the lava tory, he returned and remarked:— "I'm not going to get left in this suit. Just look at them hands. The last time I was in court Judge K said that I got beat because I didn't come into court with clean hands and I'll be d—d if I was a-goin' to take any chances this time." THE LAW AND THE CABINET The Cabinet of the new President of the United States bids fair to be known, like that of our own Prime Minister, as "the Cabinet of all the lawyers." There are nine Ministers in the American Government, and of these five are active barristers. . . It is not surprising that a President who has had experience of every branch of legal work, and who has es sentially a great legal mind, should choose his colleagues from men of his own profession, though it suggests the reflection that he has taken all his men from the advocates' branch. . . . Mr. Roosevelt has come to be known as the strenuous President; we can wish Mr. Taft no better fate than to be known as the legal President, and if he and his Cabinet can carry through those law reforms which the people ask for they will indeed have de served well of their country. —London Law Journal.