Evening Star Newspaper, October 21, 1893, Page 13

KING OF FINANCE. A Story of Great Bankers and Great Borrowings. GATH WRITES OF MONEY. The Origin and Growth of a Pow- erful Firm, ———.___. ABOUT OUR FOREIGN DEBT. ‘Written Expressly for The Evening Star. The banking house of Drexel, Morgan & Co. at the corner of Wall and Broad streets, Tight opposite where Washington was in- augurated, occupies ground purchased in its day, 1871, for the highest price per foot ever paid up to that time in the city. Its main door is at the sharp corner, and going in you see a line of clerks and desks at the left angie, and to the right angle another straight line; and going to the right, or down the Broad street face, you come to a little gate, disclosing still a third corridor of employes, and just within the gate is @ small, square room, where Mr. Pierpont Morgan sits, and, unseen, can look over at the stock exchange and see all the passers by. . Probabty fifty or sixty persons are in sight in this bank, most of them wearing the faces of acute, prompt, yet conserva- tive intelligence, the young often knowing and of a society style, the older looking to be of the old courtier class, such as keep Palace doors and parliament wickets. Two or three partners of Mr. Morgan occupy @n open semi-drawing room next to his closed sanctum, and there persons are set down, till the chief is ready to see them, upon a sofa or leather chairs, while the ac- cessory work'is done by these partners, Whose dress, wigs, &c., give them to a novice the air of old actors in such English comedies as “Money.” When you face Mr. Pierpont Morgan, however, you seem to have run upon one of the great barons or absolute kings of the ‘Tudor or Vaiols age. He is pretty big, de- cidedly fierce, of nervous action, with a large nose, a pair of dark eyes, a mixture of the eagle and the vulture, to whom you feel like the hare or partridge when the great kite has descended and gives you a terrifying view of his lineaments before he ends your fainting fate. Withal, this ab- sotute spirit seems to be a gentleman and to love life and people. He is attractive the moment he wants to be, and many people wish he wanted to. His voice can be kindly imtoned, his eyes then look warm, he lets his impressiveness slide into his forefinger, which he raises, and you see a natural man, of whom urgent and crowding affairs have made a financial gladiator. But for a mo- ment or two he lays the lion down for the lamb, rapidly obliges you and finishes, and im a moment {s back in his absolute king- dom again, by merit raised to that high office. The Grandson of a Poet. Alack a day! If this is the grandson of that kind old John Pierpont, the poet,whose Pieces I loved to commit and whose lectures on spiritualism I reported just a third of one century ago! Yet it is the son of Rev. John Pierpont’s daughter, Juliet, who mar- Fied Junius Spencer Morgan in 136, when he was twenty-three and was changing from a bank clerk to become a dry goods merchant. Our Levi P. Morton, another banker, was the dry goods partner of Ju- nius Morgan, who, at forty, became the partner of George Peabody, and at Pea- body's retirement in 1864 turned the name Fs Peabody house into “J. S. Morgan & 0." If you look at the parent Morgan's pic- ture you can see the father of his son; the combative broad nose, the solid upper lip, the high, full, statesman forehead and the prosecutor's and judge’s eyes. The father came from Holyoke, opposite Spring- Mass. His son was born at Hartford the year after the merchant's marriage. mt Morgan was sent to Gottingen, Germany, to study after he had come out of the Boston High School, and at twenty entered the banking house of Duncan Sher- man & Co., and the year before our civil war, at only twenty-three, was the Ameri- can factor of Peabody & Morgan. and the year his father succeeded Peabody the son founded the house of Dabney, Morgan & Co. He attracted the discerning eye of Commodore Vanderbilt. The Drexels want- ed to crowd ahead of Jay Cooke, and they solicited Pierpont Morgan to come ‘n two years before Jay Cooke & Co. failed. Mr. Morgan's grandfather, Rev. John Pierpont, died in 1865, at eighty-one, hav- ing been a clerk in the Treasury Depart- ment at Washington in his old age. I sat down by him in Musical Fund Hall, Phila- deiphia, in the winter of 1960, a handsome, trim, high-headed old man, who was bern before the Federal Constitution,and he said: “I do not complain that our spirit inter- views are doubted. Last evening, when I was speaking on this platform I felt some one draw near me, and turning, I saw Dr. Channing there: “Don't stop,” said the doc- tor to me, ‘I was interested in your argu- ment, and came to hear you conclude it. + 0 on, Mr. Pierpont!” * As Dr. Channing had died eighteen years before, his just dropping in sounded spec- tral tome. The good poet had been in Col. Wm. Alston’s family in South Carolina as tutor ir Jefferson's administration, but four years there did not make him less an abolitionist, and after being a lawyer and a merchan: he studied “divinity,” quarreled with his rich Boston congregation on tem- perance, ran for governor and for Con- gress, traveled in the Holy Land, and at the age of seventy-six went as chaplain into the army, seeing the dead in the next sphere and insisting that everybody could see them but for unbelief. was the cheery voice which sang: “What have we, Lord, to bind us To this, the pilgrim’s shore! Their hill of graves behind us, ‘Their watery way before; The wintery surge, that dashes Against the rocks they trod, ‘Their memory and their ashes Be Thou our guard, O God!” Says Ben: Perley Poore: “John Pierpont, the veteran parson poet, came to Washing- ton as the chaplain to Henry Wilson’s regi- ment, but he found himself unable to endure the hardships of camp life and Senator Sumner obtained a clerkship in the treasury for him. “When he reached his eightieth birthday im 1966 he was told in the evening that a few friends had called, and, on entering the parlor to greet them. he was entirely sur- prised. One presented him with a gold watch, another with a valuable cane and another with a large photograph album con- taining the portraits of old Boston friends and parishioners, filled with autograph let- ters of congratulation in poetry and prose from Sumner, Wilson, Mrs. Sigourney, Whit- tier, Wood. Dana, Holmes, Whipple and other letters, signed by Moses Williams, Gardner Brewer and the solid men of Boston.” Thus the grandfather, whose daughter's gon, the railroad men tell me, gets away from New York on a railroad lark and turns out to be a right good fellow. An Open-Handed Man. “Pierpont Morgan,” said a young railroad man, “was away with us two weeks once, and we found him to be a right good fellow. He carried in his inside pocket a book or block of perfectly new United States notes, to give away to porters, waiters and other Servants, and seldom gave less than twenty dollars, making them all look upon him as the most tender hearted of men. But they had not seen him as the banker bulidozer.” Perhaps Grandfather Morgan had a spirit- ualist's sight of his daughter's son when he wrote this sketch at the Litchfield, Conn., centennial in 1851, when Mr. Morgan was fourteen and perhaps listening to him: “Here dwells a people—by their leave I speak— Peculiar, homogeneous and unique, With eyes wide open and ready What e’re is ¢ ar iS on to see and hear; Nay, they do say, One eye half o And when his < There ts go in it and he'll The original Pi fulling mill at Peabody dated + went to clerk: ort 1 George Peabody and moved to his uncle's n th strict of Colum- bia, and from dry goods in Baltimore moved to London the year Pierpont Morgan was born. Peabody & Co. bought United THE EVENING STAR: WASHINGTON, D. ©. SATURDAY. OCTOBER 21, 1893—-TWENTY PAGES. when the sraeee Pag in- the Reading railroad emphatically. Drexel was exhibiting in the first of the century, like other potboilers, pictures of Niobe’s child, Homer Caracalla and por- a of respectable bape pa Rd ther strange that poetry the Morgan and painting sire the xel. Where the Philadeiphia library stood dur- ing the administration of Jefferson as Sec- retary of State, the large marble block of the Drexels asph; tes the Philadelphian extent, the largest at- tempt to do the great office building feat in Peg mm, as it has so often been done in ‘ork. Where Washington took the oath Mr. Pierpont Morgan commands the distant admiration and suspended judgment of New York, and he undoubtedly is the central effigy, or space, or engine in existing Amer- ican finance. The Power He Wields. © Nearly every railroad in New Engiand—we may say all from the vast steamship fleet of the Fall River line to the railroad sys- tems meeting at Albany and Springfield—is under Mr. Morgan's merchant thumb. The Vanderbilt properties from the Grand Cen- tral station to Dakota make the other rein to his pair of steeds. Apollo was a cart driver compared to the gentleman whose first name is French for stone bridge. He is the financier with the Drexels of the Pernsylvania railroad, the lender of $10,000,- @0 to hold up the Baltimore and Ohio, the stopper or starter of the Reading system, the fiscal head of the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Big Four from Hampton roads to Chicago. He inherits the Amer- ican business in Europe of houses going — to the commencement of our banking there. His father was an Episcopalian and he passes the plate in St. George's Episcopal Church, New York. Was it rot he who called off the New York Central folk from paralleling the Pennsylvania ratflroad, like oid Paran Stevens, the hotel k r: “Give me the New England trade and I don’t care who gets the rest.” Mr. w is one of the men of genius in the Morgan choir. He is the mayor of the palace to the gen‘ Vanderbilts, old Pepin Heristal himself. The thought crossed my mind as I looked around Mr. Plerpont Morgan’s great fac- tory of loans and international placings and fiscal games of chess that the credit the United States government had given our public name by paying off our war debt, had been checkmated by making corpora- tion debts abroad to use up that credit. From near twenty-seven hundred millions of dollars debt in 1865 we ran down to eight hundred and ninety millions tn 1890, Lyte | off eighteen hundred millions of natt debt in a quarter of a century, or hun- dred dollars per head, or as some say, “soul” of population. No nation ever did that besides. England tried it under Wm. Pitt and failed. The — debt of Europe will not be paid, but Just a Suggestion. Might we not as well have carried ours and made it the basis of investment and money, instead of trusting our money to new railroads and snide mines, and fraudu- lent trusts, and now being in search of a method of making good money? We have run down interest to 3 or 4 per cent, without any private borrower, other than a corporation, getting the benefit of the lower rate. We have more than duplicated the for- eign and domestic debt the government paid off, by selling securities of paralleling railroads to the outer world an/ all sorts of securities, which now are being returned to our bankers. You see that if five hundred millions of Vanderbilt's and other stocks and bonds come here to be sold like Atchison at the street corners of the New Enxland towna, the borrowing power of all such securities falls to a minimum only measured by the timidity of the banks. Mr. Vanderbilt's sons cotid borrow % per cent vpon their stocks; today they can borrow as much only as frightened bank presidents full of money will hazard. Note last week the price of New York Central, 101; barely above par. That was the stock Wm. H. Vanderbilt sold a sreat block of, say a sixth of atl he had, to Englishmen! See 33,000 shares of Reading sold in one day last week to New York at 17, or two- thirds below par—3 cents on the dollar--the corporation Drexel, Morgan & Co. bought control of six or seven years ago t6 oust Gowen, who shot himself. He died_ more suddenly and alone than Tony Drexel bad! A big broker said to me: ‘Pshaw! Th English have only %,000 sheres of Reading!” Very well! Seventeen times 25,000 is near half a million dollars, snd if thev want gold for it, how are you, Mr. Carlisle? But look at New York, New Haven and Hartford, the road which connects the brain of America with its spine: The tig- ures are 19% for New Haven, Old € Boston and Albany 20. If these drop, by foreign overloadin.*, surrow a; New England will wail: “We must settle at last for all the railroads we build out- side of our own investment: GATH. —>—_— PHILLIP SCHAFF DEAD. The Great Authority on Exegesis and Church History. The Rev. Dr. Phillip Schaff, regarded by many as the greatest living authority on exegesis and church history, died yesterday at his home in New York city. Paralysis was the immediate cause of death. Dr. Schaff was born in Switzerland, on January 1, 1519, and received his early edu- cation at the gymnasium of Stuttgart. From there he went to Tubingen and Halle and finally to Berlin, where, in 1541, he took the degree of B. D. and passed his exami- pation for the professorship. For a few months after this he traveled as a tutor to a Frussian nobleman, and on his return to Berlin delivered a course of lectures, in the subjects for which he afterward be- came noted and on which his reputation will mainly rest. After his ordination at Elberfeld in 1844 he came to this country to accept a profes- sorship in the Theological Seminary of the German Keformed Church of the United States, at Mercersburg, Pa. His trial for heresy in 1845 was followed by acquittal, and he remained connected with the semi- aary until 1863. He was a most prolific writer ond was active as an editor and cortributor to various publications. His best known works are: “History of the Apostolic Church in Germany” and the “History of the Christian Church.” eae Very Wearing. From Puck. Fond Mother. —“‘Here’s a letter from orge—he says he hasn't much time to ‘rite, on account of the severe head-work he is doing. Poor boy, I'm afraid he'll study himself to death before he gets through college!” This is George, in the striped jersey, do- ing some of the severe head-work afore- mentioned. MEN’S WINTER WEAR. Styles in Overcoats for the Coming Cold Season. coats LONGER THAN EVBR, Cut and Material Quieter Than Last Year. ALL ABOUT TROUSERS. Clothing for men this winter—men who Fride themselves upon always being fash- fonably dressed—will be quieter in cut and material than ever before. Besides, the style.in cut and finish of all kinds of gar- ments will be in harmony with the fabrics that are fashionable. Fashion has decreed that blue, which was worn so much last winter, shall give place to gray, and this will be the leading color this winter. Over- coats will, of course, engage the attention of the well-dressed man. The Chesterfield or fly front oversack goes on forever, and neither waxes nor wanes in popularity. The only difference between the Chester- field of this year and that of last year, says the New York Press, is that the new is a trifle larger than the old. Soft dark gray is the staple material, although smooth- faced blacks, blue and browns will suit some people better. But in heavy garments for real cold weather kerseys and smooth-faced beavers will be the favorites. From 4 to 43 inches is the fall length for the average man—measuring 6 feet $ inches—and for winter from 43 to 45 inches. In both sea- sons it will slightly define the form, though it will be moderately loose, and the back may be cut whole, with the side seams open for from 9 to li inches, or have a cen- ter seam with a bottom rent of about the same length. The lapels:‘and collar at the notch will be about an inch and three- quarters wide for fall, and two and a quarter inches for winter weights. The five buttons holes will be evenly spaced, giving a moderately low opening, and the fronts and shoulders will be finished as soft away. as possible, so that the former may roll free when thrown open. Single stitching will prevail, flaps will go in or out, collars will be of velvet, the silk will extend to the edge and the sleeves will be finished with deep rents with or without buttons, and without bottom stitching. Ulsters and Box Overcoats. The new ulster will be next in popularity to the Chesterfield. It is variously known as the kennel, the paddock and the racing coat. It is close fitting and long and has a very swell effect. And, after all, it is noth- ing but a long surtout or Newmarket, or a close fitting sack. Venetians, covert coat- ings and light colored, smooth faced fabrics are the materials from which it will be made, and it will average fifty inches in length, with a waist length of nineteen and a half inches. The back will be cut whole and will make up at the hip buttons to a Frock. width of from six to six and a half Inches. There will be an abundance of drapery to the skirts, which will open at the right side. The fronts will usually be finished with a fly, with a rol] of moderate length, with lapels two and a quarter and collar three inches wide. Occasionally they will be heavily double breasted. Collars and cuffs, the latter from three and a half to four inches deep, may be of velvet if desired— indeed, this material will be the more favored. Hither double or single stitching may be used. The hip pockets will be crescent-shaped and have flaps of ample proportions. Lovers of the box overcoat may indulge their fancy this year and be in perfect style. Tt will be longer this year than last— that is from forty-six to forty-eight inches. Double-breasted fronts, well-peaked lapels three and a half to four inches wide, with corners well rounded; collar of velvet, a trifle narrower, with corners rounded also; The Latest in Overcoats. large sleeves, with full cuffs, double stitch- ed, with seams lapped, strapped or stitched to match, and wide in or out flaps to all pockets. Inverness Capes Over Evening Wear. The Inverness has come to stay. Seldom during the coming season will anything else be worn over evening dress. Full and free, it will hang from the shoulders, made of soft material, generally of dark effects. From forty-four to forty-eight inches will be the average length. ‘The Prussian collar will be the favorite in this garment. There are very few changes in evening @ress, the main ones being increased length and narrowness of skirt and a more de- cided V-shaped opening for vests. Fine twill worsteds are the favorite materials. There will be crepes, too, which will be quite popular, dress broadcioth or cloth fin- ished worsteds, well suited to the purpose, and worsted vicunas, which will be consid. erably used by the extremely swell. Ox- fords, which are ultra, will probably be- come more popular as the season advances. The shaw! rol) will continue to be the more popular, but the peaked cape will still be worn by the older and more staid. The vest will be single-breasted, unless of white or tinted silk; will close with three buttons two and a half inches apart or four but. tons two inches and will have a narrow collar with a straight crease. If double- breasted there will be three buttons on each side, spaced two and a quarter inches. More frequently than last year the vest will be made of the same material as the coat, but many good dressers will prefer silk. An elegant trimming for silk vests is an edging of narrow silk braid, called tresse de gilet, which shows in a fancy tubular cord effect. There will be no side stripe on the trous- The Imvermess Cape and the New | ers this year, but a handsome edge border Back of Frock and Full Dress. on the material wili take its place. Some will wear side seams ornamented with sou- tache braid, or soutache bordered on each side with tracing braid. The trousers will be of medium width, averaging eighteen to eighteen and a half inches at the knee and seventeen to seventeen and a half inches at the bottom, well hollowed over the in- steps and with a slight spring. Day Wear a Half Dress Styles, Longer and fuller of skirt than ever will be the double-breasted frock, whether for dress or half dress. For day dress it will be made of black worsted, thibet or some other dressv fabric, and will range from forty-one to forty-three inches in full length, with a waist length of eighteen and @ half inches for a man of average height. Ample lapels will mark the height of style, Well peaked and rolling to the third button hole. The roll will be silkfaced to the holes, and the edges will be single stitched or bound to imitate cord, and the sleeves will be finished with » rents, closed with three buttons. The ‘vest worn with this coat will usually be of the same matertal. Fancy vestings will be worn to some ex- tent, however, and may be either single or double breasted, with a V-shaped opening. The single-breasted vest will open about fifteen inches for a man of average height, will be twenty-five and a half inches long, close with five buttons and have a notched collar. The double-breasted vest will have four buttons, will be twenty-six inches lon; and will have well-peaked, separate aig - fine =" =. ag ncgetir check = be e correct thing for the ich will be nineteen to ninetoest and?a’ batt inches at the knee and seventeen and a half to eighteen inches at the bottom, with @ small spring. The cutaway suit this year more than ever before rivals the double-breasted frock for day dress. Indeed, many whose taste in dress is above reproach give it the pret- erence. This for reasons which are obvious from its appearance. The coat will be from thirty-seven to thirty-eight inches in length and eighteen and a half inches at the waist. The lowest button will be about five and a half inches above the waist seam,whehce the skirts will be cut away with a graceful curve and @ very narrow width at the bot- tom. The roll will be of moderate length, from five to tive and a half inches long, edges single stitched close and sleeves fin- ished with a deep rent closed with three buttons. Oxford and Cambridge mixtures will be much used for the fall suit or for coat capes only. The vest and trousers e same as descril Pp eles ck suits wi! much the same as ever, except that the coat will be a trifle longe? than before. Fg ak, are worn for busi- Wide latitude may be indulged in the materials. Only don’t except what is soft. i eae aed —_—+eo_,__ HEAD TOWARD THE ENGINE. An Odd Change in Railroad Travel Recently Has Been Made. The disappearance of the duster on Amer- ican railroad trains was recently pointed out as a change which has come over the trav- eling public in the past five years without attracting the slightest notice. Every one gnce wore a duster. No one now does, The Railroad Gazette has recently been publishing a number of letters on another change as sudden and as complete. Five years ago all berths on sleepers were made up with feet to the engine, unless the re- verse was ordered. Today nearly all berths are made up the other way on the main lines, and {t is the exception that the old position is retained. No one of the Gazette's correspondents have given a reason for this, save one that on an elevator no one objects to going up, though a descent is often disagreeable. There is the additional reason that whatev- er draft is created is more agreeable if it comes from behind the head than if it blows in the face. The change has also come since the porter’s or the sleeper rules, one or both, were less stringent as to closing windows in lower berths. If a window is apen an Inch or two the passenger’s comfort is great- ly increased, and the open window is natur- | ally at the rear end of the berth, and as naturally the berth is made up with the pil- low at the head. Whatever the cause, the curious fact re- mains that a habit of making up berths with heads to the rear has suddenly been altered by the general consent of travelers, who have all found out what a few discov- ered ten years ago, that the way to be com- fortable on a sleeper is to take a lower berth, have the head to the engine, and wedge up the rear wimdow of the berth an inch or two, sd as to let in fresh air. ——__— +06 HIRED TO BE DISCHARGED. A New Profession, and It Works Well in Some Emporiums, From Tid Bits. “Be seated, madam,” said the manager, “and I will try to find out whose fault it is.” He touched a little button and a boy answered. “Tell Jackson to come here at once.” Jackson soon arrived, looking very guilty. He was rather a handsome young man, but was evidently agitated. “This young lady says that you told her these goods were all silk. How came you to make such a statement, sir?” “I thought—” “You know better. This is the second time you have made this mistake, and I shall have to dispense with your services. Take ‘these goods back and draw your money and leave at once.” Jackson bowed and stammered and made his escape. ao Can Sieg that was the salesman,” gan the lady. “The one I of had a bean: bought these “No matter; Jackson {s responsible for all the mistakes in that department and eee I dismissed him.” the iy went out, feeling very that she had caused the young man to lone his situation. She had no soorier gone than another woman came bristling in and said: “I paid for three yards of this ribbon and got only a little over two. I won't be cheated. It’s a little matter, but I want my rights.” “Be seated, madam, and I'll see what can be done. He touched the bell and said to the boy: “Tell Jackson to come here at once.” Jackson appeared, trembling as before. “You have been selling short measure in ribbons again. I’ve had enough of this sort of thing. You are discharged.” “But—I—" “Not a word, sir. You are discharged.” ‘The woman pleaded for him, but the man- ager was adamant. When she had gone he turned round with a grim smile. “It works well, doesn’t it?” ——+e+—___—__ Getting at the Cost. From Truth. Wheeler—“Doctor, I wish you'd make out my bill.” Doctor—“I thought you weren't ready to pay it now.” ‘Wheeler—I'm not; but a fellow just asked me what my new bicycle cost me, and I can’t tell him until I hear from you.”” eee Remarkable. From Puck. “Binks has written a most remarkable novel.”” ‘ou’d hardly expect it.” “No ou wouldn't. But the scene is iaid on a steamer; and he doesn’t even hint that ‘the engines isated like the throb of a mighty heart -——_—_+e+______ Senator Allen to Get a Silver Brick. A silver brick is now in prepffation at Silverton, Col. to send to United States Senator Alten of Nebraska, for his work on the floor of the Senate lately. The brick is chemically fine, and on it will be in- scribed “From many friends in Silverton, Col.” The trick weighs forty ounces. THE DISTRICT LAWS. A Complex System Derived From Many Sources. NEED FOR A CAREFUL REVISION Antique English Statutes Still in Force Here. A LAWYER’S SUGGESTION. ee Written for The Evening Star. . The laws of the District of Columbia con- sist: 1, Of so much of the laws of the state of Maryland existing in the District on the 27th day of February, 1801, as remains un- changed by Congress, or by authority thereof. R. S. D. C., Sec. 92. 2. Of acts of Congress relating specially to the District, the Constitution of the United States, and all such laws of the United States as are not locally inapfli- cable. R. S. D. C., Sec. 91. 3. Of acts of the defunct legislative as- sembly of the District. 4. Of all such laws and ordinances of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, and of the levy court of the District, not incon- sistent with other laws of the District as remain unmodified or unrepealed by Con- gress, or by authority thereof. R. S. D. C., Sec, 91. The laws of the state of Maryland on the 27th*day of February, 1801, consisted of the common law of England, such of her stat- utes as by experience had been found appli- cable ‘to the local and other circum- stances” of the people of Maryland, and had | been introduced, used and practiced in their courts of law and equity (bill of rights of Maryland) and of acts of the colonial and state legislatures. Bibliography of the District Law. This is a comprehensive view of the field which the student must explore to dis- cover what is the law of the District. The bibliography of that law may be stated as) follows: The common law of England will be found in approved text books, such ax! Blackstone's Comientaries, Greenleaf’s Evidence, Hawkins’ Pleas of the Crown, | and others; the statute law of Maryland as it existed February 27, 1801, appears in Kilty’s British Statutes in force in Mary- land, Alexunder’s British Statutes in force in Maryland, Kilty’s Laws of Maryland, and Dorsey’s Laws of Maryland. The acts of Congress relating to the District are to be found in the Statutes-at-Large of the United States and compiied in the Revised Statutes of the United States, ed. 1873, and | supplement of 1891. The acts of the legis- lative assembly of the District and ordi- nances of the cities of Washington and Georgetown and of the levy court of the District will be found in the official publi- cations thereof under those titles respect- ively. A work on law and equity practice in the District by Mr. Franklin H. Mackey explains that subject. And finally embrac- ing all these sources of the law are the re- ports of the Circuit and Supreme Courts of the District, of the state of Maryland and of the Supreme Court of the United States. The great difficulty under which the legal profession and the public labor is that no single volume exists in which all the stat- ute law is to be found, and that it must be searched for in more than half a dozen dif- ferent places. The nearest approach to a) code consists of a compilation of statute law and digest of decisions, by M. Thomp- son, esq., published in 1863. This, though it professes to contain all the laws of Mary- Jand, acts of Congress of a general nature, | and English statutes in force in the Dis- | trict, is but little more than a bird's-eye | view of the whole. It contains the can guage of no English statute, except a por- tion of the statute of frauds, 29 Car. II, c. 3, and merely refers to a few others by their Uutles, omitting among others the famous statute of Westminster 2,13 Edw. I, for the | preservation of estates tail, 21 I, c. which prescribes the limitation of actions for the recovery of lands; and many other: equally important and familiar. This | book is a small octavo, and the price, $10. A more pretentious volume is a publication by Thos. Cogley, esq., 1892, which purports to be a digest of decisions of the courts of last resort in the District, and a compila- tion of the laws of Maryland, British stat- utes and acts of Congress in force therein. ‘The plan of setting out under their eppro- priate heads, first the statutes, and after them the decisions of the courts relating to the subject, which the editor has adopted, is convenient and iene: Log od classification of subjects is mucl 100 general to make the material in the book easily accesible. Like Thompson, also, the | editor omits many of the most important of the British statutes, or fails to put them where they can be found without turning over the leaves of the book one by one. The | market price of this book is $10. Early Effects of Compilation. The necessity of a complete and succinct | compilation and revision of the laws of the | District was felt at an early period. I have. before me now as many as five abortive ef- forts at the codification of those laws. The first Is entitled “Code of Laws for the Dis- trict of Columbia,” and was published in 1819. It was prepared by Judge William Cranch of the Circuit Court of the Dis- trict, in pursuance of act of Congress, April 29, 1816, authorizing the judges of the Cir- cult Court and the attorney for the District “to prepare a code of jurisprudence for the said District." The whole work devolved on Judge Cranch. The next codification | was by Robert Ould and Wm. B. B. Cross, Commissioners, under act of Congress, March 3, 1855, entitled “An act to improve the laws of the District of Columbia, and to codify the same.” Another, entitled “Laws of the District of Columbia,” was published at Washington in 1868, and print- ed at the government printing office, but contains no evidence of legislative sanc- tion, and does not appear to be authentic. The fourth was made by George P. Fisher and others, commissioners, under an act of the legislative assembly of the District, and was published in 1872 under the title | “District of Columbia, Revision of Laws.” ‘The fifth and last is styled “Project for a Civil Code” for the District of Columbia, and was prepared and published in 1879 by Edward Chase Ingersoll, under an act of Congress, March 3, 1879. This production ‘was more radical than any of its predeces- sors. It provides a new system of civil pro- cedure, and codifies the rules and principles of the common law in imitation of the mod- | ern “code.” None of these various labors, all of which, except perhaps one, purported | to be somthing more than compilations of existing statute law, appears to have proved satisfactory, and all of them repose on the shelves of our libraries, serving no other purpose than memorials of the dis- satisfaction of the people with the dis- persed condition of the statute law of the District, and of their unsuccessful efforts to bring it together. ‘The necessity of a thorough compilation of the statute law of the District ts two- fold; first, that it may be authoritatively determined what British and Maryland statutes are in force therein; and secondly, that the whole body of the statute law may be brought together in one volume, and rendered easily accessible to the legal profession, to the courts and the officers thereof, and to the public at large. I speak now of compilation only, the mere bringing together of the law without meddling with its text. In respect of the first need ex- pressed above, it is to be observed that there is no means of precisely determining what British and Maryland statutes are law in the District, except as to such of them as have been judicially recognized by the courts of the District as being in force therein. As to them the question may be deemed at rest, and they may be accorded the same force and effect as an act of Con- gress. But a laborious search must be made through the reports of the Supreme and Circuit Courts of the District, of Mary- land, and of ihe Supreme Court of the United States, before it can be known which of those statutes have received ju- dicial recognition. With respect to those not so recognized, several elements of uncertainty exist. They must be sich as were in force in the Dis- trict on the 27th day of February, 1801, and hav2 remained unrepealed or unmodified by act of Congress, or by authority thereof. And such of them as are Pritish statutes must have been found applicable “to the local and other circumstances” of the peo- | ple of Maryland, and have remained un- changed up to the date in question by thos? people. It ts possible with much labor to determine which, If any, of these stat. utes femain unchanged by act of Congress, == | 1829.) In this connection I append one of but the further fact, which of them hava, been found applicable ‘to the local and other circumstances” of the people of Mary- land, unless they hare been recognized as such by the courts of that state, or, unless the enumerations of Kilty and Alexander are to be received as conclusive, must be largely a matter of conjecture and variable opinion. In Alexander's compilation, whic! is rather more com) Kilty, I find one British statutes deemed applicable “to the local amd other " of the peo- ple of Maryland. A ot the District law reports show that but recognized as law are those which are best known, such as the statute of frauds, of fraudulent con- veyances, of sales of land on execution, of costs on error, of forcible entry and de- tainer, and others of equal importance. A perigee enumeration of all of these stat- recognized and unrecognized, and a declaration of their vitality, would be of inestimable service to students of law, to the profession, and to the courts, saving to each much expense of time and labor, and removing all doubts as to which of them are, and which are not law. I observe that counsel in their arguments in the Su- preme Court sometimes say that certain of these statutes are “reported” to be in force in the District, and that the 7 itself sometimes says that there is no doubt that such and such of them are law with us, expressions which create doubt and un- certainty as to those of which no mention has been made. Revision Necessary. Thus much for the necessity of a mere compilation. The question then arises whether a compilation which shall not be to a certain extent a revision is practicable. I conceive that a literal republication of the older British statutes would not be greatly appreciattd by the people at large, who would probably rise from their perusal | perplexed and bewtidered by unfamiliar | terms and uncouth English. I submit a specimen, selected because of its brevit; there are others couched in much quainter | lay » It is the statute of fraudulent | conveyances, 50 Edw. lll, c. 6. “Item. Because that divers people in- herit of divers tenements, borrowing Givers goods in money or in merchandise of di- vers people of realm, do give their ten- ements and chattels to their friends, by collusion thereof to have the profits at their will, and after do flee to the franchise of Westminster. of St. Martin le Grand of | London, or other such privileged places, and there do live a great time with an high countenance of other man’s goods, Profits of the said tenements and chattels. til the said creditors shall be bound to take @ small parcel of their debt, and release the remnant; (2) it Is ordained and assent- ed that if it be found that such gifts be so made by collusion, that the said creditors shall have execution of the said tenements ~~ chattels as if no such gift had been made.” It ts plain that these statutes in their present form are unsuited to publication and general distribution among the people. Piaced side by side with the legislation of the present day, as they would be in code,their incongruity would painfully ap- pear. Most of them, especially the more an- cient, are expressed in terms now unintelli- gible, and are Involved and complicated in style, and allaf them are incumbered with | needless preambles and repetitions. It is | discouraging to the lawyer to be compelled | to penefrate this jungle of legal antiquities, separating the useful from the inutile, the applicable from the inapplicable, and to pursue the history of each statute through long series of reports. Revision and com- pilation should go hand in hand toget! as in the states, by declaratory re-enac' ments prepared by competent revisers. The work of Judge Cranch heretofore referred to partakes of this character. As judge of the Circuit Court of the District, the juris- diction of which then extended to Alexan- dria county in Virginia, he was familar with the Virginia laws and doubtless ap- preciated the benefits and advantages of plating the British statutes beyond cavil or doubt, and redraughting them in the style of the legislation of the present ¢en- tury, for the Virginia laws re-enacting British statutes are copiously introduced into revision. gees P ing the laws of Virginia in 1776, when they consisted of the common law and of Brit- ish and colonial statutes, says, with re- spect to the execution of his part of that ‘work: “TI thought it would be useful, also, in ail new drafts to reform the style of the later British statutes and of our own acts of assembly, which, from their ver- bosity, their endless tautologies, theit in- volutions of case within case, and paren- thesis within parenthesis, and their mul- tiplied efforts at certainty, by saids and aforesaids, by ors and ands, to make them more plain, are rea'ly rendered more per- plexed and incomprehensible, not only to common readers, but to lawyers them- selves Gefferson’s Memoir, p. 36, ed. the Virginia statutes remodeled by Jeffer- son and his associates from a British orig- inal, and afterward further abbreviated by the Virginia revision of 189. It fs the stat- | ute limiting actions to recover lands. The original is of a comparatively modern date, and consequently does not abound with the jargon and obsolete terms which appear in those of an earlier period. Compare the two and o! the difference in brevity and style. icalty they are one and the same. Redra Original (in force here) “For quieting of Men's Estates, and avoiding of Suits, be it enacted by the King’s most excel- Jent| Majesty, the Lords Spirttual and Temporal,and Com- mons _ in this pres- ent Parliament as- make an entry on, or bring an action to | recover any land, but | within fifteen years next after the time | at which the right to make such entry or to bring such action, | shall have first ac- | crued to himself, or | to some person| sembled, That all | through whom he) Writs of Formedon claims.”" ler. For- medon in + and Formedon in Reverter, at any time hereafter to be sucd or brought, of, or for any Manors, Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments, whereunto any Person or Persons now hath or have any title or Cause to have or pursue any | such Writ, shall be sued and taken within | twenty Years next after the End of this | present Session of Parliament, and after | the said twenty Years expired, no Person or Persons, or any of their Heirs, shall have or maintain any such Writ, of, or for any of the said Manors, Lands, Tene- ments, or Hereditaments; @) and that all Writs of Formedon in Descender, Formedon | in Remainder, and Formedon in Reverter, | Sq of any Manors, as, Tenements, or Hereditaments whatsoever at any Time _ hereafter to be sued or brought by Occa- | sion or Means of Any Title or Cause here- | after happening, shall be sued twenty Years next after the Tit! Cause of Action first descended or and at no time after the said tw @) and that no Pe-gon or Persons that now hath any Right or Title of Entry into any Manors, Lands, Tenements, or Heredtta- ments now held from him or them, shall | thereinto enter, but within twenty Years | next after the End of this present Session | of Parliament, o> within twenty Years next after his or their Right or Title which shall hereafter first descend or accrue to the same; and in Default thereof, such Person not entering, and thelr Heirs, shall be ut. terly excluded and disabled from such En- try after to be made; any former Law or Statute to the Contrary notwithstanding.” Dissemination of the Statute Law. As to the dissemination of the statute law.—Perhaps in no civilized country are the statutes less known and less diffused among the people than in the District of Columbia, the seat-of government of the most powerful and the most progressive of the nations. Those publications which con- tain the British statutes are rare and cost- ly, and seldom seen outside of the public Ubraries. I quote here, with Mr. Alexander, the language of a resolution of the general assembly of Maryland: “In a free govern- ment all legislative acts, which respect the lives, Mberties and estates of the peopl ought to be published. and a knowledge them diffused generally through the state. Among other advantages to be derived from a compilation of the laws is the veady means which would thereby be afforded to members of Congress of informing them- selves as to the state of the statute law of the District on any given subject. Many of our legislators are not lawyers, and many of them who are lawyers come from states where totally different systems of juris- prudence prevail, and in the press of their duties have no time to follow up the ob- scure ramifications of our law. Both must rely upon the information which they derive from advocates or opponents of proposed legislation, and it is fair to assume that such information will be strongly tinged with the predilections of the advise>. The acts of Congress of a general nature not locally inapplicable, and those of the legislative assembly and of the levy court which are in force, should be culled from the general mass and brought into the com- pilation. It is possible that the profession can easily distinguish between the applica- ble and inappiicable acts of Congress, but the distinction may be a source of perplex- ity to the inexperienced student, the foreign lawyer and the unskilled public. As to the ordinance of the levy court, I doubt if their existence is known outside of court circles. And yet one of them figured prominently in a recent trial for homicide in this city. The valid city ordinances of Washington and Georgetown should be compiled and pub- lished in a separate volume. z The Compilation Now in Progre: By act of Congress, March 2, 1889, 25 Stat.- at-Large, 872, the Supreme Court of the Dis- trict was directed to appoint commissioners to “compile, arrange and classify, with a within | i & i But, a before observed, nearly all of the more important of these Statutes have been re-enacted by certain of the Atlantic states, and these re-enact- ments might be tably availed of by the commissioners if their authority should be extended in that respect. Thus we would avoid much thet is superfluous in those laws, yet preserve the integrity of our fem. RE elf 4 i | 5 i 5 in the i i ; tinh aH atid Antique Laws in Force T cannot close this paper without several features of the law of ty existing in’ the District. long since ceased to be law in ki al ri hi it § i é i i i errs th i e 3 ; i Smith for his his heirs, the will, and John Smith ership of the as he pleases. 7. A particular precedent estate sary to support that is to say, Smith for life, i | Ro conveyance. 9% Lastly. Neither tachment is required ef be against subsequent purchasers or credit that is to say, if John William Brown at a against Brown to recover that land, attach it for his would be Hable in it g 3 ? E ag® Hi | — ot — recited, beside, the state of Britain, from whom ae aoe her system, have departed from her, and have left hy an isolated monument of the lsw of ages. There are two principal reason: this state of affairs; the first ts, tha! legislators of the District, except a have had but little property interests and have been conseq i. g Rech second is, that are prepared to urge who have spent their lives in acquiring knowledge of those laws, willing to sweep away time by introducing a tek fate” than that at some future day these relics of a semi-barbarous of prudence, and that we shall stand, with the states, pory panel & of juristic as well social progress. = CHAPMAN W. MAUPIN. —-—— eon Always a Safe Prediction. From Puck. Weather Prophet—“How are the indica- knoy what kind of @ report to send out.” Weather Prophet—“Nothing easier.” Make it ‘fine weather, with local rains and thun- der storms.’ That's always safe. If it fine, we hit it right; and ff it rains, that’s one of our local storms. See?” li