Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 255, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1918 — HIS QUALIFICATIONS FOR BAR [ARTICLE]

HIS QUALIFICATIONS FOR BAR

Philadelphia Man Allowed to Practice Law Because He Could Make Excellent Chicken Salad. There has been a radical change in the method of examining students for admission to the bar in Philadelphia from the practice of a generation or two ago. Recently .the state examiners held an examination, and the students found that considerable knowledge of both the theory and practice of the law was essential.

This, in theory, might always have been the case, but in practice the examination was less thorough in the old days. There is a story of Edward D. Ingraham, one of the leaders of the Philadelphia bar sixty years ago, who was an examiner as well, as a noted wit. Indeed, his capacity for jokes was almost as great as his capacity as a lawyer and as a speaker. In those z days there were not enough students to hold a formal examination, and the appearance, manner and character of the student himself had a great deal to do with passing him for admission. On one occasion a young man, the son of a wealthy Philadelphian and known as a good liver and more or less a man about town, appeared before the lawyer, who was acting as one of the examiners.

Mr. Ingraham knew perfectly well that the applicant had no intention of practicing law. He merely desired to acquire a profession in a graceful, easy manner. Consequently, Ingraham asked him only one question. “Mr. G.,” he said, after the applicant had been shivering in apprehension of the result, “how do you make chicken salad?” Not realizing the purport of the question, Mr. G. answered naturally and with superior knowledge on the subject “Perfectly satisfactory,” said Mr. Ingraham, “I will sign your certificate with great pleasure.” But one can not pass so easily in these times, or every cook could become a uiember of the bar.