Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1901 — OLD SCOTCH JUDGES. [ARTICLE]

OLD SCOTCH JUDGES.

Always Kept in Convivial Training While on Circuit. In Scotland all gentlemen were acquainted and hospitality was the national virtue. When practicable the lords of the circuit lay and supped in the mansions of their friends, where the host had made great preparation in rough-and-ready fashion. The troubles of the day were forgotten in a bout of heavy drinking, for on these occasions the best liquors were brought forth, and in courtesy the guests were expected not to spare them. His lordship might have his cravat loosened and be borne off to bed by “the lads,” but he was in the saddle again after early breakfast, and the cold ride was a sovereign specific for squeamishness or headache. Sometimes more tranquil spirits with Braxfield’s strength of will would indulge FR' way of variety in quieter recreations. That famous hanging judge always put up near Perth with a crony who was devoted to chees. The laird had rather the better of his lordship at the game. In the revolution of the circuit Bnaxfield found himself trying his hospitable friend, who had got awkwardly mixed up in some abduction of cattle. The evidence was clear, the panel was convened, and the judge pa.-sed the solemn sentence of death. Then, bending down, he chuckled to the unfortunate prisoner —the accommodation in the provincial courts was cramped: “And now, Donald, my friend, I think I’ve checkmated you for once.” But Braxfield delighted in a kindly joke. These judges of the iron heads always kept themselves in convivial training. In fact, they carried it so far that at one tiinerit became the habit to have a bottle of port at each senator’s elbow on the bench and Lord Cockburn is our authority. Yet they showed a certain bashfulness, of which we should have hardly suspected them. At first they dashed the wine with water, contenting themselves with a modest sip. But asthey got more deeply involved in the case they gulped down the liquor by the tumblerful. AV hat could have hypnotized a toper out of condition merely stimulated their memories and sharpd their intellects.