that there exist within the city limits now seven different
kinds of civil courts and five kinds of criminal courts, in nearly
each of which there is a separate set of rules, different customs,
and distinct methods of procedure, and of them all the most technical
and the most complicated are often those where they should be the most
simple and easy of understanding.

Wherever the court may be the surroundings are substantially the same.
The scene is laid and the carpenters have left. The spectators have
found their places. The stage is empty however, there is a sudden
bustle and shifting of feet, a rumor has gone abroad that something is
about to happen. The court attendants take their places. One of them
straightens up and with a commanding voice cries out: "Gentlemen,
please rise. Hear ye, hear ye, all persons having business draw near
and ye shall be heard." Enter his Honor, the Judge.

III

THE JUDGE

With a rustle of his gown and a bow to the court-room the judge takes
his seat on the bench. The trivial pleasures of being heralded and
having the spectators rise when he enters have lost their charm, but
he would feel uncomfortable without them. The gray-haired clerk hands
him the list of the cases for the day. The anxious court attendant
asks if he shall open a window. The judge sniffs audibly and orders
the steam heat to be turned off. The court attendant does so and
brings his Honor a glass of water. When the judge sits down in the
revolving chair he is on the bench and the court is in session.

The fact of the matter is the judge is a pretty decent sort of person.
The trouble is that the surroundings are all against him. In the
first place his whole job is one that makes him live up to a part. For
five or six hours a day he has to sit still in a stuffy court-room on
a leather chair under a silly canopy of wood or plush and pretend that
he is the whole thing, that he knows it all, and that whatever he
decides is absolutely right. Let him waiver or be uncertain in his
decisions and woe is it to him. No one thinks much of a judge who does
not know his business or at least does not pretend to know it.

How anyone who has been long on the bench can retain any sense of
proportion is remarkable. Whatever he says and does in court is final
and apparently approved. If his decisions are reversed they do not
affect him seriously; he has tried so many cases that were not
appealed, and the greater proportion of