Yale University Law School - Yale Law Reporter Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

Page 77 text:

72 Tllli YAl.l'1 Sl'llNGl.I'I. Nine men have tried to increase their knowledge of the practice of law by going into offices. Many others have used their stores of learning of two years' accumulation by giving advice asked and unasked, or have managed to hang around oihccs in the summer time or whenever the opportunity was offered. ' Last year, after the first recitation our class would stream over to the City Court, almost as a whole, to view the novel scenes or hear the ingenious stories and explanations of old offenders, with once or twice the surprise of hearing a friend answering to a strange name on a charge of throwing a snow-ball or disturb- ing the peace. Only about twenty confess doing this, although we remember occasions when a roll- call of ,94 L. S. would have shown a more complete attendance there than at an average recitation. Sev- eral claim to have discontinued this practice, but a recent case aroused all the old interest in the pro- ceedings there. One says he attended it as an optional only, while another went only when able to prove an zzffbf. No one in the class has failed at sometime to attend some of the courts, and in our later days with our tastes better educated and more refined, we have taken great interest in the trial of civil cases in the Superior Court or in the arguments before the Supreme Court when it sits in New Haven, unless, indeed, Mr. Case was defending some one in the criminal side for murder or other felony. Five men own up frankly that they have been sub- jected to the humiliation of arrest, but their ingenu- ousness extends no farther--they do not relate any of the details which give .life and color to such experi-

Page 76 text:

Tllli YALE Sl'llNGI.l'1. 71 Our opinion of Moot Courts was given before they had been reduced to their present effective form, and has consequently undergone considerable modification. Although a few have given this means of preparing law students for the application of the principles learned in the text books a moderate amount of praise, the view generally taken has been decidedly unfavorable, and many have used very emphatic words of disapproval. Of the minority who think them valuable, one says that theyv are of decided advantage, enabling a lawyer to wear off the rough edges before he commences actual warfare. fLieber's Code forbids the use of rough edges in warfare.j Several others think that the practice and confidence derived from participation in mock trials will prove very useful, others think that the advantages accrue only to those taking part, and consequently, on account of the size of the class, are small. As exam- ples of the opinion of that more numerous body whose opinionsof Moot Court are unfriendly, we give the following: Very good as far as they go, and plenty of them such as they are. Good to kill time. HN. G., Footless, Could be improved, More entertaining than instructive, Absurd, Rather tiresome, but no doubt beneficial to Levy, Agony for the listeners, etc. It is but just to state that we had not then been present at the magnificent display of Mr. Hawkes in the leading ease of Yjwm' 21. Cfnzffcs Q4 Napoleon Blast, 7287, on which memorable occasion, that gentleman, with so much humor and satire, applied the rules of Forensic Oratory with so much intelligence.

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llllx XAl.l', Slllkl.l.l'.. 73 ences. Several exclaim against the personal nature of this question, as if they could a tale unfold, if they chose. One says, This is too much -dolzzs fair! fu ,gz'1zw'fz!z'bzzs. Under the head of narrow escapes, which we understood to mean escapes from arrest, all kinds of providential deliverences from accident and casualty as well as from the clutches of the law are narrated. Two men say they escaped manacles or a ride in the patrol wagon, one on the strength of a pull, the other out of sheer good fortune. One man stood by a friend, and suffered for it, while another received a bullet wound while trying to bag a- there a word of frequent use in the avigvf of medical students is usedj for Forensic Medicine. Other instances of narrow escapes, barring small-pox. drowning and falling from trees and windows are: Asked a girl if she would marry me, and she said she didn't know, Got caught stealing a pickle, Asked a young lady her age g one man's life was jeopardized by a tramp who wanted a nickel, and another man says he didn't escape. The narrowest escape recorded is that of one who was present at Koster and Bial's last Thanksgiving evening, and did not suffer for it. Seven men, of whom two are a little doubtful, intend to return next year for an M. L. course. Two more intend to take a course in the New York Law School. About thirty-live of us intend to go into the ofhces of older lawyers. Two say they are going in with their fathers, while another says, I am going to take Pa in with me. Hawkes may take an older lawyer in