Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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rejected them, if ignorant of what citizenship in this country means. lt was one of these who proclaimed him an ' Injunf So this duelist in field and forum, this secessionist fore and aft, went to New York, direct from the held of battle, and the tire of the elements in him con- sumed opposition, burned away barriers and opened to him the position of justice of the Supreme Court in the metropolis of the Empire State of the Empress Republic of the earth, and ll- is called there: .X gentle, gracious, kindly gentle- man of the old school-kind in the home, kind on the bench. A country boy of the poor lands of Diuwiddie and the old fields and simple homes of Nottoway, editor. politician. special ambassador, member of Congress of the United States and of the Confederate States, General in the Southern -Xrinjx private soldier, prisoner. peuniless and countryless man. lawyer, judge, justice: in the retrospect of this chequered career, the thing he recalls with most satisfac- tion is, that instead of succumbing under the ruin in which the war involved him at the age of thirty-seven, in middle life, he equipped himself for a new profession, and although poor and with a large family. he struggled with such patience and industry, that in a strange and then hostile community, he has achieved a fair measure of success. May his merciful God and the faith of his fathers preserve his remaining years in peace and usefulness, free from 1ife's cares and trials, and shielded from its storms and battles. REV. T. P. Eiflzs, D. D. Blackstone, Virginia. . . - ff 195 , Qifaf if . - ii I f! .eS'fui. ' ' . f' E1 l4 ff3? fiiqi-fiat. . we . Q '-i'.'os--2'- mg, H , -rw-f:,,f,:::f w'E:QQfl: fg ' ' KA ,,.. ' '.EQ .3,!ji!f, q --- Q-.-- 17

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eminence. His great talents and acumen demanded recognition. The Tilton- Beecher case and the Morey letter case brought him prominently before the public. These were followed by the famous Sprague case in Rhode Island and the im- peachment case of Governor Ames in Mississippi, which brought him a national reputation. XVhen Q'Donnell was put on trial in London for the murder of informer Carney, Mr. Pryor was sent across to defend him, and his reputation became fIIfL'l'1ltIfli01IUI.H Many other cases, as the anarchist cases in Chicago, the sugar monopoly case in Xlfashington when he struck an early blow against trusts, might have been added. In ISQO he became judge of the Court of Common Pleas of New York, and continued so till ,Q5, when he was made Justice of the Supreme Court, from which he was retired in 1898 by the age limit of seventy ripe years, full of action, and he is still in action, doing a large practise. XVhen chosen judge, he led the ticket, being elected by 6o,ooo majority, receiving a larger vote than even the Governor at the head of it. It is in divorce and corporation law that Judge Pryor has shown special fearlessness, ability, and absolute incorruptibility in interpreting and maintaining the statutes. 'When he retired from the bench, the New York lV01'Id said: That fine gentleman and learned judge, Roger A. Pryor, sat for the last time in the Supreme Court yesterday. The Justice has furnished here a whiPf of the old chivalry of the South before the war. Blown into the colder atmosphere of the New York courts. he has always been instinct with that chivalry in his treatment of women litigants. He fone day startled the courtroom by declaring he would not believe the confession of a corespondent, backed by the statement of a private detective, against the unsupported denial of a woman. Corespondents who testified against women have been made most unhappy by justice Pryor. ' It is infamous to marry a woman iust for her moneyl' he impulsively exclaimed. For himself as the representative of the law, Justice Pryor has always com- manded the utmost respect. There was a wordy and acrimonious dispute between counsel in chambers where Pryor was sitting. He tapped gently on the floor before him, the disputants became silent, and in the gentlest tone the Judge said: ' Please to remember. gentlemen. when you practise law in this part of the court and when I am on the bench, that it is as important to study Chesterfield as Blackstone' Necessarily, Justice Pryor is a true American. He refused an application for the incorporation of a club of foreign-born citizens in New York and has always closely questioned applicants for naturalization and always promptly I6

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r.f,Y ,, b fs.:- f 95 YS' .1 jjrvpfvk V 5. xi . 2 as, - 18' Er. IG. HH. Smith. Ham' nlim 111c111z'111',vsv jniulvif. '.,a 'E '., NE who was on the Hill, as the site of Hampden-Sidney College g Q i' and Union Theological Seminary has been familiarly called from ag time immemorial, from the fifties to the seventies of the last pg! as 'EM Century, frequently saw several well-known figures now passed Sk 'i 2 away from human view: Professor Martin, picturesque, with long grey beard Hoating on the wind, going to meet a Latin or Greek class-a little lateg Professor Holladay, on an afternoon stroll with a favorite pointer: Dr. Atkinson, with earnest face and stalwart frame, taking long strides through fields and woods in easy conversation with some student who loved him and wanted to learn from him: Dr. Dabney, in his garden working with the same determination and vim in taking his exercise and recreation as in his greater sphere of the lecture-roomg Dr. Peck, wearing gold spectacles and taking 18