John Marshall Law School - Abstract Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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- ' . ■ ■ l gfflssyf - ■ Curly and Broadway Bil Double-Dealin) The Landlord Brother Joy Louder, Tiger, Louder!

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he .landlord Wit and humor are difficult elements to han- dle in a classroom. They are likely to cause embarrassment to students and sometimes to the instructor, or to escape control and work con- fusion in ranks which can provide enough of that sort of thing for themselves. But strange- ly enough, neither of these results follows Mr. Liss ' combination of elements in his course, where the ambitious scholar may learn wit, hu- mor, dramatics, real property, contracts, and the law applicable to Landlord and Tenant. True, there is occasional embarrassment; but that suffered by the student comes from an oc- casional lack of any knowledge of the law in- volved in a question, that suffered by the in- structor generally results from asking a question to which not a single mental response appears on the tablets before him on which such re- sponses should be shown. His is like the em- barrassment of a man who finds himself half way through a swell speech at the wrong banquet. In the humor and drama sections of the course, Mr. Liss turns virtuoso, and looks it, with his shock of unruly black hair and his ever-moving, just as unruly hands, pointing v ith flashing gesture his sparkling witticisms. So that everyone will start on the right foot, the rules of the course are clearly announced on the opening night, the one most heavily stressed being: Til handle the comedy — you save your strength for answering questions. Thus relative positions are definitely outlined in the beginning, avoiding the danger which exists, with virtuosity in the air, of the place being overrun with leaders in the various fields of dramatic art, and the landlord forgotten in the howls of the tenants. ity in Illinois on the law of Landlord and Ten- ant and Forcible Entry and Detainer. Mr. Liss humor is swift and fluent, some- times a flash that lights up a point which be- fore had been just another black spot in the Stygian darkness; and the penchant for the sudden association of words causing merriment displays itself in our virtuoso only during the colloquy following a question which proceeds from him. No timid seeker of information or enightenment who addresses a question to the instructor is greeted with any attempt at hu- mor. His question is carefully considered and as carefully answered. And there is always time before or after class to clear up any point on which a student has doubts after a lecture, the theory apparently being that all the instructor ' s time spent in or near the school building belongs to the student. There are in this, as in every course, hidden defects: the genius who boasts of passing exam- inations without ever cracking a book, the in- different student who, without any good reason, disturbs lectures by coming late and leaving early. These are not known to the landlord at the beginning of the term and so he cannot be held liable therefor, nevertheless he soon discovers them and takes it upon him- self to cure them in one way or another. We whose lease has terminated were glad to escape a holdover which might be considered a renewal, but this was only because of our de;ire for progress. We can look back upon a pleasant term, spent in delightful premises managed efficiently by a magnanimous landlord. — C. G. JORDAN. The semi-weekly classes move swiftly for- ward between assignments of cases to be briefed and learned from Author Liss book of Illinois cases on Landlord and Tenant Law, predigested for student consumption. The book- includes all the Illinois law on the subject and the author-instructor has absorbed, in building his book and during his twenty-two years of practice, such a wide knowledge of this branch of the law that he is the acknowledged author- EDITOR ' S NOTE: This is the first of what we hope will be a series of articles, one to appear each year in the Abstract ' , about particular courses and instructors in The John Marshall Law School. Why Jid we begin with Landlord and Tenant and Mr. Liss? Because it s an important and popular course; because Mr. Liss is an alumnus of John Marshall who has done well in his profession and well with the course; and — because we just thought of the idea, time is short, and Mr. Liss makes good copy that s easy to write. Page Ninety

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brothers nder the Skin By HENRY XERXES DIETCH Riding down on the street car last evening, I met my old and very good friend, Percival Le Roy Fair- fax, K.C., Q.B., F.R.S.C.X., (ed. note: Hobo Col- lege ), but a most amiable soul for all that. After the usual felicitations, I invited Fairfax to have dinner with me, and he very graciously accepted. We cho.se LePetit Gourmet, for we had heard that one did not have to wash as many dishes per meal there as at other places less distinguished (the slave drivers), when one could not meet such a trifling mat- ter as a restaurant bill. Dogs, yea, sons of dogs, must these people be, who disturb the equanimity of true artists in the pursuit of gastronomical pleasures! I am always amazed by the breadth and profundity of Fairfa.x ' s store of worldly knowledge . . . but to- r.ight he was superb. In fine fettle, he had coursed up and down the land and around the world We were technically still guests and enjoying the fruits of our position. The head-waiter hovered solicitously over us, for he recognized in Fairfax that rare creature, a true epicurean gourmet. Gourmets there are in plenty, but in my life I have met only one genius and two epicurean gourmets. Fairfax is one, and the head-waiter watched rapturously. My friend and I sat toying with our after dinner liqueurs; we had already covered many topics of con- versation. We came by slow stages to the evils beset- ting this great country of ours. Fairfax waxed lo- quacious. He became oratorical. He waved his hands and gesticulated. You Americans, declaimed Fairfax, are you men, or are you mice? The situation is becoming fraught with danger but no one man is brave or hardy enough to face the facts. You slink about in won- derment and in excitable embarrassment. You pay and you pay, and yet your consciences dog your paths, and interfere with your souls. My dear fel- low, I tell you the situation is shaking the very foun- dations upon which the nation is built, the very hull upon which the Ship of State is reared, and the very backbone of every man, woman and child from the rockbound coast of Maine to the glorious, exhilarating, sunny shores of California. (Florida papers please copy.) Yes, my dear Fairfax 1 answered, but is there no hope for the doomed, no ray of light in this sea of hopelessness? I shudder to think of the conse- quences of such an earth-shaking problem. Be calm and take hope then. Fairfax paused to light a Corona Y Corona, furnished by the manage- ment, as I mentally inscribed the mounting costs of the sumptuous banquet. The tipping evil, he in- toned judiciously, can and will be solved, for it is not a problem which is inherent in the waiter aspect of the restaurant business. You have already stayed my beating heart, you have filled me with new life. I am rejuvenated, I cried. But exactly how are you going to go about it? What precedents, what examples are there to fol- low? Fairfax smiled wanly. As a barrister, I should not say it, for it is heresy. But precedent be damned. However, il you want precedent, I shall oblige, and what is more, I shall give you as precedent the culmination of civilized life, if you like civilization, — the legal profession. I stared, wondering what lawyers had to do with the tipping evil, except as grist for the tipping- mill. The table was being cleared just then, so I sat back and meditated. It was getting late and the head-waiter had departed. At least he would not see us do kitchen duty. At the first opportunity, when the table had been cleared, and Fairfax had ordered cafe noir, I de- manded an explanation. What possible connection can there be between tipping waiters, and lawyers? I asked. A matter of history, calmly observed Fairfax. You are brothers under the skin. It was this way, my dear fellow. Back in Merrie Olde England, law- yers started out on a tipping basis. You might even call it a tipster basis, if you wish. Anyway, the law- yers lived from hand to mouth on the bounty of their clients, as public policy forbade the lawyer charg- ing or even expecting payment in his legal capacity. What they did was to put the heat on their clients by walking around with little notices on their backs to the effect — T.I. P. — To Insure Progress , drop some of that filthy lucre in the box, in effect. And how they responded ! Really, I think they let the client worry about such paltry details. For psychol- ogically, who is the one who breaks out in a cold sweat, the tipper or the tippee? The tipper, of course. But time corroded the public policy of the day and the lawyer fell on lean years of fees, retainers, per- quisites, and contingent bases. And that is why, Mr. Restaurant Keeper, here Fairfax turned to the proprietor of Le Petit Gourmet, who had crept up on us, becoming anxious to hear the jingle of the coin of the realm, we must forbear payment until our circumstances permit it. As we were dragged off to the kitchen to the moun- tains of dishes there awaiting us, still buoyed up by the repast, Fairfax philosophically surveyed the scene, and in a sentence that will rank in the front lines of the world ' s wisest words, remarked, Yes, there is not much difference for some, from waiter to lawyer. I wondered — and then I understood. Page Ninety-two