University of Texas School of Law - Peregrinus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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Dorothy Smith Nina Delorme Marjorie Huff SECRETARIES Margaret Shoap Ruth Taylor Anna Frances Jones Karine Gips LaWanda Osborn -

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HUBERT WINSTON SMITH Professor of Law AB, T e xa s , 1927; MBA, Texas 1931; MD, Harvard, 1941; LLB, Harvard, 1930; Subjects: Evidence, Legal Medicine Elements of Medicolegal Litigation. JOSEPH TYREE SNEED Associate Professor of Law BBA, Southwestern, 1941; LLB, Texas, 1947; Subjects: Contracts, Creditors Rights,Fraud and Misrepresentation. GRAY THORON Professor of Law AB,Harvard, 1938; LLB,Harvard, 1941; Subjects: Brief Writing and Advocacy, Corporations I and II.. WILLIAM F. YOUNG Associate Professor of Law BA,Texas, 1947; LLB, Texas, 19-49; On leave of absence. JERRE S. WILLIAMS Professor of Law AB, Denver, 1938; LLB, Columbia, 1941; Subjects: Labor Relations, ConstitulionalLaw, Employees' Rights. JOSEPH P. WITHERSPOON Associate Professor of Law AB, Chicago, 1936; LLB, Texas, 1948; Subjects: Legislation , Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Trade Regulation.

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Judge W. S. Simians’ Own Story of Peregrmus You ask for the origin of Peregrinus. I well remember its birth, — in fact I was present at the accouchement. This nondescript sprang fully armed and equipped for its mission not from a mental Jove, but from a disordered brain of a Savage. Many years ago I was trying to explain to the class in Equity, the origin of the system in Rome and the sources of Equity in the Roman Empire. At that time fledglings just from the high schools were admitted to the Law School. Many of them had never heard of the Roman Empire, and not a few spelled cow with a K. Well, I explained to them that when Rome conquered a nation it was incorporated into the Roman Empire subject to its own laws and not to the laws of Rome — that the Roman citizen was not subject to the laws of these incorporated nations, — that indue course commerce sprang up between the citizens of Rome and the barbaric nations, and there was no law to determine and settle their contractual relations. The Roman Emperor, to settle the troubles arising out of the fact that there was no law applicable to control their contract, appointed a Praetor or chancellor to travel among these nations and to settle all dispute s without reference to the laws of Rome, or of the incorporated Nations, but to do justice and decide all disputes, alone by the conscience of the Praetor. Peregrinating from one nation to the other, he has called a Praetor PereRrinus. The boneheads of the class evidently thought that Peregrinus was an internal organ of the body, for they continually greeted each other, ‘How is your Peregrinus today?’ This fact seems to have developed the humorous side of the incident, and Russell Savage developed a concrete expression of it on the black board,,and thus the tradition began. Russell drew better than he knew, for the nondescript animal symbolizes both in limb and attitude the maxims in Equity that guide the administration of the system. For instance, on one of the front feet as originally drawn was an Irish ditcher’s boot, — indicating the law’s protection to the least of mankind. On the other front foot were naked claws, indicating that the greatest of mankind must fear its power. The arched back in the attitude of springing, indicated that the law was ever ready to protect right or prevent wrong. The sharp beak indicated the power to penetrate the mysteries of the law, which the true student must obtain by study. The bushy tail indicated that Equity brushes away the technicalities of the law and does justice to the merits.