GREAT MEN'S BODIES
Thomas Addis Emmet, Aaron Burr, John Wells, Ogden Hoffman, and of other artists in legal word-craft whose portraits graced the library walls; with touching incidents in his own professional life; his ideas as to the qualities and endowments which constitute a great lawyer; his youthful favorites at the bar, etc.
"When, past midnight, we left the building and walked to the depot in the cold, cutting wind and blinding snow-storm, I marvelled to see him walking with the upright gait and alert step of a vigorous young man.
"He and General Sherman must have resembled each other in their strong and hardy ways; just as, in these fancied resemblances, we might perhaps believe that Mr. Evarts, in his sterling honesty, kindness of heart, and keen sense of humor, was a college-bred counterpart of Abraham Lincoln.
"On another occasion, and on perhaps the worst day ever seen in New York, excepting Blizzard day, he came into the library-rooms about ten o'clock in the morning, after walking from the depot in West Thirtieth Street (about four miles).
"He was fairly covered with snow-flakes and clinging icicles. His greeting was pleasant, and he really appeared more like a thinly carved Santa Claus than the great leader of the American bar.
"To my remonstrances that it was a shame for a person of his venerable years to expose himself in the pitiless storm, and that he should have remained in-doors at home, he replied, laughingly: 'Mr. Winters, this is nothing. When I have work to do elsewhere, it would take more than an earthquake to keep me at home.'
"To those who knew Brady, O'Conor, Evarts, and Field, it would seem that their worldly success was as much due to their marvellous physical health and perfection as to school discipline or mental culture.
No man who ever saw Mr. O'Conor could soon forget his lofty bearing; his searching eye; his manly, straightforward action, and the ease and dignity of his every movement. Irishmen are proud of him, because,
375
