had better resign their positions. Mr. Comstock is known as a very zealous agent in preventing the spread of obscene literature; but in this case, in stead of appealing to State law, which is ample for the emergency, he has seen fit to assume the name of another and lure the defendant into crime. There are some things in this world that are much worse than sending obscene matter through the mail. One of them is the practice of fraud and lying, of which Mr. Comstock has apparently been guilty. He may be able to reconcile such conduct to the laws of God and morality, but this court is not." This outburst of righteous indignation against the means often employed by these self-constituted guardians of the public morals will meet with hearty approval.
ftccent SDeatfjg. David Clopton, Associate Justice of the Su preme Court of the State of Alabama, died on February 5. He was born in Putnam County. Ga. At Macon, Ga., Judge Clopton was fitted for college, and he was graduated from RandolphMacon, in 1840, with the first honors of his class. After leaving college he read law at Macon under A. H. Chappel, and was there subsequently ad mitted to the bar. Ha was twenty-one years of age when he began the practice of law at Griffin, Ga., and from there, at the end of eighteen months, moved to Tuskegee, Ala, where he was living at the outbreak of the war. He represented his district in the United States Congress in 18591860, and was a seceding member in 1861. In the spring of the latter year he enlisted as a pri vate in the Twelfth Alabama Infantry. In the fall of 186 1 the people of his district elected him Representative to the regular Confederate Con gress, of which body he remained a member to the end of the Confederacy. He returned to Tuskegee, resumed the practice of law, and in the fall of :866 moved Jto Montgomery, where he formed a partnership with George W. Stone (the present Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court) and Gen. James H. Clanton, under the style and firm name of Stone, Clopton, & Clanton. General Clanton having been killed in 1869 at Knoxville, Term., the firm became Stone & Clopton. This
firm existed until Stone was appointed by Gov ernor Houston ( 1876) to the Associate Judgeship of the Supreme Court. After that Judge Clopton formed a partnership with Hon. H. A. Herbert and William L. Chambers, which partnership lasted four years. Mr. Herbert's desire to remain in Congress led to its dissolution, and Mr. Chambers entered the banking business. In 1885 Governor O'Neal appointed Judge Clopton to the Supreme Court Bench to fill a vacancy, and in the following year he was elected for the regular term of six years. As a lawyer, judge, statesman, and citizen, Judge Clopton was an ornament to his adopted State; and his death leaves a gap which it will be hard to fill. William H. King, one of the best known law yers of the State, and one of the leading members of the Chicago Bar, died February 6. Mr. King was born in Clifton Park, Saratoga County, N. Y., Oct. 23, 181 7. After receiving a common school education he entered Union College, from which institution he graduated in 1846. In 1879 tne college conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. Immediately after graduation he studied law with the Hon. John K. Porter, of Waterford, N. Y., and was admitted to practice in 1847. He re mained in Waterford until 1853, when he went to Chicago. During his long residence in that city he held many places of honor and trust. He was one of the founders of the Chicago Law Institute, and one of its first presidents. He was for sev eral years President of the Chicago Board of Edu cation, and King School was named for him. He was also a member of the State Legislature, and was recognized as one of the ablest debaters and best orators of that body. Roscoe B. Wheeler, a prominent lawyer in Detroit, died on February 2. He was a native of Michigan, and was born at La Grange, June 5, 1848. In 1872 he moved to Detroit, and a year later became a resident of Niles, where he en gaged in the manufacture of baskets. He after ward located at Peru, Ind., and engaged as travel ling salesman for Gardner, Blish & Co., at that time the most extensive manufacturers of baskets in the United States. Later on he returned to this city, and worked for a time in the Beckwith foun dry, and still later went to Detroit and opened a patent-law office, where he resided until his death.
