one volume the arrangement is by authorship or by the name belonging to statutes and re ports, and in the other volume, arrangement is by subjects. Berry did not go farther, as he might truly have done, and told how, to a large ex tent, he could with a lawyer's trained refer ence memory quote volumes and pages for many a remarkable legal doctrine or cause eclcbre. Indeed I have heard my late law partner, a charter member of the Associ ation, Aaron J. Vanderpoel, substantially re mark, often when some new law-point arose, or some doctrine was oddly differentiated in a pending matter, he, previous to roaming among probable volumes, had tapped Berry's suggestive memory and found it a valuable beacon to a path of precedent in the matter. Inasmuch as the business affairs of clients ramify themselves into every portion of the globe, it is necessary for the American lawyer to be able to find references to foreign statutes, decisions, usages and customs. He, whether a member of the Bar Association or its guest from a distance, will not be at a loss in this library to find in such respect what soever book he wishes. The law-treatises and the statutes or laws of every civilized coun try have been placed upon its shelves. Those books which are comparatively obsolete or superseded are also on shelves for the tracing of legal evolution. The volumes, for in stance, collected under verbo India are many and odd in title and treatment. Copies of all our treaties are here, opinions of attorneygenerals also. Lawyers baffled in the Con gressional library over mooted points have solved them in this library. Berry has often been called upon to answer inquiries from lawyers at a distance respecting references; and in his desk at the east end of the libraryroom are on file letters from eminent jurists asking information as to volumes and cases. Much of the anxiety, worry, and sys tematic arrangement for the recent housewarming had fallen upon Sidney Smith, of the historic firm of Martin and Smith, who
is treasurer; and perhaps to his taste is large ly due the harmonious selection of the ex quisite upholstery throughout the edifice, and the choice of carpets — a taste inherited from his mother, a Knickerbocker belle in former days, of social fame and refinement. Doubtless many of the ladies who graced the house-warming reception on the evening of the eighth of October ultimo marveled at the taste displayed by a mere man in the deco rations and internal arrangements of the entire building. This reception was a social event fairly in augurating the fashionable New York sea son of 1896-7. Flora had associated herself with Themis in massing roses, pinks, violets and newborn chrysanthemums in all the cor ridors and rooms, and in embracing polished pillars and book-shelves with smilax. Bril liant toilettes had produced memories of grace and beauty for future gatherings of lawyers, and even amid their ponderings over dry library books. Tennyson's " rosebud garden of girls " was seen in every portion of the legal palace; and music came to fasten melodies upon rafters and frescoed ceilings to be recalled in future days and evenings. Wives, sisters and sweethearts might here after banish any regrets at the absence of lawyer husband or brother or lover who had gone to the Bar Association club house: because each knew that therein his lines must fall in pleasant places. The ladies were told how and why Coke upon Lyttleton was a phrase only used nowadays by novel ists; Gould on Kent or " Browne's Domestic Relations," or "Jones on Pledges," were more in vogue as titles of modern treatises in jurisprudence than Coke upon Lyttleton or Fearne on Contingent Remainders. And when the ladies demurely asked of their le gal escorts whether legal science was not confusing, they were shown, for affirmative answer, Beach on the" Modern Law of Con tracts " of 3,000 pages, containing 26,000 cases examined, cited and reviewed. Not a few ladies shuddered when, passing through
