The Law as a Career in America sent him sprawling to the ground, McCarthy rushed off in the direction of the officers' quarters. Wise, who had been observing McCarthy's conduct from his window, saw him coming and calmly withdrew his revolver from its holster and waited for McCarthy to enter, which he did in a rage, slamming the doors be hind him and uttering the oaths of a Spanish pirate. Approaching within a few feet of Wise he saw the revolver, paused and said: "Put down de gun and I will lick the ground wid ye." Wise did put down the gun, and a few minutes later those who heard the com motion and had assembled outside saw McCarthy's body flying through the front door as if shot from a cannon and roll down the steps, to be taken not to the guard house, but to the hospital. Later, when McCarthy had fully recov ered from the severe thrashing, he again approached Wise and, coming to "atten tion," saluted and said: "Major, I wants to thank you for not killing me." As soon as vacation time comes, he migrates to Cape Charles, Virginia, the ancestral home of the Wise family since the early part of the seventeenth cen tury. And if the weather is fair, he is
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likely to be seen rambling along the beach in company with his three babies, Bosso (a Shetland pony), and a variable number of pointers and setters. If, how ever, the weather is cloudy, as it fre quently is at the Virginia capes, it is a fair guess that he will be found lying on the floor in the same company, Bosso excepted, reading Mother Goose stories for their edification. Those of an older generation observ ing the confidence and abandon with which he presents his facts to the jury, recall the famous debates in which his father, John S. Wise, who, in one of the most brilliant and picturesque campaigns in the annals of American history, mar shaled the young men of Virginia under the Readjuster party, and his grand father, Henry A. Wise of Virginia, stand ing over the prostrate form of KnowNothingism, which he had driven from American politics, and saying: "I have met the Black Knight with his visor down, and his lance and spear are broken." Thus history has held the name of Wise for twelve generations, unto Sir William Wise, knighted by Henry VIII.
The Law as a Career in America* By Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte TO one debating with himself which road he shall take of several open before him it is of decisive moment where he wishes to go; until he is clear in his mind as to this, he can make no intelli gent choice. For the same reason, be fore a young man can decide upon his work in fife and before any one can advise him fruitfully how he ought to •Delivered at the Harvard Union, April 2, 1909.
decide, he or his mentor must know what he hopes and wishes to get out of life by means of such work; what, for him, are the ends of working and of living; what he would make of himself and be to others through the work he does and the life he lives. Of course, there are certain conditions imposed by the nature of things upon the choice of any profession: a blind man cannot
