Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/450

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

The Editor's Bag "I think you had better stay here so as to give your patients a chance to get well." At another time Judge Hubbard was pre siding when he had before him the Governor, who was practising in his Court and who felt that the Judge ruled against him; he finally said, "Your Honor, you perhaps have for gotten that I appointed you to your present position." The Judge sarcastically remarked, "No, I have not, and that was the only wise thing you did during the time you were Gov ernor," and he went on ruling against him as he had before. During a long and bitter trial in a matter arising out of an old partnership affair grow ing out of business deals with his old friend John Ware, Judge Hubbard on cross-examina tion got the witness pretty well mixed up. The court adjourned for a few minutes, it being a hot day in June, and as Ware, trying to get a little breathing spell, wiped his face with a red bandana, Judge Hubbard piped out in a sneering voice, for which he was famous, loud enough to be heard by the bar and frequenters of the court, saying "John, it makes you sweat to tell the truth, don't it?" The Judge was a good friend and also a bitter hater. He and his old partner, Stephens, fell out over business matters and ended up in a row, when Judge Hubbard shook his fist in his old partner's face and said, "don't step in front of my path, and I will give you warning now that I don't want you to attend my funeral and I won't go to yours," for all of which his partner thanked him in the most profuse manner, and as Judge Hubbard survived he kept his word. Judge Hubbard sometimes overlooked the ability in an opponent and frequently took advantage of the embarassment of youth. During an assignment a young New York lawyer by the name of Tom Corbett had made his appearance in Linn county as a lawyer and had an only case on the docket. The presiding Judge very modestly asked Mr. Corbett his name; Mr. Corbett arose to tell it, but the Judge did not hear him, and Hubbard stood up and said, "put him down plain 'Tom'—that is good enough." Mr. Corbett sat down blushing like a young girl, swearing vengeance at the Judge's remark, saying that he would get even some time. Corbett became a great lawyer and Judge Hubbard became the subject of his heartless raillery, his pungent wit and sharp retorts

423

in the trial of cases whenever he was on the other side. Judge Hubbard was for many years the Iowa attorney for the Northwestern Railway and had the appointing of assistant attorneys in various counties along the line. He was asked at one time how a certain attorney who had been appointed behaved, and the Judge replied, "he is a real bull in a china shop— what he does not break, he dirties." He said of another local attorney, "you see here's my assistant J.; he is so technical that he will fall all over a crowbar to hunt for a pin and not even see the crowbar, mind you." At another time he bemoaned to a friend that X had quit drinking; the friend said, "I never heard of any one being sorry for a man who stops a bad habit." Hubbard replied, "Well, you see we could have said of poor X that he was a mighty smart man if it wasn't for hjs drinking; now we all have to acknowl edge that he wasn't anything but a fool, any way." During one of the political campaigns in Iowa Hubbard was accused of giving away five hundred passes to the delegates for railway influence. When asked by a friend about the truth of this—as he thought— unfounded charge the Judge replied, "That accusation is a lie; I gave away eleven hundred tickets this year, that was all." During the fight over the governorship some years before his death Hubbard saw before hand the turn of affairs and suggested that his candidate withdraw, but the candidate said "No, I have the support of enough dele gates to elect me if they will all stick, and, furthermore, I have Providence on my side." Hubbard simply replied, "Well, you can take to Providence and I will take to Shaw," the name of the rival candidate who was in the lead. While arguing a case before the Supreme Court of the state the opposing attorney had pounded the table at great length, and when he had concluded a lengthy argument Judge Hubbard arose to reply in the following speech: "I am the son of a blacksmith; I have been a blacksmith myself; I am pretty strong and can pound this oak table to pieces and I will pound this oak table into splinters if it will help me win this case," and he went on in this strain until the members of the court laughed and forgot all the points the opposing counsel had made. During a contest where several lawyers