most spoken of, was the unfailing kindness of Mr. Harris' disposition.

He was always ready to help the young man who was making his way and always gratified with the success achieved. While most lenient with the wrong doer, he was intolerant and relentless toward the wrong done.

His last message to our citizens, printed in one of our daily papers a few weeks before his death, was to remind them of their duty to check the needless and unjustifiable extravagance of some public official whom he fearlessly denounced.

I think few of Mr. Harris' friends knew how deep and broad were his sympathies and with what a gentle touch the fountains of his emotions could be stirred to their depths. Did they ever come to him and miss the sympathetic word; it was because he remembered his own sorrows and knew he could help them most by leading their minds into happier veins of thought.

Mr. Harris cherished the conviction that it was one's duty to be cheerful and in this spirit met the increasing infirmities of age. We, who had been intimately associated with one in whom health and energy and capacity for work had seemed boundless, saw in the lengthening shadows new strength and finer elements of character, undeveloped in the morning and at high noon. Out of the discipline of years came great courage, wonderful patiece and a cheerfulness that would permit no shadow of their coming bereavement to fall upon the hearts of those he loved. It was then that his family and friends who in other days were wont to be refreshed by the sweetness of his humor and his wholesome love of fun, now received as a benediction the richest treasures with which a marvelous memory had stored his mind. Reminiscences of early friends and associates, incidents and scenes connected with the development of history during the last half century, words of advice and counsel for the future, precepts which showed how sincere were his purposes, how sound his philosophy.

It was at this time that we heard Mr. Harris speak with greater affection than ever before of his associates at the bar and the members of his profession.

He was too ill to leave home to participate in the oral argument of his last case to which Mr. Bennett referred, and which was decided twelve days before his death. He was not cast down by his disappointment, as we had feared, though his hopes had been intent upon going, "not," as he said, "to argue the questions; others could do that, but to meet once more the judges of the court and to greet again the lawyers interested in the case." We noted the serenity with which he was putting his affairs in order, and though no word was spoken, we knew the glory of a great light was guiding his footsteps through the valley. And when he had gone, the pastor of the church he attended and whose counselor and supporter he had been, gave us this message: "I want to be remembered by my family and friends as a firm believer in God and in his Son our Lord."

We were comforted for we beheld the fulfillment of that high ideal which he himself gave to this association, when you honored him as your president, "There is no more exalted human character than the man of our profession who had rounded out a life of industry as an honest and successful lawyer."

MEMORIAL ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF

RICHARD A. HARRISON

BY HENRY J. BOOTH.

A few years ago a member of one of the Federal Courts said that, of all the lawyers who appeared in his court, including the most eminent members of the bars of several of the Middle Western States, those who impressed the court most favorably were the two Harrisons, Benjamin Harrison of Indianapolis, and Richard A. Harrison of Ohio. The latter familiarly known for years as "the Dean of his profession," died less than twelve months ago full of years and crowned with the well-won laurels of his profession.

Richard Almgill Harrison was born at Thirsk, a town of Yorkshire, England, April 8th, 1824, and died at his home in Columbus, July 30th, 1904. For those of us who knew his mental vigor and his interest in his professional work, even after he had entered upon his four-score years and one, it is difficult to realize that twenty-four lives, such as his, in succession, would more than span the period of the Christian era.

When the subject of this memorial was eight years of age, the family, except an older brother, came to America, settling first at Waynesville, Warren county, this State, but soon afterwards removed to Springfield, which was regarded as really its first, as it became its permanent, American home.

His father and three of his brothers were ministers in the Methodist Episcopal church. His parents were not able to give their children a collegiate education, and Richard, being thrown upon his own resources, at the age of twelve years entered the office of the Springfield Republic, where he remained as "printers' devil," compositor and reporter until he reached the age of twenty years, when he entered as a student the office of Judge

William A. Rogers, one of the most prominent members of the Springfield bar.

After eighteen months' study in that office, in the fall of 1845 he entered the Cincinnati Law school, from which he graduated February 25th, 1846. On the 23d of the following May he was admitted to the bar by the old Supreme Court, sitting at London, Madison county.

Shortly afterwards, he located in London, a village then having a population of less than five hundred, where he practiced without interruption-except during a period of less than six years when he was in public office, from January, 1858, to March, 1863-until 1873, when he moved to Columbus, where his firm soon secured the largest practice in Central Ohio. Since then Mr. Harrison continued to practice with unremitting diligence and zeal, and unequaled success, until death called him from his labors, his last brief being filed in the Supreme Court of this state on the inorning of his death.

During nearly sixty years of practice, he turned aside from his professional duties only for three brief terms of public service, four years in the General Assembly, and less than two in Congress, having been chosen at a special election held in May, 1861, to fill the vacancy caused by the appointment of Thomas A. Corwin as Minister to Mexico.

His services in the Senate were especially noteworthy on account of the presentation of a series of resolutions drawn by him pledging the loyal support of the State of Ohio to the national. government in the then impending struggle between the North and the South. Those resolutions precipitated a memorable debate, in which Mr. Harrison was the most conspicuous figure. The climax was reached in his argument which, for its learning and logic, was worthy of a Webster; but during its delivery Mr. Harrison was prostrated by a severe hemorrhage of the lungs and was carried more dead than alive from the capitol building to his hotel. But the victory had been won. Ultimately, although then as always comparatively frail in body, he was able to resume his duties as the leader of the Union party in the Senate

among such colleagues as Thomas M. Key, Jacob D. Cox and James A. Garfield.

His public service in Washington ended March 4th, 1863. On account of his industry, his learning, his courage and his preeminent powers as a debator, if he had continued in public life he would doubtless have taken rank with the leading statesmen and parliamentary orators of the country during and following the reconstruction period, and his great arguments would have been quoted as classics instead of being buried in that great Mausoleum of our profession, the Ohio State Reports.

But his profession claimed him, and he again espoused the law as his career, certainly as honorable, and possibly as influential, as any that could come to him by the favor of a loyal constituency. For who can say that the discussion of great legal principles, which take root in the labor and the learnig of counsel, blossom in the opinions of the courts, and bear fruit in their decisions, are less important than discussions, more fervid but less learned, presented in other forums,

Where false the light on glory's plume

As fading hues of even?

After resuming his practice in 1863, Mr. Harrison never again sought public office except in 1870, when he was a candidate for judge of the Supreme Court of this State, but was defeated with his ticket. In 1875 he was tendered a place on the Supreme Court Commission by Governor Hayes, and subsequently was offered by Governor Foraker a seat in the Supreme Court made vacant by the death of Judge Johnson. Both of these offers were declined because he did not believe he could afford to make the financial sacrifice which would have resulted from the surrender of a lucrative practice in exchange for the small compensation then allowed to judges in Ohio. The age limit alone prevented his appointment, by President Harrison, to the seat on the Supreme bench of the United States made vacant by the death of Mr. Justice Jackson of Tennesssee.

Mr. Harrison was the third president of this Association, and served it in various capacities with distinguished ability during