REPORTS OF CASES DETERMINED BY THE SUPREME COURT · OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI Between April 1, 1920, and June 4, 1920. PERRY S. RADER, REPORTER. VOL. 282. COLUMBIA, MO.: E. W. STEPHENS PUBLISHING CO. Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1921 by E. W. STEPHENS PUBLISHING CO. In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C IN MEMORIAM. HENRY WHITELAW BOND October Term, October 12, 1920 CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERT F. WALKER: "The court having set apart the morning hour to exercise in memory of our late Chief Justice, HENRY W. BOND, and to receive his portrait to be presented by his widow, we will be pleased to listen to such tributes as members of the bar deem it proper to tender on this occasion." HON. E. J. WHITE, of the City of St. Louis, said: MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT: My friends, the Court has stayed the usual proceedings of the day to enable the family of former Chief Justice HENRY W. BOND, of St. Louis, to present his portrait to the Court, and, incidentally, to also afford us an opportunity to pay a tribute to our departed friend. History tells us that, in the liberty-loving days of two thousand years ago, when Rome was the mistress of the world, it had been the custom for ages to preserve the likenesses of her distinguished citizens in paint and marble for the inspiration of succeeding generations. The psychological effect of being able to connect the likeness of an author with his production cannot be over-estimated. I remember, as a young man, when I would read the terse, scholarly opinions of such men as MARSHALL and STORY of the Federal Bench, and Scort, WAGNER, NAPTON and other members of our own Supreme Court of the previous generation, the conclusions of these eminent jurists would leave a more lasting impression upon my mind where I carried along with the opinion the recollection of the author. It is stimulating and adds to the interest with which the decision of a court is read if the judge delivering the opinion is not a mere abstraction, but a creature of flesh and blood, whose personal appearance is known to and remembered by the reader, and, judging from the effect on myself, as a young man, from a study of the faces of the distinguished jurists of a previous age, I believe that young men of the coming generation would derive inspiration from seeing upon the walls of this gallery the likenesses of yourselves and of your contemporaries upon this bench. According to the philosophy of Aristotle, which was the best the world has had until that of the gentle Nazarene, Art was regarded by the Athenians as exerting a most potent influence on the elevation of the mind and for purifying the emotions. Nature, he said, had [282 Mo. Sup. (iii) left men naked and defenseless, but provided him with the "tool of tools," the hand, which could not be employed in a more useful work than in supplementing Nature by preserving its highest types in paint and marble. Man has been likened by the poet to "a mere atom of a moment's space," but, according to Sallust's philosophy, we complain wrongly about the brevity of life, since it is not so much the brief span of our existence, but our lack of energy that prevents the accomplishment of our higher ideals, and, when we contemplate the wonderful accomplishments of mere man, whose genius tamed the lightning, surmounted the mountains, bridged the oceans, navigated the air, and, in a few generations, has builded in our own country such a wonderful government, we cannot but feel a just pride in the fact that we belong to the human family, however brief our allotted time upon earth may be, and those of us who belong to the legal profession, when we contemplate the work that lawyers did in the establishment of our free government, can but feel the pride that Cicero expressed in his tribute to Hortensius, that our lives are consecrated to such a profession. Judge BOND, by his scholarly attainments, professional life and the services rendered to his state and country, while a member of this court and the St. Louis Court of Appeals, deserves well from his profession and the citizens of his State. With a deep, abiding sympathy for his fellowman, with a warm, impulsive heart and nature, a man well trained in the science of the law and enriched with the traditions of the profession, Judge BOND's opinions were both scholarly and erudite. He had a keen, analytical mind and went directly to the merits of a cause; he had a knowledge of the law and practice possessed by few members of his profession, and this, with the classical scholarship which he possessed, made him, not only one of the most useful, but one of the most ornamental, members of this court. I shall never forget the early impression which I received of Judge BOND, when a young lawyer with my first case before the St. Louis Court of Appeals. Ordinary judicial courtesy would not express the impression I gained, but back of this were the deep sympathy and friendiness of the man, as well as the trained lawyer and judge selected to arbitrate the rights of litigants. His service as a member of this tribunal is well known to his associates and his contemporaries at the bar. If determined for what he believed the right of a cause, he would bring to bear the logic and philosophy of the law to sustain his position, and, if set in his opinion, back of his determination there were aways a quaint humor and generosity that bound his friends to him with hoops of steel. While Judge BOND lived a full, well-rounded life, he died in the ideal way, without long suffering or a lingering death; indeed, "He died as one that had been studied in his death; As 'twere a careless trifle." |