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Robert E. Lee Saner

OBERT E. LEE SANER, senior member of the law firm of Saner, Saner, & Turner, was born on a farm near Washington, Arkansas, in 1871. His father was John Franklin Saner, a farmer and merchant; his mother was Susan Crawford Saner (nee Webb). His father's forebears hailed from Switzerland, one branch settling in Pennsylvania, the other at Salem, North Carolina. The Winston College for women, in the latter city, was founded by the Swiss settlers. His mother sprang from English and Irish ancestors, who originally settled in North Carolina, moving thence to Mississippi, and thence to Tennessee. Mr. Saner was educated in the public and high schools

of his native state, at Searcy College, Arkansas, and at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. He is also a graduate of the Law Department of the University of Texas, taking the degree of L.L.B. in 1896. Mr. Saner taught school during the summer vacation, while attending Searcy College, his summer vacations while at Vanderbilt University being spent as traveling representative of Belmont College a young ladies' school in Nashville, Tennessee. Immediately after leaving the University of Texas, Mr. Saner began the practice of law in Dallas, which has proved lucrative from the start. He has been special attorney for the University of Texas for the past sixteen.

years, and has handled that institution's large landed endowment with marked ability. He also has been receiver for valuable properties, by appointment of the courts, at various times,

while his civil law practice has imposed active participation in litigation that has yielded large fees. Mr. Saner was elected by the Texas Bar Association as one of the delegates to the Universal Congress of Jurists and Lawyers, which met at St. Louis, in in 1904. He was secretary of the State Democratic Executive Committee from 1899-1900, and has been honored in various other ways politically. Mr. Saner's wide interest in life and numerous activities are shown by the fact that he is vice chairman of the executive committee of the Southern Traction Company; director and member of the executive committee of the Security National Bank; worthy high chancellor of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity; member of the M. E. Church South, of the Dallas Club, and the Lakewood Country Club; life member of every Masonic body, both York and Scottish rites, Knight Templar, 32d degree, and Shriner. He is a member of the general council of the American Bar Association, and was president of the Texas Bar Association in 1911.

We are indebted for biographical data to a sketch of Mr. Saner which heretofore appeared in the Successful Magazine.

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Humorous
Side

O' then a laugh will cut the matter short:
The case breaks down, defendant leaves the court.-Horace.

Took a Chance. The late Eugene F. Ware had filed a demurrer, and was arguing the case before Judge Samuel F. Miller. The latter stopped counsel with the remark: "Mr. Ware, there is no use taking up any more time of this court. Why, that question has been decided against you by every court in Christendom."

"Oh, yes," replied Mr. Ware, in his genial and pleasant way, "I am aware of that, your Honor, but I know your Honor occasionally makes decisions contrary to every court in Christendom, and and I thought perhaps this would be one of the times."

"Go on, Mr. Ware, go on, sir, I will hear you. Go on, sir."

A Candid Judge. A New England. attorney tells a story in which figures H. L. Dawes, who, it seems, in his younger days was an indifferent speaker. Shortly after his admission to the bar, he had a case which was tried before a justice of the peace in North Adams, Massachusetts, and was opposed by a lawyer whose eloquence attracted a large crowd.

The justice was perspiring in the crowded room and evidently fast losing his temper. Finally he drew off his coat, and, in the midst of the eloquent address, burst out:

"Mr. Attorney, supposing that you take a seat and let Mr. Dawes speak. I want to thin out this crowd."

Objected To. Samuel Chase, of Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, a man of ripe legal learning, but of a lofty and most despotic spirit, became an associate justice in the year 1796.

An important case was before the court, in which a learned gentleman by the name of Samuel Leake, from Trenton (in an adjoining state), was engaged. Mr. Leake was remarkable, generally, for the number of authorities to which he referred, and upon this occasion he had brought a considerable portion of his library into court, and was arranging the books upon the table at the time the judge took his seat; when the following laconic colloquy took place:

Judge Chase. "What have you got there, sir?"

Leake. "My books, sir."

Chase. "What for?"

Leake. "To cite my authorities."
Chase. "To whom?"

Leake. "To your Honor."
Chase. "I'll be d-d if you do."

Held Down His Job. Sir George Rose had a friend who had been appointed to a judgeship in one of the colonies, and who, long afterwards, was describing the agonies he endured in the sea passage when he first went out. Sir George listened with great commiseration to the recital of these woes, and said, "It's a great mercy you did not throw up your appointment."-American Law Review.

Would Fight for Him. Amongst O'Connell's professional reminiscences was the following unique instance of a client's gratitude. He had obtained an acquittal, and the fellow, in the ecstacy of his joy, exclaimed, "Oh, counsellor, I've no money here to show your Honor my gratitude, but I wisht I saw you knocked down in my own parish, and maybe I wouldn't bring a faction to the rescue."-Law Times.

Their Fate. Lord Chief Justice Holt, when young, was very extravagant, and belonged to a club of wild fellows, most of whom took to an infamous course of life. When his lordship was engaged on a certain occasion at the Old Bailey, a man was tried and convicted of a robbery on the highway, whom the judge remembered to have been one of his old companions. Moved by that curiosity which is natural on a retrospection of past life, and thinking the fellow did not know him, Justice Holt asked what had become of such and such of his old associates. The culprit, making a low bow, and fetching a deep sigh, said, “Ah, my lord, they are all hanged but your lordship and I."

An Explanation. Chief Justice Marshall was riding one morning to court, in his single carriage, when his horse fell and broke a shaft. He was puzzled what to do. Tom, a neighboring negro wagoner, happening to drive up, he asked him if he could help him out of his difficulty. "Oh yes, massa, if you'll lend me your knife." Tom took the knife and cut a sapling pole and a grape vine from a neighboring thicket, with which he speedily spliced up the broken shaft. "Now, Tom," said the judge, "why didn't I think of that?"

"Oh, massa," replied Tom, "you know dat some people will have more sense den oders!"

A New One. A maxim of the law should be, "He who cannot explain is lost."

No Inducement. Hugh Henry Breckenridge, of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, was by no means deficient in firmness and fortitude. His laborious youth, his self-sacrificing and persevering industry, in a word, give abundant evidence of the indomitable will. But though possessed of courage, his disposition was to avoid quarrels of all kinds; he abhorred dueling, and always preferred wit to bravery. Having, during the Revolutionary War, severely lampooned General Lee (at that time one of the ruling though discontented spirits of the American Army), he was hotly pur

sued by the irritated officer, for the purpose of personal chastisement. The judge, however, succeeded in reaching. his house, and entering and locking the door, he rushed up stairs and looked out of the window upon his enraged pursuer. "Come down, sir," said the General, "and I'll give you a cowskinning!" "I won't," was the ready reply, "if you'll give me TWO!"-The Forum.

Coun

Lamming Counsellor Lamb. sellor Lamb, an old man when Lord Erskine was at the height of his reputation, was a man of timid manners and nervous temperament, and usually prefaced his plea with an apology to that effect. On one occasion, when opposed to Erskine, he happened to remark that he felt himself growing more and more timid as he grew older. "No wonder," replied the witty, but relentless barrister, "everyone knows that the older a lamb grows, the more sheepish he becomes."

One On His Lordship. Lord Kenyon was conspicuous for economy in every article of his dress. Once, in the case of an action brought for the nonfulfilment of a contract on a large scale for shoes, the question mainly was whether or not. they were well and soundly made and with the best materials. A number of witnesses were called, one of whom, being closely questioned, returned contradictory answers, when the Chief Justice observed, pointing to his own shoes, upon which was a broad silver buckle: "Were the shoes anything like these? "No, my lord," replied the witness; "they were a great deal better and more genteeler." The court was convulsed with laughter, in which the Chief Justice heartily joined.

Suaviter in Modo. Enoch Eastman, an old time Iowa lawyer, on one occasion, appeared before a young judge, and to enforce a point he desired to make, brought with him and attempted to read Blackstone to the court, whereupon the young judge, after moving uneasily about in his seat for a while said, "Mr. Eastman, I've read Blackstone.' "Oh, hev ye!" responded Enoch, looking at the judge over the top of his spectacles with an air of surprise.

Since 1820, and prior to the present European War, there have been only six trials for high treason in England.

"The first trial, states the London Law Times, was that of John Frost and others (4 St. Tri. N. S. 85) for the Newport riots. It took place before a special commission at Monmouth, composed of Lord Chief Justice Tindal, Baron Parke, and Mr. Justice John Williams. The special commission was opened on the 10th of December, 1839, when the chief justice delivered a luminous charge to the grand jury which has since been considered the locus classicus on the amount of insurrection required to constitute high treason by levying war.

"The next three trials belong to a sinister class of themselves, being for shooting at Queen Victoria. They are those of Edward Oxford (1840), John Francis (1842), and Roderick Maclean (1882). It must be remembered that the Treason Act 1800 (39 and 40 Geo. III. c. 93)-passed in consequence of Hadfield's Case, who was tried in 1800 for shooting at George III.—had assimilated the procedure in cases of treason by assassination or attempted assassination of a sovereign to that in cases of murder, so these three were hardly treason trials stricto sensu.

"Then came the trial of Colonel Lynch in January, 1903. The capital sentence imposed on him was commuted to penal servitude for life. He was released on license in 1904, and received a free pardon in 1907.

"In December, 1914, states the Canadian Law Journal, Ahlers, who had been German consul at Sunderland up to the time war was declared, was convicted of treason for having assisted German subjects liable to military service, on August 5, 1914, after war was declared, with money and information to enable them to return to Germany. The defendant denied that he knew war had been declared when he did the acts charged, and said that he thought that, after a declaration of war, the subjects of the belligerents were allowed a margin of time within which to return to their respective

countries.

"The court of criminal appeal were of the opinion that the jury should have been told that they must consider whether the acts had been done by defendant with the intention to assist the King's enemies, or whether he acted without any evil intention and in the belief that it was his duty to assist German subjects to return to Germany, in which case he was entitled to acquittal, and in the absence of such direction the conviction must be quashed."

The recent trial of Sir Roger Casement for treason resulted in conviction; but an appeal is pending at this writing.

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CROWD ATTEMPTING TO GAIN ADMITTANCE TO THE CASEMENT TRIAL

Central Insert :-Sir Roger Casement. Copyright Brown & Dawson, Stamford, Conn., from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Insert at Left: Gavan Duffy, Casement's Solicitor. Insert at Right:-Professor Morgan, Casement's Counsel. Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.

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