A RUFUS CHOATE STORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12910, 5 July 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

A RUFUS CHOATE STORY

Mr. Choate, the American Ambassador,, who has made himself a universal favourit? in England, is a connection of America') once _ greatest advocate, liufus Clioato. Stories of Rufy.s Choate's prowess at the Bar are without end, and all are inimitable. Upon one occasion Choate was defending a blacksmith whose creditor had seized some iron that a friend had lent him to assist him in business after bankruptcy. The seizure of the iron was said to have been made harshly. Choate thus described it:— arrested the arm of industry as it fell towards the anvil; he put out the breath of his bellows; he extinguished the lire upon.' his hearthstone. Like pirates in a gale at sea, his enemies swept everything by tlm. board, leaving, gentlemen of* the jury, not so much— so much as a horseshoe to nail upon the doorpost to keep the witches off." The blacksmith, sitting behind, was seen to have tears in his eyes at this description, and a friend, noticing it, said, "Tom, what's the matter with you? What' are you blubbering about?" "1 had no idea,' replied Tom, " that I had been so abominably ab-ab-bused —Liverpool Post.