Some of the lawyers who in boyhood, before 1860, attended the Sacramento High School, will also furnish most interesting subjects for notice in the by-and-by. A few are named on page 93. WILLIAM S. WOOD is of this

number. He was a strong and eloquent debater even then and his success in life was generally predicted. He acquired a fortune at the bar in Virginia City, Nevada, and has had a large practice in San Francisco since 1879.

AUGUSTE COMTE, after representing Sacramento in the Assembly and in the Senate, turned away from the law and followed merchandizing for several years. But he long ago returned to the profession, and ever since has had a large practice. He is a graduate of Harvard.

JOSEPH M. NOUGUES, who was City Attorney of San Francisco in 1870-71, has since continuously maintained a lucrative law business; in addition to which, he has of late years been occupied in the development of a gold mine owned by him in El Dorado County. This mine was, from 1851 to 1855, the joint property of Mr. Nougues' father and brother, and Col. E. D. Baker. Mr. Nougues himself became the owner and resumed its development after work had been suspended for some thirty years. yielding largely of the precious metal.

It is

Mr. T. C. VAN NESS, who has taken a very prominent place at our bar, and who leads all others in the line of insurance cases, inherited like McAllister, a name distinguished in bar annals. His father was an early time Mayor of San Francisco, and his grandfather was Governor and Chief Justice of Vermont, and U. S. Minister to Spain. Mr. Van Ness himself was born in New Orleans, La., in 1847, came to San Francisco in 1855, (his father having arrived in 1850), and is a graduate of the Santa Clara College. His course of reading for the bar was pursued privately at home, as outlined for him by Judge James D. Thornton. He has practiced continuously since his admission to the bar of the Supreme Court, in July, 1879. While he has had peculiar and unbroken success in insurance cases, his practice is general, except that he avoids criminal business. A sister of Mr. Van Ness is the wife of Hon. Frank McCoppin.

EUGENE N. DEUPREY, who has long been an active practitioner at the San Francisco bar and who has won great reputation in the conduct of criminal cases and contests in probate, displays equal ability in all other branches of practice. Few, if any of our bar leaders possess a more vigorous intellect than this gentleman, and we have no more effective speaker, either in Court or before the masses. Mr. Deuprey constantly exhibits an exceptional delight in the profession, especially in the trial of hard-fought causes. He is one of the youngest of our bar leaders, having been born in Louisiana in 1850.

LANSING B. MIZNER, of Benicia, is, I believe, the oldest member of the bar in the State north of San Francisco, and has been in general practice since 1850. On the rejection of the Mexican grant to the Soscol rancho, the people of Benicia were left without title to their lands and houses. Mr. Mizner at once set about correcting the trouble and prepared a bill which passed Congress, donating all the land in the town to the parties in possession. As State Senator he also secured the necessary legislation to enforce the national laws, and took several cases which arose on the construction of those laws to the Supreme Court, and was successful in all of them. He has been connected with all the more important litigation arising in Solano and Contra Costa counties for twenty years past. In 1866 he was admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Mizner was born in Illinois, Dec. 5, 1825; was educated at Shurtleff College at Alton, in that State; passed four years, 1839-1843, in New Granada, being attached to the American legation; and served through the Mexican war as a soldier in the American army. He is a California pioneer. Standing over six feet high, of large, sinewy and symmetrical frame, of striking countenance and looking a decade younger than his real years, he is personally one of the most imposing figures at the California bar. continuous success and the high standing he has maintained in one community for a generation, testify amply to his great strength and ability as a lawyer, and his excellence as a man. He has a large fortune, of which a good part lies in San Francisco, to which city he repairs every few days.

HON. WILLIAM M. STEWART, United States Senator from the State of Nevada, was, during two considerable and widely separated periods, a prominent member of the California bar-in the early years, in the northern mines, and latterly in San Francisco. He has displayed remarkable and unbroken vigor of both body and mind, through a long and active career. He was born in New York in 1827, graduated from Yale College in 1849, and in that year came to California. Reserving him, also, for future notice, which I had many years ago from his

I will only tell this story of him now, brother-in-law, Hon. W. W. Foote:

Dr. Samuel Merritt, of Oakland, having law business in Virginia City, went there and retained Mr. Stewart. He was stating his case, when he was asked if he had a witness to some alleged fact. He answered "Yes." Proceeding further, he was again asked if he had a witness to prove something else. Saying yes, he resumed, and making another statement, Mr. Stewart a third time inquired "Have you got a witness to prove that?" He answered: "No." "Then go right out and get one!" said the lawyer.

I want to end with another story, and the following looks up smiling from a mass of like material on my table. They tell it on Horace W.

Carpentier, one of our oldest and richest lawyers. To appreciate it, one must know that Mr. Carpentier is a large landowner and has been a party to many suits involving the title to extensive tracts of territory.

A settler in a southern county of California who obtained a government patent, said he was not yet satisfied, but would perfect his title. Coming to San Francisco he called on Mr. Carpentier and offered him $100 for his deed of the same land. "I don't own it," said Carpentier, "I have no land in that county." "But you may have a claim to it some day," said the settler, "and I am willing to pay you $100 for your bargain and sale deed now." Carpentier took the money and executed the desired conveyance. "Thank you," said the settler, "now I am safe."

Another? Very well.

Richard H. Daly, of Mariposa, (he had been an alcalde, and they called him Judge), was an eccentric and erratic but most interesting character-one of those anomalous souls whose amusing aptitudes enliven the annals of our early bar. He once defended a man charged with stealing a horse, and he aimed at proving an alibi. A certain man, who was not above suspicion, testified strongly against the prisoner. Daly determined to "break him down," if possible. On cross-examining the witness, he asked:

You are a vaquero? Answer-Yes.

A native Californian? Yes.

Very fond of riding mustangs? Yes.

Sleep in the saddle? Yes.

Throw the lasso? Yes.

Wear spurs? Yes.

Smoke cigarettes? Yes.

Blow the smoke through your nose? Yes.

Stand aside, said Daly; you'd steal a horse anytime.

And the witness stood aside.

Of course Judge Daly cleared his man. Such stories are not told unless they speak also of happy results.

CHAPTER XXIII.

James W. Coffroth.-"Tuolumne's Favorite Son"-A Young Journalist in PennsylvaniaLeaves the Tripod for the Bar in California-His Early Loves-Matilda Heron and Alexina Fisher-Connection with the Sole Trader Act, the First Recognition of Women by the State-In the State Legislature-Career in Politics-Marriage, Death, and BurialAn Interesting Character-His Great Political Mistake-Some Amusing Scenes and

Anecdotes.

It was in 1872 we laid him in his grave. Even now it is hard to realize that his voice is hushed. Arriving here in the first year of his manhood, passing through many strange vicissitudes, he learned the hollowness of fame, and had not long been settled down to serious and fruitful work, when, just in the cradle of his higher life, came the "fell sergeant, strict in his

arrest."

"Study law, Coffroth," said Judge Solomon Heydenfeldt to "Tuolumne's Favorite Son" one day in the long ago; "with your faculty of speech and your retentive memory you will make your mark at the bar."

The young man had passed his majority, knew the printer's art, and was "running" a country newspaper, but he took the sage advice.

While preparing himself for the profession, his old friend and schoolmate, Judge Carnly, died at Columbia, Tuolumne county. Rev. L. Hamilton preached the funeral sermon, and at the grave offered up a prayer; then, observing Mr. Coffroth in the assemblage, he said: "I see present the Hon. Mr. Coffroth. He was, I am told, a schoolmate of Judge Carnly. Perhaps he would like to say a few words of his departed friend before the earth closes over his body."

Mr. Coffroth stepped forward, and commenced in a subdued tone, to speak. Fervency, pathos, sorrow, tenderness, emotion, eloquence rolled from his trembling lips. Soon the women were all weeping, and the men, including Mr. Hamilton, covered their eyes with their handkerchiefs. One who was present, says, "I had to move away; I couldn't stand it.”

In due time, Mr. Coffroth was admitted to the bar of our Supreme Court, and entered on the practice of law. He was afterwards admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, on motion of Stephen A. Douglas. After "trying his luck" for a short time in San Francisco, he settled down permanently in Sacramento, where he remained until his death. Shortly after his removal to the capital, one Ben Rider, well known in Columbia, killed a man at that place. The case was desperate, and the friends of the slayer determined to summon either General Baker or Mr. Coffroth. Baker charged big fees. He wanted a thousand dollars to go to Columbia and defend Rider. A message was sent to Coffroth: "How much will you