as well as with their respective literatures, and his power of passing instantly. from one to another, in conversation, were almost incredible. It is pleasant to add of a man so remarkable, that he possessed great virtue and modesty, was open hearted, amiable and abstemious.

Among the important causes which have engaged Judge Hoffman's attention was the contest over the New Almaden quicksilver mine, near San Jose, referred to in the chapter on Randolph. This mine enriched a score of men, and its development has given employment to a little army of laborers for more than a generation. The history of the trial of this great cause has been printed in five octavo volumes, comprising thirty-six hundred pages. One hundred and fifty-three pages of the fourth volume are taken up by Judge Hoffman's opinion.

In Judge Hoffman's judicial retrospect the Limantour case is the most prominent to the eye. This was, perhaps, the most extraordinary civil trial that ever occurred in this State. Limantour, a Frenchman, who had lived many years in Mexico, claimed 15,000 acres of land, covering nearly all the city of San Francisco, also the islands of the bay, and large tracts of land in the interior, one of which included the city of Stockton. His claim to the city and the islands were actually confirmed by the Land Commission, and they were taken before Judge Hoffman, on appeal. The bases of the claims were two alleged grants from Governor Micheltorena, dated in 1843. These were finally shown to be forgeries. Judge Hoffman's opinion, covering 61 pages, is a his- . tory of this noted case, and as such will always be invested with deep interest for our citizens. And, on this case, see the chapter on Felton, pages

31-33.

In the habeas corpus matter of Tiburcio Parrott, before Judges Sawyer and Hoffman, in March, 1881, in which both Judges concurred that the anti-Chinese provisions of the new constitution of 1879 were in conflict with treaty stipulations, and therefore void, Judge Hoffman used this language. in an elaborate opinion:

That the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese to this country is a great and growing evil; that it presses with much severity on the laboring classes, and that if allowed to continue in numbers bearing any considerable proportion to that of the teeming population of the Chinese empire, it will be a menace to our peace and even to our civilization, is an opinion entertained by most thoughtful persons. The demand, therefore, that the treaty shall be rescinded or modified is reasonable and legitimate. But while that treaty exists, the Chinese have the same rights of immigration and residence as are possessed by any other foreigners. Those rights it is the duty of courts to maintain and of the government to enforce. The declaration that "the Chinese must go peaceably or forcibly," is an insolent contempt of national obligations, and an audacious defiance of national authority. Before it can be carried into effect by force, the authority of the United States must first be not only defied but resisted and overcome. The attempt to effect this object by violence will be crushed by the power of the government. The

attempt to attain the same object indirectly by legislation will be met with equal firmness by the courts-no matter whether it assumes the guise of an exercise of the police power or of the power to regulate corporations, or of any other power reserved by the State, and no matter whether it take the form of a constitutional provision, legislative enactment, or municipal ordinance.

In 1862 Numa Hubert issued a volume of Judge Hoffman's opinions in land cases, as originally prepared and delivered. His later opinions are contained with those of Judges Field, Deady and Sawyer, in L. S. B. Sawyer's reports.

A prominent lawyer was a witness in a bankruptcy case Judge Hoffman's court, and was accused of sharp practice in connection with certain legal proceedings upon which the bankruptcy was predicated. He openly admitted what he had done. The cross-examining counsel inquired: "How came you to do this?" The reply was, "I saw no objection; I owed them nothing." The Judge, turning to the unabashed attorney, remarked, "That is probably correct; but did you owe nothing to yourself?"

A lawyer rushed into the Judge's court one day, in a high state of excitement about a ship that had been libeled and was in the custody of the marshal, for some alleged violation of the federal revenue laws. He was anxious to have her released. He complained loudly of the action of the authorities, which he declared would cause serious inconvenience and damage, and said that the case was all the worse because the ship was leaking and half filled with water. He asked the Judge what ought to be done under the circumstances. The dry reply was, "If I were in your place, I would bail her out."

The veneered joke, given elsewhere, is told freshly and differently by a friend of the Judge: The Assistant United States District Attorney asked the court for a venire for thirty jurors, pronouncing the word veneer. The Judge said he should have it of black walnut or rosewood, according to his taste.

Judge Hoffman seems to have few familiars, but he has many friends. As a Judge he is a favorite with our leading lawyers. His manner is quiet and grave. He treats all alike. His mind is active, his apprehension quick, and his knowledge of law deep and thorough. He catches an idea promptly, comprehends a proposition at once, even if it be complicated and involved. When a lawyer reads to him from a book he is not required to "pass up that book," that it may be further consulted. He has pursued the line of duty unfalteringly throughout his long career, and the closest scrutiny shows not a stain upon his robes. Very seldom has he participated in public demonstrations, popular movements or literary entertainments. He lets politics severely alone. The son of an eminent Whig leader, he was taught to reverence Henry Clay, and I believe the only public address he ever delivered was his oration upon the career of the great statesman, when it ended in 1852.

This was a thoughtful and polished effort which is preserved in the local newspapers of August of that year.

In a quiet way this veteran of the bench extracts a good deal of pleasure from life. A bachelor, he passes much of his time at his club, where his delightful conversation is fully appreciated. He has always enjoyed good health. His step is still light, his movements alert, and his erect figure may be seen daily on the street.

CHAPTER XXV.

Creed Haymond, General Solicitor of the Great Railway Company-A Record of Work Well Done and Results that Will Endure-Old Virginia Days-A Boy's Diary Across the Continent-In the California Mines-Carrying the Mail-At the Bar in 1859-Subsequent Career as Lawyer and Legislator- Defense of Reagan-The Two Shepardsons-The Murder of T. Wallace More-Novel Way of Securing a Jury-Trial of Troy Dye-The Mortgage Tax Cases-The Debris Question; Only Victory of the Hydraulic Miners-The California Law Codes-In the State Senate-Report on the Chinese Question-Plans for Irrigation and Reclamation-An Indian Campaign With Jack Hays-Opposing the Constitution of 1879-In National Conventions and Before the U. S. Supreme CourtCounsel for the Southern Pacific System-An Historic Argument Before a Select Committee of the U. S. Senate-The Railroad Builders and Their Vast Work-The Leland Stanford Jr.University- Interpreting the Interstate Commerce Act-Perfecting the Code System-Looking to a Farm in the Sunset of Life.

This brilliant bar leader has won distinction in the high places of national observation, and almost every year of the State's history since he attained manhood bears the impress of his vigorous mind.

We have had able lawyers and wise statesmen, but few others of our citizens have, to a like degree, combined the maker as well as the interpreter of law. As a political leader and as an orator he is among the very first. He is as ready in addressing a rugged mountain audience as he is in a passionless argument before the Supreme Court of the United States, and in every political campaign within thirty years he has been a conspicuous figure.

Mr. Haymond was born in Beverly, Randolph county, Virginia, April 22, 1836, but went as a child to live at Fairmont. Both Beverly and Fairmont are now in West Virginia. He came to California from Virginia in 1852, camping en route at Independence, Missouri, on his seventeenth birthday. After an absence of thirty-five years, he revisited, early in 1888, the quaint old town of Fairmont, and was received by his fellow townspeople, many of whom remembered him as a boy and were proud of his achievements as a man. In a pleasant allusion to this visit Mr. Haymond said to a friend that he found the old place but little changed, except that the hotel, so huge as he remembered it, had dwindled to quite ordinary dimensions. His father's house, begun sometime in the thirties, was still as sound as ever. He recollected when a child seeing the workmen on the building laboriously ripping out planks, and making the tongues and grooves, by hand; but the work was something to be proud of, and one of the men had said to him at that time: "They tell me out in Oregon they have trees which would cut up into planks as wide as this floor, and I want some day, when some

Oregon fellow comes here, to have him think that this floor was made of one of those planks." Oregon and California existed then but vaguely in the popular mind.

Between the Virginia of those and earlier days and the California of the Argonauts there existed a singular contrast. Money was then almost unknown in western Virginia. Coffee and sugar were about the only articles paid for in cash. Business was usually transacted by means of barter, and credits were very long. Feathers formed one of the staple articles of trade, and when a payment was made in this form of currency the storekeeper thrust them through a hole in the floor, beneath which a sack was suspended to receive them. Promissory notes for two dollars and three dollarspayable "thirty days after the first freshet"-were common. All trade was dependent upon the flatboats going down the river to Pittsburg, Pa. These boats never returned, but the men walked back, each with a section of the hawser wrapped about him. A farmer who cleared $150 a year thought himself well-to-do. Chancery fees were fixed by law at $1623. A hundred dollars was thought an enormous fee, and a Judge with fifteen counties on his circuit received $1,300 a year. To young men of spirit, reared under such narrow conditions, the marvelous stories from California came with irresistible effect, and young Haymond was one of those who early yielded to their influence.

The Haymonds are extremely few in number. Though one ancestor is reported to have had thirty-one children, twenty-eight of whom lived to be married, they were on the maternal side of the family, and did not perpetuate the name.

Mr. Haymond's family on both sides had resided in Virginia since long before the Revolution, and many members of it had been prominent in her political affairs. His father, Hon. W. C. Haymond, was distinguished at the bar, and through him the son was inspired by a love for the law that was unusually intense, receiving his first impressions under very peculiar circumstances. The courts of Virginia were in those days itinerant-that is to say, the Circuit Judge, accompanied by the local bar, rode from town to town to hold court. Mr. Haymond's father rode circuit with the rest, always taking with him Creed, after the latter had reached a suitable age. The boy rode astride of the saddle in front. This was before young Haymond had reached the age of sixteen. His early life was, therefore, spent in an atmosphere very unlike that which surrounds the ordinary boy.

The writer has often heard Mr. Haymond speak of those old days, of the uncommon relations existing between his father and himself, the rare lessons he received during moments of leisure, when, seated upon mother earth they took their lunch at noon; of the long rides between broad plantations, down dusty roads, across babbling brooks,sometimes alone with his father,