Life, 1912-01-04 · page 56 of 108
Life — January 4, 1912 — page 56: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical poem by Chas. C. Jones (after A Lawsuit) critiques how lawyers dominate legislation and obscure justice through deliberate complexity. **The Setup:** A common man votes a lawyer into power, choosing between two lawyer-politicians (Democrat and Republican). Both serve different interests but share lawyer mentality. **The Satire's Point:** Jones attacks lawyers for: - Making laws incomprehensible to ordinary citizens through archaic Latin phrases and dead legal precedents - Using circular logic where "Right" becomes "Wrong" and vice versa, depending on which lawyer interprets it - Prioritizing legal procedure over actual justice (Justice "sits outside the door / And holds her aching head") - Creating a self-serving legal system only lawyers understand **The Cartoon Images:** Show a common man repeatedly trying to understand the law's meaning, appearing confused and frustrated. **The Modern Equivalent:** Criticizing how lawyers and legislatures intentionally use jargon to maintain power and exclude public understanding—a timeless complaint about legal opacity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
56 A Ballade of Uncom- mon Law (After A Lawsuit.) BY CHAS. C, JONES. WO hopeful men for office seek— The one a Democrat, The other named Republican; But lawyers both, at that. One serves a trust, the other serves The Proletariat. And I, who am a common man, I snatch from toil an hour, And hie me to the polling-place With visage grim and sour; I make my ‘choice —and straightway vote A lawyer into power! Now one must lose and one must win— This much is understood. And one must sometime try again The fickle public's mood; But one must legislate amongst A legal brotherhood. For in those halls where laws are made, No common man may draw ‘The breath that makes for elo- quence, Nor spring the ancient saw; sBut lawyers come with lawyer minds To make a lawyer's law! And when a law all newly- born These staid law-lovers spring, ‘Tis decked with words all obsolete And dead with some dead king, With Latin phrase and quirk and crook— A truly fearful thing! And I, who am a common man, Seek for the truth between The cryptic lines, and when I seek, I find it not, I ween. The truth may be within them, but I don't know what they mean! Accomplishing a Fell Purpose For lawyers'—made by law- yers—law, It may be truly said, In all its many moods must be By them interpreted; While Justice sits outside the door And holds her aching head! That Wrong I name is truly Right, One able judge will show ; That Right is only Wrong dis- guised, Another bids me kno And both—hecause so said a man Dead many years ago. That Right as Right is some- times Wrong, T learn with hanging jaw; That Wrong is Wrong, but sometimes Right, Is truth without a flaw; I know not which be Right or Wrong, But Law is always Law! And I, who am a common man, Must linger on the fence. And wait the word from legal lips To know the why and whence Of laws so framed that legal phrase Crowds out plain common sense. So laws are reared by law- yers wise In many a stately hall, And lawyers know that they should stand, And know that they should fall; But I, the common man, I know That I know naught at all! Visitor (at the office of the United States Blub- ber Trust): Is your president in? Orrice Boy: Naw; won't be back for a year. “Europe or jail?” “ Europe—now.” DEER was killed in the Adirondacks last fall, the hunter having mistaken it for his guide.