Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 16, 2009
I Swear...
The four seasons—revisited
Vic Fleming
A couple weeks ago I got a call from my good friend John Youngblood of Little Rock, retired businessman and fellow churchgoer.
John allowed as how he and retired Second Presbyterian Church pastor Jim Miller had been on a fishing trip recently.
Somehow they had come across a book entitled Real Lawyers Do Change Their Briefs (1989), which John had acquired at an autograph party 20 years ago, right after its publication.
John was just calling to say thanks. In his words, I had entertained the two of them for the better part of an evening with the content of this book.
John is especially fond of a certain passage, which I will reprint below, after giving proper credit.
The November 1976 issue of Student Lawyer ran an excerpt from “Presentence Reports—The Right to Disclosure,” an article by Christine Decker and Ronald Yengrich, which had appeared in the 1975 edition of the Journal of Contemporary Law.
I, in turn, reprinted the same in chapter 3 of RLDCTB. The speaker was an Arizona Territory judge, as he addressed a man who had just been convicted of stealing horses:
“Jose Gabriel Maria Ferdinandez, stand up to the bar and hear your sentence. Jose Gabriel Maria Ferdinandez, a jury of your peers has fairly tried you in this Court during the month of August, in the year of our Lord 1874. The month of August is a beautiful period, coming in the middle of summer when all nature is busy with the tasks imposed upon her to continue her existence. The trees are laden with fruit; in the fields the grains are ripening. Birds are singing with the duties of caring for their young. All nature is happy with the success of its reproduction. Summer is truly a beautiful season.
“Then, Jose Gabriel Maria Ferdinandez, comes autumn. It is then that nature reaps the rich reward of the labors of the year. The ripened grain is harvested, the sweet fruits of the orchards are gathered, and now nature begins her preparations for the long rest she has earned. She clothes herself befittingly in both somber garb and no less brilliant colors of the festival and fiesta period after a season of toil. Jose Gabriel Maria Ferdinandez, autumn is a most beautiful and bountiful season.
“Then, Jose Gabriel Maria Ferdinandez, comes winter, and this too, though austere, is a beautiful season. All nature lies at rest under its blanket of snow, while the Almighty Providence replenishes the storage of moisture which is later to fill our streams and springs, and assure that our crops will grow fat and plenteous, and that we will prosper. You, Jose Gabriel Maria Ferdinandez, may well ponder that winter is, indeed, a beautiful season.
“And then comes spring! Ah, Jose Gabriel Maria Ferdinandez, of them all spring is indeed the queen, the most beautiful season! All nature springs again to joyous life. The trees bud. The birds sing. The flowers bloom; their sweet odors fill the air. All nature is happy in the youth of another year and busy with preparations for the duties before her. The love of life is reborn, we all are young and our hearts all sing. How wonderful to be alive in the miracle of the springtime of the year! Yes, springtime is veritably the most beautiful season of all. But you, Jose Gabriel Maria Ferdinandez—you dirty, black-hearted, scoundrelly, horse-thieving son-of-a-bitch, you’ll see nothing of it, for you are hereby sentenced to hung on the last day of next month, the 30th of September, 1874.”
© 2009 Vic Fleming
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