He kept the keenest pair of eyes and the sharpest pair of scissors constantly at work in seaching for the beautiful, and, weighted down though he was with heavy crosses, he was still like the child among the butterflies.

But Judge Clark was specially fond of reminiscences. He often wrote charmingly of the early days when he rode on horseback from Savannah to Albany to begin the practice of law. If there was anything which tended to mar the exquisite style in which the old judge wrote it was the punctilious regard which he gave to microscopic details. He wanted to leave nothing out which would be of the least interest. Indeed, he wrote like the old Florentine painted, but sometimes the perspective was lost. Still it can hardly be said that the colors were lacking. In view of both the abundance and the accuracy of his information it is sorely to be regretted that he was prevented by the irksome routine of the bench from indulging the passion which he felt at times for literary labor, and such occasional articles as he managed to write for the papers, during intervals of leisure, show what might have been expected from so rich a pen had opportunities and inclinations been equally yoked.

Richard H. Clark was born at Springfield, in Effingham county, Georgia, on March 24, 1824, of parents who came from New England. It is said that his greatgreatgrandfather established at Dorchester, Massachusetts, the first paper mills which were ever known in the English colonies. He was connected also by ties of blood with the noted Charles Sumner, but the kinship was not close. The father of Judge Clark seems to have wooed the Muses at times, for he is credited with the composition of

the odes which were sung in Savannah at the laying of the corner-stone of the Greene-Pulaski monument. This explains in large measure the place which was given to sentiment in Judge Clark's mental construction. Moreover, on the maternal side he sprang from the French Huguenots, tracing his lineage back to Henry Gindrat, who settled in South Carolina before the Revolution.

Soon after being admitted to the bar in Savannah, he located at Albany, being induced by the overtures which this sprightly young town of the pioneer belt was making to youthful energies. It was before the days of railroad development in South Georgia, and he traversed the distance on horseback. He resided in Albany for twentyfour years and then moved to Atlanta. Taking an interest in politics he was several times honored by his constituents, and served with Joseph E. Brown in the State Senate of 1849. He also attended the secession convention in 1861. At the outbreak of the war he was elevated to the bench of the Southwestern Circuit, which kept him from going to the front. Soon after coming to Atlanta he was made judge of the city court, and, upon relinquishing this position, he became judge of the Stone Mountain circuit, which office he held until his death.

Twice married, Judge Clark's first wife was Miss Harriet G. Charlton, and his second Miss Anna Maria Lott. Several children sprang from these unions, only two of whom survived him, both invalid daughters, but women of fine spiritual and mental culture. Never robust in health, Judge Clark suffered at times from physical disabilities, but he was always alert and vigorous in mind.

Perhaps the largest service which Judge Clark ever rendered Georgia was in the preparation of the State

Code in conjunction with Thomas R. R. Cobb and David Irwin, being appointed by Governor Brown on this important commission because of his recognized legal scholarship. In the apportionment of the work, part one fell to the share of Judge Clark, and the result of his labor was the compilation of that section of the work which stands to-day substantially as it came from his pen, attesting the thoroughness with which he performed the task assigned.

While still wearing the judicial ermine of the Stone Mountain circuit, Judge Clark died in his apartments in the old Markham House on the fourteenth of February, 1896, in the seventy-second year of his age. On the afternoon before he died I called to see him, little dreaming that the end was so near. He was unusually bright and cheerful and talked for some time. Before I left he asked me to open the window. "I want the light to come in," he said; and I left the old man looking dreamily and happily through the casement into the outer world which was now beginning to take on the violet hues of sunset. Little did I dream that it was the dear old jurist's last look through the open window. The next morning Judge Clark was gone. The long struggle was ended. The heavy shadows had all lifted and the beautiful light had come at last.

Buried on one of the hills overlooking the Ocmulgee, near Macon, Judge Clark is in death the neighbor of Governor Colquitt, who lies in the adjacent area. Years ago they entered public life together, and together they are now waiting for the trumpet call upon the river banks.

In Tennyson's poetic sob of "In Memoriam" it is said

of gentle Arthur Hallam that from his ashes naught could spring but the violets of England. If the graces which embellished the character and beautified the life of this unsullied gentleman of the old school could flower above the sod of Rose Hill cemetery, it would not be alone the violets which would canopy the couch of Judge Clark but the lilacs and the lilies. Nature's nobleman! Scion of the proud old race of Cavaliers! Gentlest of the Georgians! You are not forgotten. But, if the world. should e'er forget where you are sleeping, it will still be on your breast that Georgia will round her sweetest dewdrops; and, when the crowning day shall come, you can wear in the crystal light no fairer coronet than just the shining band that belts your heart of gold!

CHAPTER XXIX

I

Speaker Charles F. Crisp.

F Charles F. Crisp failed to become an actor of the

Shakespearean school, it was not because he lacked

either the strong bias of heredity or the local influence of environment. He was born at Sheffield, England, on January 29, 1845, of actor-parents who were touring the British Isles; and, from the earliest days of cradledom he was accustomed to the sonorous accents of the Bard of Avon. However, the Crisps were not enrolled among the subjects of the young Queen Victoria. They came from the wide continental domain of Uncle Sam, and they represented the best ancestral strains of the American Revolution as well as the best traditions of the American stage.

Perhaps there are Georgians still living who recall the engagements which the Crisps played in making the theatrical rounds of the State during the old ante-bellum days. The substantial box receipts, the enthusiastic ovations, and the high professional standard which the Crisp name symbolized to the theater-going public, were all well calculated to arouse the latent ambition of the youth whose veins were by no means strangers to the dramatic fire. Besides, Booth and Forrest needed successors in the