He took everything
very seriously. It is said that he would listen to the most
pathetic tale of human suffering unmoved, but would burst
into tears at the mention of a stake and stones or two chestnut
staddles.
Mellen with the other Judges of the old Common Pleas Court
was legislated off the Bench by the abolition of that court
in 1858. He moved from Middlesex to Worcester and resumed
practice, but was never largely employed. He was a repository
of the old stories of the Middlesex Bar, many of which died
with him.
A Lowell lawyer told me this story of Judge Mellen. My informant
had in his office a law student who spent most of his time
in reading novels and poetry and writing occasionally for
the newspapers. He was anxious to get admitted to the Bar
and had crammed for the examination. In those days, unless
the applicant had studied three years, when he was admitted
as of course, the Judge examined him himself. The Judge was
holding court at Concord, and an arrangement was made that
the youngster should go to the Judge's room in the evening
and submit himself to the examination.
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