"The light shineth upon the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not!"
As the Old State Bank was about to expire by reason of limitation, the General Assembly passed a bill extending its corporate life fifteen years. In litigation in which Butterfield was counsel, the legal effect of the Act mentioned being involved, the opposing counsel insisted that the legal effect of said Act was the creation of a new bank. Butterfield in reply insisted that "a new bank had not been created, but simply the life of the old one prolonged. A case in point, your Honor, precisely 'on all-fours' with this, is the well-authenticated one of the good Hezekiah when the Lord lengthened out his life fifteen years for meritorious conduct. Now, sir, did he thereby make a new Hezekiah, or did he leave him just the same old Hezekiah?"
"GOING OUT WITH THE TIDE"
Soldier, lawyer, and wit was Colonel Phil Lee of Kentucky. When it is borne in mind that he was of exceedingly small stature the following incident—one he often related—will be appreciated.
Immediately upon attaining his majority he was a candidate for the Legislature. On election day he was quietly seated on a barrel in the room where the election for his precinct was being conducted, when an old Deacon from the Tan Bark settlement came in to vote. His choice for the State officers and for Sheriff was called out after some little parleying as to who were the best men, and the voter was about to retire, when one of the judges said,
"Deacon, ain't you going to vote for a candidate for the
Legislature?"
"Yas, of course, I like to forgot all about that; who is running for the Legislature?"
At which Phil, hopping down from the barrel, said, "Deacon, I am a candidate."
"Who, you?" inquired the Deacon—with half contemptuous gaze at the diminutive-looking aspirant; then turning to the judge he said, "Just put me down for the other fellow!"
Admitted to the bar at Shepherdsville in his native county of Bullitt, when barely of age, his first appearance was as attorney for the plaintiff in a breach-of-promise case of much local celebrity. His speech held the jury and by-standers literally spellbound, and it was confidently asserted that the classic banks of Salt River will probably never witness such flights of eloquence again. At its close Phil was warmly congratulated by an old Squire from the "Rolling Fork."