THOROUGHNESS IN PREPARATION
One of the remarkable characteristics displayed by Charles E. Hughes in the conduct of his important lawsuits conducted against great corporations on behalf of the people was his complete mastery of the facts entering into the cases. In regard to this characteristic, the following is illuminating as showing his painstaking preparation for his cases:
His habit of thorough preparation made him one of the most formidable trial lawyers in New York. When he went into court, he could usually defeat his adversary not only on the point directly at issue, but upon dozens of others that might come up correlatively. In his search for information he never limited his investigations to law-books. He was once called upon to defend a patent held by a company manufacturing a mechanical piano-player. He mastered all the law points involved, and then began to work on the mechanism itself. He had an instrument moved up to his house, and spent many hours playing upon it, taking it apart, and becoming entirely familiar with its mechanical details. When Mr. Hughes appeared in court, he confounded the experts by his familiarity with the technicalities involved and easily won his case.
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THOROUGHNESS, LACK OF
There are jumping men who always hit the top bar with their heels and never quite clear it. There are women whose stitches always come out, and the buttons they sew on fly off on the mildest provocation. And there are other women who will use the same needle and thread, and you may tug away at their work on your coat or your waistcoat, and you can’t start a button in a generation! There are poets who never get beyond the first verse; orators who forget the next sentence, and sit down; gold-diggers who buy a pickax and stop there. There are painters whose studios are full of unpainted pictures. And if sluggards ever took good advice, what long processions we should constantly meet, slowly traveling on their way to the ant.—James T. Fields.
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Thought Before Thing—See [Utility as Theistic Evidence].
Thought, Progress of—See [Progress Unfinished].
Thoughts, Beautiful—See [Literature as an Inspiration].