Senator Taylor's professional ideals are as high as his political ideals. He is an honorable foe, a straight lawyer, a cultured gentleman.
Michael N. Kane, of Warwick, the most beautiful village in the county, if not in the State, also received at the election of 1906 a vote for the office of supreme court judge which strikingly attested the admiration and regard in which he is held by his fellow citizens in the county and district. He ran several thousand ahead of his ticket but this was not sufficient to overcome the adverse majority caused by the creation of the new ninth judicial district out of the river counties. Mr. Kane has securely established his reputation as a trial lawyer of conspicuous ability and success. He is frequently employed as counsel in important cases and has never failed to satisfy the expectations of both attorney and client. His preparation of cases for trial is complete and masterly.
In the appellate courts his arguments are marked by a learning, lucidity and power which always command attention and usually assent.
The breadth of character and fineness of moral fibre which have contributed so largely to his professional success are displaced in all his relations to his professional brethren, in which he is the pattern and exemplar of uniform courtesy, consideration and indulgence. While never imperiling the interests of a client to accommodate a professional brother he is always able to find a way to accommodate him without injuring his client. He never takes refuge in the transparent pretext that his client will not consent, which is the customary formula used to cover, though it does not conceal, professional churlishness. In the very cases in which Mr. Kane has been most generous to his opponents he has had the most complete ultimate success; thus furnishing to his brethren of the bar an object lesson from which they may learn that courtesy to each other is entirely consistent with perfect loyalty to their client.
Mr. Kane's public spirit has always been a noticeable phase of his character. His pride in and devotion to the interests of Warwick have endeared him to his community which not only respects him as a lawyer but esteems him as a neighbor and honors him as a citizen.
Ferdinand V. Sanford is another citizen of Warwick whose abilities entitle him to rank among the trial lawyers of the county. Fluent in speech, cultivated in manner and refined in character, his personal charm imparts weight to his opinion and impulsion to his utterances. He, too, is deeply interested in his beautiful village, the citizens of which have bestowed upon him many marks of their favor and confidence. His prominence in its affairs led to a most interesting experience in the summer of 1906 when he represented his village at the brilliant and imposing pageant held In old Warwick in England at which he upheld the reputation abroad of American oratory in a most graceful, felicitous and eloquent address.
Darwin W. Esmond, of Newburgh, prepares his cases for trial more thoroughly than any lawyer I ever knew. His trial brief is comprehensive, elaborate, and minute, even containing instructions in reference to the cross-examination of the witnesses expected to be called by his opponent. Every case likely to be cited by his opponent is discussed and distinguished. Every pitfall into which his opponent might seek to draw him is pointed out and provided against. If he should die the day before a case is set down for trial and it should be thought best, notwithstanding, to go on with the trial, any experienced trial lawyer could, on a moment's notice, take his brief and try the case without consulting an authority, seeing a witness, or even talking with the client. He would find his opening to the jury outlined for him, the statements of the witnesses arranged in the order in which they should be adduced, the authorities bearing upon a motion for non-suit carefully analyzed and, finally, the points to be dwelt upon in the submission to the jury clearly emphasized.
It is needless to say that such painstaking industry implies the most conscientious devotion on the part of Mr. Esmond to his client's cause—a devotion as earnest and intense when the amount involved is small as when it is large. His theory is that a small case is just as important to a poor man as a large case is to a rich one and that the measure of duty, of fidelity and of devotion should be the same in each.
But mere industry is of little avail in the law unless directed by ability. It is a valuable supplement to ability, never a substitute for it. Mr. Esmond has all the qualifications of an able trial lawyer. I once saw him in Kingston pitted against one of the leaders of the Ulster County bar overturn by the sheer force of his ability and address, all the prejudices first formed against his client, the defendant, in the mind of both court and jury, in a case in which the plaintiff, an old man, was seeking the restoration of property turned over by him to his son. I heard Judge Chester say that in the beginning of the trial he thought the plaintiff was right but that as the case proceeded his mind changed. This result was due solely to the splendid defense made by Mr. Esmond in a case which from the start was full of elements of danger and defeat.
Mr. Esmond has always taken a prominent part in the literary life of the community and in the discussion of public topics. His services to the Chautauqua society have been most valuable, while his own addresses upon a large variety of topics have been a distinct contribution to the literature of the subject.