on the 12th to unite with you and other gentlemen in tendering Judge Dyer congratulations upon his eightieth birthday, just received.

If it is possible for me to be there at that time I shall not deny myself the pleasure.

If I cannot be present, I hope you will tender my heartiest congratulations and sincerest good wishes to Judge Dyer, for whom I have a very great admiration and fondness.

I am again reminded that on next Tuesday, the 12th, you will celebrate your eightieth birthday. This reminds me that General Issac N. Sherwood, of Ohio, was born in Dutchess County, New York, August 13, 1835, and is still living and a representative in Congress from Toledo at this time.

On May 6, 1916, the day before the eightieth birthday of Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, General Sherwood, in speaking of the eightieth birthday of Ex-Speaker Cannon, said:

"It is a mistake to suppose that a man who has reached the age of eighty years has reached the

acme of his intellectual development. Pope Leo XIII and John Adams were in the full possession of their intellectual powers at ninety. John Wesley was at the height of his eloquence and at his best at eighty-eight. Michael Angelo painted his greatest single picture that was ever painted since the world began at eighty. He made the sky and sunshine glorious with his brush at eighty-three. General Von Moltke was still wearing the uniform at eighty-eight, and he commanded the victorious German army that entered the gates of Paris at seventy. George Bancroft was writing deathless history after eighty. Thomas Jefferson, Herbert Spencer, Talleyrand, and Voltaire were giving out great ideas at eighty. Tennyson wrote his greatest poem, 'Crossing the Bar,' at eighty-three. Gladstone made his greatest campaign at eighty, and was the master of Great Britain at eighty-three. Humboldt, the naturalist, scientist- the greatest that Germany ever produced-issued his immortal Kosmos at ninety.

"I saw Joe Jefferson play Rip Van Winkle at his best at seventy-five. Goethe wrote Faust, the greatest literary achievement in all literaturethe masterpiece of literature - the last sectionat eighty. The Irish actor Macklin was still on the stage at ninety-nine. Robert Browning was as subtle and mysterious as ever at seventy-seven, and Victor Hugo was his best from seventy-five to eighty."

I, too, saw Joe Jefferson in both "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Rivals" at the time referred to

by General Sherwood. Admiral Dewey, the hero of Manila, has just departed, aged eighty.

I hope, my dear Judge, that you will live as long as the oldest of the men referred to, not in decrepitude, but in possession of all your great faculties, and that God may ever have you in his safe and holy keeping. Cordially yours,

WALTER I. SMITH.

Law Offices of Oliver & Oliver

Hon. David P. Dyer,

St. Louis, Missouri.

Dear Judge:

Cape Girardeau, Missouri,
February 9, 1918.

On the 6th inst., we wrote Judge Withrow as Chairman of the Committee having in charge the matter of tendering congratulations to you on February 12th, of the writer's engagement in Kennett, Dunklin County, Missouri, on that day, and of his intention to do his utmost to be relieved from that engagement that he might be present in person and assist to that extent in doing honor to you as a citizen and Judge.

The writer has not been able to secure a release of his engagement, and while it is now the purpose of some member of our firm to be present, the writer is unwilling to allow so important and delightful an event to pass by without saying a personal word in his own behalf.

I think I have told you before that my first knowledge of you was obtained through the St. Louis press, while I was a student in the Law School at the University of Missouri at the time you were appointed

by President Grant to assist as special counsel in the prosecution of the "Whiskey Ring." The St. Louis press gave what purported to be a stenographic report of the proceedings of those trials. I carefully read, then clipped and preserved those reports, and regarded them as an asset to my meager and limited library.

I committed to memory excerpts of your address to the jury, and for a long while was able to quote them with reasonable accuracy. Your courageous and fearless conduct in those prosecutions attracted you to me, and I can with candor say to you now that, after the lapse of many years, my regard for you personally and for your public duties has grown with the years.

I wish you a continuation of your excellent health, and that the bar of Missouri may have many occasions to join with you in future celebrations of your birthday.

Very respectfully,

R. B. OLIVER.

Louisiana, Missouri,

February 10, 1918.

Judge D. P. Dyer,

St. Louis, Missouri.

Dear Colonel:

As one of your friends and admirers of more than forty-eight years' acquaintance, and as a member of the race who came to their freedom and all the civil and political rights we now enjoy, for which you so nobly, fearlessly and generously did your part, I want to tender the congratulations of myself and the

colored people of old Pike County, upon the attainment of your eightieth birthday anniversary.

Your great heart and soul, like the great heart and soul of the immortal and Christlike Abraham Lincoln, read and interpreted the Declaration of Independence to mean literally just what it said. “That all men were created free and equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

You have never abandoned for political expediency, policy or self-interest, those immortal truths and principles affecting human rights as taught and expounded by Mr. Lincoln and especially as those principles are embodied in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution. You have always, boldly and fearlessly championed our legal rights, for which we ask God's blessing upon you. When the end comes we believe your great spirit will be associated in Paradise with the spirits of Lincoln, Phillips, Fred Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sumner, Thad. Stevens, and dear, noble Dr. Reynolds, who, like yourself, was always true to my race.

You are loved by many, because you are worthy and deserve to be loved.

With best wishes, I am,

Truly yours,

C. P. COVINGTON.