SAMUEL DICKSON. XVII 



pen and tongue as Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Byron and Keats. 

 While waiting for practice he devoted himself for two years to edi- 

 torial labors upon The Age, the then leading Democratic newspaper 

 published in Philadelphia. The skill and the experience he there 

 acquired gave him "the pen of a ready writer," an accomplishment 

 he never lost. In December, i860, he became the librarian of the 

 Law Association of Philadelphia as the successor of the scholarly 

 bibliophile, John William Wallace, who later became the reporter of 

 the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and still 

 later president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. From 

 the old folios and black letter octavos illustrating the growth of the 

 English Common Law, collected largely by Mr. Wallace, Mr. Dick- 

 son acquired that knowledge of legal bibliography and that taste 

 for legal history which in after years contributed so largely to the 

 matter and manner of his forensic discussions. 



From the fate of the bookworm and the meager salary of a 

 librarian he was snatched in 1865 by the discernment of that incom- 

 parable business man's businesslike lawyer John C. Bullitt, who ap- 

 preciated the learning and legal ability of younger men, and had 

 need of a partner so equipped. Thus Mr. Dickson was, quite early in 

 life, introduced to business associations, which later he came to com- 

 mand. The law partnership thus formed in 1865 lasted until Mr. 

 Bullitt's death in 1902. A third partner was admitted in the interim 

 in the person of Richard C. Dale, whose untimely death in 1905 de- 

 prived the profession of one of its most conspicuous ornaments and 

 buttresses of strength. He then organized the present firm of Dick- 

 son, Beitler and McCouch. He served as a member of the commit- 

 tee of censors of the Law Association of Philadelphia from 1873 to 

 1890 and was a stern upholder of the purity of legal ethics. He 

 served again in this position from 1872 to 1896, when he became the 

 vice-chancellor of the Association, serving for three years, when he 

 was elected chancellor and held the place by successive annual re- 

 elections for ten years, a term of service exceeded only by Mr. Wm. 

 M. Meredith and Mr. George W. Biddle out of a list of ten prede- 

 cessors, and which, under the present by-laws, can never again be 

 equaled. He served his alma mater as a trustee of the University 

 of Pennsylvania for a period of thirty-three years — from 1881 until 



