The Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Associate Justice L. B. Watkins was born in Caldwell County, Kentucky, Oct. 9, 1S36. His education was received at the Cumberland College in Kentucky, and at Bethel College in Tennessee. In 1854 he came to Louisiana, and studied law in the office of Watkins & George, and was admit ted to the bar in 1859. In 1861 he enlisted

as a private in Company G, Eighth Louisi ana Regiment, and was mustered into ser vice at Camp Moor. His regiment partici pated in the first bat tle of Manassas. He closed his career as soldier at the end of the war in Georgia, as captain and provostgeneral of the corps, having served through its entire length with a record for discharge of duty and gallantry on the field of action. At the close of the war he returned to Minden, Louisiana, and resumed the prac tice of law. In 1871 he was appointed Judge of the Eigh teenth Judicial Dis FELIX P. trict. Judge Watkins was appointed to the Supreme Bench by Governor McEnery in 1886. His address is soft, gentle, and pleas ant, and he is ranked as one of the finest pleaders of the Louisiana Bar. Associate Justice Samuel D. McEnery is a native of Louisiana, and was educated at the Naval Academy of the United States at Annapolis, and at the University of Vir ginia. He graduated at law in 1859 from the National Law School at Poughkeepsie, New York. He served all through the war as an officer of the Confederate Army, and afterward took front rank among those who

sought to redeem the home of his birth from the ruthless hand of the despoiler. He lived in Monroe, Ouachita Parish, and practised his profession there up to 1878. Judge McEnery refused all official honors, but in that year he was persuaded to accept the nomination for the Lieutenant-Governorship on the ticket with Governor Wiltz. During the long sickness which preceded Governor Wiltz's death, Judge McEnery was acting governor, and upon the demise of that gen tleman, took the oath of office in October, 1 88 1, as Governor of Louisiana. A deter mined fight was made against the re-election of Governor McEnery, but he was trium phantly renominated by the State conven tion of 1883, and re elected the following April. Toward the close of his adminis tration an intensely bitter feeling sprang up between the parti sans of McEnery and Nicholls. In order to avoid dividing the de POCHE. mocracy of the State, a party of which he had been a lifelong and most loyal follower, Governor McEnery prevailed upon his friends to forego the presentation of his name to the convention as a candidate. One of the first acts of Governor Nicholls, upon his installa tion, was the appointment of his predecessor in office to the then existing vacancy on the Supreme Bench. The same distinguished ability which marked his incumbency of the gubernatorial chair is displayed in the jus tice's rulings and opinions, and his treatment of the intricate and vexatious problems which came before him as a member of the court.