midnight
The judge is apt to be no less a tool of the boss than any other public officer elected by the suffrages of a political party . He is merely less obviously so . There are a few men in Wall Street who can press a button and call for almost any judge they want -- and he will come -- and adjourn court if necessary to do so -- with his silk hat in his hands . And if any young aspirant for legal honors who reads these fugitive memoirs believes that the road to the supreme bench leads _ via _ Blackstone , and is lighted by the midnight oil of study , let him disabuse himself of that idea , but seek rather the district leader ; and let him make himself useful in getting the boys that are in trouble out of it . Under our elective system there is no more honor in being a judge than in being a sheriff or a hog-reeve ; but , when one is young -- and perhaps starving -- it may seem otherwise . If any of my lay readers believe that the practice of the law is a path of dalliance , let him but hazard his fortunes for a brief space on the good ship Jurisprudence -- he will find the voyage tedious beyond endurance , the ship 's company but indifferent in character and the rations scanty . I make no doubt but that it is harder to earn an honest living at the law than by any other means of livelihood .