Edward E. Sprague

A lawyer of large practice, with the interests of important corporations entrusted to him during many years, Edward Everett Sprague was accustomed to refer with more pride and gratification to his work on the Bar Association’s Grievance Committee and on the District War Board of the Selective Draft, than to any of his purely professional achievements. He was, indeed, one of those men to whom what was done out of the professional routine was by far the larger part of life. He never talked shop; his social conversation ranged far beyond the problems of the law. Even in the reminiscence of his Harvard days, in which he loved to indulge, his recollection fastened, not on his studies but on his undergraduate exploits as centre fielder on the nine and his membership in the Glee Club.

Yet in his practice the clearness of thought, the correctness of legal judgment and the incisiveness of opinion marked the lawyer of the first rank. All his associates on the Grievance Committee testify to the quickness and accuracy of his decision on highly controverted cases. One of those associates has recalled to his fellow-lawyers the familiar scene when Sprague, having listened for a space to the evidence presented in one matter, would turn decisively to the chairman with the remark, “Howard [Townsend], there’s nothing in this case, we are wasting our time,” and would presently direct a stern look to the next respondent, observing: “I want you to understand, sir, that what you are saying is making a distinctly unfavorable impression upon me.”

Alexander Dana Noyes
1925 Century Association Yearbook