Notes of Recent Cases. where the letter is mailed or telegram filed containing an unconditional acceptance by one party of the offer of the other. If the communications are oral, either with or without the telephone, between parties on opposite sides of a county line, the same principle would seem to require that the con tract should be deemed to have been made in the county where the offer of one is ac cepted by the other." FERRIES. (INTERSTATE CHARACTER—AMOUNT OF TOLL— LOCAL REGULATION.) WEST VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS.
In State v. Faudre, 46 Southeastern Re porter 269, defendant was indicted for charg ing ten cents for ferriage from the Ohio side of the Ohio river to the West Virginia side, contrary to the order of a West Viginia county court, fixing five cents as the charge. The defendant's ferry was operated under a franchise conferred by the Virginia Legisla ture in 1796 and reënacted in 1819. A city ordinance in force on the Ohio side author ized the charge made. In holding that no offense had been committed against the State of West Virginia, the court holds that the point of departure is the home of a ferry, citing Sistersville Ferry Company v. Russell, 52 W. Va. 356, 43 Southeastern Reporter 107, and as the ferry had a foothold on the Ohio side, it was a lawful ferry. It was engaged in interstate commerce, and its landing could not be prohibited by West Virginia. These principles are held to apply, though the juris diction of West Virginia extends to the lowwater mark on the Ohio side. A large num ber of authorities are cited and discussed as to the extent of this jurisdiction. The opin ion, however, relies on the ordinance of Congress for the Government of the North west Territory, declaring the Ohio river a common highway, which shall be forever free, etc., and the Virginia Act of Dec. 30. 1788 (12 Hen. St. 780), ratifying the same; and also the Virginia Act providing for the formation of Kentucky, in which it is de clared that the jurisdiction of Virginia and
215
of Kentucky shall be concurrent on the river, with the States on the opposite shores. In the concluding" portion of the opinion, the case is said to be settled by Conway v. Tay lor, i Black 603, U. S. 17 L. Ed. 191, in which the right of Ohio to establish a ferry to the Kentucky shore was upheld, but the court believes that Ohio could grant a ferry right valid for carriage in both directions. From this extension of the doctrine of Conway v. Taylor, Justice Poffenbarger dissents, though concurring in the conclusion reached, while Justice Dent believes that the case turns on the fact that Ohio has jur isdiction above the low-water mark. HYPNOTISM. (SEDUCTION— SUFFICIENCY OF EVI DENCE— CREDIBILITY OF STORY.) NEW YORK SUPREME COURT.
In Austin v. Barker, 85 New York Supple ment 465, the defendant appealed from a judgment rendered against him for the se duction of the plaintiff's daughter, who had given birth to a child in August, 1901. She testified that upon various dates between October 30, 1900, and Jan. i, 1901, the de fendant had had improper relations with her, on the first occasion, forcibly placing her upon a couch and accomplishing his purpose. The defendant denied his guilt, and so far, the court says, the evidence might have sustained the verdict; but after the daughter had been extensively examined on both sides, and had left the stand, she was re called on the urgent request of defendant's counsel, predicated on new information, and then testified that she was entirely uncon scious of defendant's various acts of improper relation with her, and did not know that they had occurred at all until several weeks after the birth of her child: that on the first occasion she understood what was taking place only up to the time she was placed on the couch; that in October, 1901, plaintiff's attorney visited her, and being then placed in a hypnotic stage she recalled the acts of intercourse, the recollection of which she had since retained. She testified, and plain tiff's theory was, that defendant had hypno
