East Tennessee Law Stories. fifty pounds, and I thought it would not pay!" It is told of him that once, sallying out on the street after a retirement of several hours, he enquired the time, and being told it was four o'clock, laid his finger aside his nose with the words, "Query? Morning, or evening?" Colonel Henderson enjoyed a joke far too well to suppress it merely because he was himself the victim. Returning from the Confederate army, impecunious and arrest ed twice for treason before he got up town from the station, he gladly accepted an offer of a hundred dollars to go into North Carolina to take some depositions, though the trip was by no means a safe one. Equipping himself with a blue overcoat for protection if he fell in with Union troops and depending on other means to get along with the Confederates, he started out with a comrade, and one night at a widow's was roused by hearing the house hailed by a party in pursuit of two horse thieves. They described one of the miscreants as a chunky fellow with a blue army overcoat and a black hat, which fitted with Henderson's dress, and "a mean-looking countenance." The hostess finally persuaded the party that those they sought were not there, but next morning at the breakfast table remarked, "Mr. Henderson, they described you exactly." Henderson had to a rare extent the fac ulty of making fun without making the vic tim angry. L. A. Gratz was a German who had borne a major's commission in the Fed eral army, married and settled in Tennessee, studied law and practised successfully, though not for some time thoroughly at home in the American surroundings. The following story I heard many years ago, and never knew it questioned till quite re cently, when I was told that Major Gratz says it is without foundation. But it is so true to life to the ears of those who knew
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the parties and the community and the pre siding judge, the late L. C. Houk, that it is at least true in the sense in which Shakspeare's creations are real, and I must appeal to my friend the major to withdraw his plea of not guilty. He came into the court-house of the little countyseat of the mountain county of Mor gan just at the close of a suit about a hound, and Henderson suggested that he make a speech in the case. Objecting on the ground that he did not know the facts, Henderson told him that one mountaineer had given another the hound pup in settlement of dam ages for breach of warranty in a jackass, and then replevied the pup. Henderson proposing that Gratz should speak, the court consented, and Major Gratz launched into a glowing oration on dogs, including the St. Bernards of the old world, and finally said, "And now, gentlemen of the jury, I come to what you've heard so much about in this case, the jackass." This being the first mention of the animal, jury, court and spec tators became much interested, while the orator, encouraged by attention and ap plause, and judging by the peals of laughter which soon greeted him that he was suc ceeding eminently in his efforts to be witty, soared in describing the failure of the jack ass and the utter lack of his progeny throughout the hills and valleys of the county. He closed in a blaze of glory and self-satisfaction, and when the noise had subsided the judge, after wiping his eyes, re marked, "I was not aware before that there was any jackass in this case, but since Major Gratz has appeared I see I was mis taken." Court was about adjourning, and judge and lawyers were soon on their way. Gratz and Henderson rode, horseback, side by side, out of the town in silence. Finally, after full meditation, Gratz remarked, "Veil, Henderson, if it vasn't so good a joke I would challenge you."
