the cat was plainly heard through the brick wall of the bedroom on the first floor. ' I found it necessary, in order to secure the release of the animal,' said the officer in his report of the case, ' to break down about five feet of the masonry, and so informed the janitor and asked his assist ance. This he refused, and protested against my breaking through the wall.' ' The cat must be released at all haz ards,' was the officer's reply, and obtaining a hammer and chisel, he set to work After some time an opening was made, but kitty could not be see» or heard. No amount of coaxing could induce her to respond, and the rescuers were about to give up the task when pussy's little mistress called her pet by name. From out of the depth of the dark hole came a plaintive mew in answer to the familiar voice, and after a little more persuasion on the part of the little girl, pussy made up her mind it was all right. But she had got fastened between two brick partitions in the chimney, and it was impossible for her to extricate herself without assistance. She was finally rescued, and placed in her little mistress's arms, who, with tears streaming down her cheeks, thanked the officer for saving her pet from a cruel death. The belligerent janitor was taught a lesson he will not forget; viz., that a cat is as much under the protection of the laws of the State and the society as a human being."
NOTES OF CASES. LIBEL — " BUCKSNIFF." — Buckstaff v. Viall, Su preme Court of Wisconsin, 54 N. W. Rep. in, is a case to make Dickens' ghost laugh, and shows how powerful literature is even after the writer is dust. It was held that a newspaper article alluding to the plaintiff, Buckstaff, as •' Bucksniff" is libellous. The court say : —
"I. The name itself is libellous. It is a nickname which is a name of reproach, and an opprobrious appellation, and is in the similitude of ' Pecksniff,' one of the familiar and most contemptible characters in Dickens, and readily sug gests that name to the reader, and it is repeated several times. It is used to excite ridicule and contemptuous de rision. He is called 'Senator Bucksniff' to more clearly show it was meant for the plaintiff. The article is of and concerning the plaintiff as Senator of Winnebago County. He is also called ' His Majesty, Bucksniff,' 'A legislative god,' 'Dearly beloved Bucksniff,' 'Divine Senator,' ' Mighty Being/ ' Omnipotence.' These appellations may mean that he is vain, self-conceited, pompous, self-aggrandizing, and assumes a despotic and godlike character above his constituents and all other men, and has to be prayed to This is bad law and sentimental nonsense. If a and beseeched for legislative favors; or it may be, and probably is, ironical, which is a kind of ridicule which cat trespasses on our premises, we do not believe expresses a fault and apparent assent, but meaning thc that any person in the humane business has any opposite, — that is, that he is not the greatest, but the legal right to tear our premises to pieces to release it, smallest and meanest; or sarcastical or satirical, indicat and thus put us to expense and trouble. It certainly ing scorn, contempt, a taunt or a gibe. These very words is silly to say that " a cat is as much under the pro and phrases are per se libellous. ' That which is written tection of the laws of the State and the society as a or printed and published, calculated to injure the charac human being." "Ye are of more value than many ter of another, by bringing him into ridicule or contempt.' sparrows," said Christ to his disciples. If a cat or ' tends to prejudice him in his office,' is libellous per se, screeches nightly on our roof or our back fence, we by all the authorities The address to the plaintiff as ' O, may lawfully kill it. We could not lawfully go so far dearly-beloved Bucksniff,' is ironical and contemptuous, meaning the opposite, — hated, despised Bucksniff. The toward a human being. phrases, 'beautiful senatorial god,' 'and look with thy mighty right eye alone,' are explained by a colloquium, not by an innuendo, as claimed by the learned counsel of COATS OF ARMS. — In the March " Century," in the appellant ' An innuendo is to define the defamatory an article on Westminister Abbey, are quoted some meaning which the plaintiff sets on the words, and show how they came to have that defamatory meaning, and how words spoken by Archdeacon Farrar in his sermon they relate to the plaintiff.' A colloquium is the statement at the memorial service in honor of General Grant in of extraneous facts and circumstances necessary to fully 1885. The writer says : " He cited the declaration of understand the defendant's words. The complaint states a preceding President who had avowed that his coat- that these words were spoken ' to sneer at and ridicule of arms should be ' a pair of shirt-sleeves,' as an the deformity of the plaintiff, caused by a partial paralysis answer showing ' a noble sense of the dignity of of one side of his face and body ' The learned counsel of labor, a noble superiority to the vanities of feudalism, the appellant contends that they have no such meaning a strong conviction that men are to be honored simply But that is a question for the jury, on the proof of the as men, and not for the prizes of birth and accident ' " facts stated. It is difficult to understand what these phrases do mean, if they have not reference to some bodily de If the good churchman had known or recalled the oc formity that gives the plaintiff's face an ugly or disagree casion ofthat President's saying, he might have hesi able appearance The word ' beautiful ' is used ironically tated about pronouncing such an eulogy upon it. The to mean the opposite most clearly, and the 'mighty right saying was by President Pierce in reference to his eye alone ' would indicate that the other eye was closed grandfather's shirt-sleeves, and they did stand for a I or injured It seems very probable that the explanation good deal of labor, namely, the whipping of the Brit- I in the colloquium is the correct one. With this explana ish at Bunker Hill, which was the occasion to which tion, the phrases are clearly libellous, as exciting ridicule, the President alluded contumely, and shame."
