552
"Galopin's won, and I've won!" His lordship, taken aback by this extraordinary proceeding, demanded to know the meaning of it. The barrister apologized for his conduct, and craved forgiveness. "It is most improper," said his worship, " and I trust it may never occur again." The case was then about to be resumed, when the judge intervened with : — "Oh, by the bye, Mr. X , did the tele gram say what was second and third?"
NOTES.
Officialdom in Germany has been compelled by a bicyclist to give deep thought to the ques tion, "When two streets intersect, in which street is the point of intersection?" At Breslau, bicy clists are forbidden on certain streets. A rider, going along a street where they are allowed, fol lowed it across a prohibited street, and was ar rested in the middle of the road. He asserted that he was in one street, the policeman that he was in the other, the lower court that he was in neither, and should not be fined; and the upper court that he was in both, therefore on the for bidden street, and must pay twenty-five cents.
A curious fact has been developed by the French police. Their statistics show that in twenty-one murders the money taken by the assassins averaged only sixteen dollars, and in each case the criminal was guillotined. Evi dently, murder does not pay from a financial point of view. According to Federal Judge Springer, there is at present no legal way of punishing a Creek In dian for murder, or any other offense, the trial of which began in the tribal court before its abo lition on January i, 1898. Upon a murder case carried to the Federal Court, the court has de cided that the tribal court did not err, and re manded the case to the latter for execution. Congress abolished the tribal court, and hence Judge Springer's decision.
The London police have discovered, in Red Lion Square, a well-stocked establishment which supplies professional beggars with the parapher-
nalia used by them to impress the urgency of their distress upon the public. A large assort ment of wooden legs and arms, asthmatic handorgans and fiddles, wigs and beards, ragged suits and dresses, were found.
It was a saying of Douglas Jerrold, " The law's a pretty bird, and has charming wings. 'T would be quite a bird of paradise if it didn't carry such a terrible bill." A quaint lawsuit has been entered against a German princeling, who not long ago married the daughter of a wealthy English earl. The prince, when he arrived in London in search of an heir ess, applied for an introduction to society to a man who was of aristocratic family, but who pos sessed neither money nor scruples. This blueblooded individual undertook to introduce the prince into those particular houses of the British nobility. The prince married a charming lady, who possessed both money and a title, but he failed to pay either the price stipulated for his introduction or the commission due upon her dowry. The consequence is that legal proceed ings have been instituted against him.
"A great corporation once desired a legal opinion on a matter involving millions of dollars, for upon it practically depended that corpora tion's very existence. They decided to refer the question, which was wholly one of the correct in terpretation of law, to William M. Evarts, and to be guided by his opinion. Evarts's reputation and success are wholly due to his remarkable knowledge of law, and his power, which seems almost like intuition, of determining just how the Supreme Court will decide any question of law. When the attorney for the great corporation put his question, Evarts sat buried in thought for a moment, and then answered in one word, ' Yes.' His bill for that one word was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the corporation paid it without a murmur. Evarts's answer proved to be correct." It is a good story, anyway. Drunkenness having made alarming strides in New Zealand, it has been resolved to call in the aid of photography to put it down. In future, anyone who may be condemned on a charge of
