NOTES.
CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL, it is said, used to narrate with great glee, a correspondence on a point of honor between Governor Giles of Virginia and Patrick Henry. It was as follows : Sir; I understand that you have called me a bob tail politician. I wish to know if it be true, and if true, your meaning.
W. R. GILES. To which Mr. Henry replied as follows : Sir : I do not recollect having called you a bob-tail politician at any time, but think it probable I have. I can't say what I did mean; but if you will tell me what you think I mean, I will say whether you are correct or not Very respectfully, PATRICK HENRY. THE late Harry Bingham was once defending, in a Vermont court, a case against a railroad for damages from a fire alleged to have been set by sparks from a locomotive. It had been shown that a " wild " engine had passed by, sometime during the morning of the fire, and Mr. Bingham was trying to make the witness commit himself to some exact time at which it had gone by. "Was it five o'clock in the morning? " asked Mr. Bingham. "Could n't tell exactly; might have been then; 't was along about the time of the fire," answered the witness. "Well, was it six o'clock?" "Was it seven o'clock?" And each time came the same non-committal answer. Then Mr. Bingham began at the other end. "Was it twelve o'clock? Eleven o'clock? Ten o'clock? " Each time the same unsatisfactory reply. Finding this line of questioning was a failure, Mr. Bingham put his inquiries in a different form. "You don't seem able to tell what time it was. But perhaps you can tell me this — how high was the sun?" "Well," said the witness, " I guess it was about a rod high I" "IF it plaze the coort," said an Irish attorney, "if I am wrong in this, I have another point that is equally conclusive."
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JUDGE LINDLEY, of the St. Louis Circuit Court, like many another good judge, is fond of a quiet joke. A raw German, who had been summoned for jury duty, desired to be relieved. "Schudge," he said " I can nicht understand English goot. Looking over the crowded bar, his eye filled with humor, the judge replied. "Oh! you can serve 1 You won't have to understand good English. You won't hear any here."
BERRY G. THURMAN is one of the oldest and most prominent members of the bar in southern Missouri. In his home town of Lámar, he is naturally a legal light without a peer, which is mentioned as necessary to the full appreciation of the following story. It was during the campaign of 1896, and pol itics were in a feverish state at Lámar. Thomas W. Ditty, a young lawyer-editor, had just ap peared on the scene with a red-hot political sheet that was scourging partisans to wild and excited battle. Mr. Thurman, campaigning in opposi tion to Mr. Ditty, became the mark for editorial attack. The town presently transferred its in terest in the election to the daring newcomer, speculating on his ability to best the veteran lawyer. In the midst of the campaign, it happened that Mr. Thurman was called to conduct the prosecution in a certain case wherein Mr. Ditty appeared as a witness for the defense. The cross-examination of said witness offered Mr. Thurman an opportunity to even scores, and he embraced it. But the witness was looking to his laurels. He parried ever)- thrust, frequently reciprocated, and wore a bland, tantalizing smile that captured the court-house idlers. Mr. Thur man finally became disgusted. In desperation he waved the witness aside, observing with all the contempt possible : "You're a fine gentleman to appear before this court I" With mock regret the witness retorted : "And I'd say the same thing about you, if I wasn't under oath!" Mr. Thurman declares that then and there he lost all prestige in the eyes of the village loungers.
