Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/118

This page needs to be proofread.
Editorial Department.

It was not as orator or teacher that he was best known, but as a writer on law subjects and as one who suggested, formulated and proposed law reforms. He was conservative, just and honorable, and hence attracted leaders of all parties, who saw in him a person with a mission, with an eye for the good of the people. Both from travels, and from study at home and abroad, he became a man of scholarly attain ments, of classic taste, familiar with the laws and institutions of nearly all the European countries. He had sounded all the depths of the criminal law and was in the midst of the civil law when he was called away in the prime of life by heart failure, from which he had been a sufferer. Dr. Getz was a pleasant companion, generous to a fault, magnanimous to his rivals, a trusted friend and full of enthusiasm for his life-work, that of the law. NOTES. In 1858, during the senatorial campaign of Illinois, when Abraham Lincoln was canvassing the western part of the State, he made a speech at Rushville, in Schuyler County, which was re ported by a young lady who wrote occasionally for the local paper, the Schuyler Citizen. As an introduction to her report of the speech, which appeared in the next number of that jour nal, she said : "So many people had told me that Mr. Lin coln was a miracle of homeliness, that I expected to see the ugliest man in Illinois. Instead of that, I saw a man whose face lit up in a most extraordinary way, when he talked, and I don't care what anybody else's opinion is, I want to say that I consider Mr. Lincoln one of the hand somest men I ever saw." A copy of the paper, with this paragraph care fully marked, was sent to Mr. Lincoln. He took it at once to his wife. " Mary," he said, "I have always thought until now, that you were the only woman on earth, who considered me a handsome man, and I have not been obsolutely certain about that, but it seems there is one other." A Dutchman on a witness stand was asked what ear-marks the pig had that was in dispute. "Vel, dot pig he have no ear-marks, occept a very short tail," was the reply.

89

Governor Shaw of Iowa, the new Secretary of the Treasury, last year set apart a special Thanksgiving Day for one little girl, Mary Zigrang, of Livermore, because she happened to be ill on the twenty-eighth day of November. Mary wrote her first letter to the governor with out consulting her parents. It read : Dear Governor : Please can we have another Thanksgiving Day and have it next Thursday? I was sick and could not eat any turkey or other good things. I ain't very big, but I like turkey. Please let us have it. Your friend, Marv Zigrang. To this the governor not only acceded promptly, but also sent by express a large tur key that Mary might be well cared for. His official proclamation for the benefit of Mary Zigrang of Livermore had attached to it the seal of the State, and all other red tape neces sary to lend it authority. The proclamation is sued by the governor was as follows : Having been informed that Mary Zigrand of Livermore, Iowa, was ill on the twenty-eighth day of November, 1901, and was thereby pre vented from joining in the festivities incident to Thanksgiving Day, I, therefore, recommend that, at a convenient hour, on Monday, Decem ber 9, 1901, Mr. and Mrs. Zigrang, together with their family and such young friends as Mary may choose to invite, assemble in the family dining-room, there with thankful hearts for country, home, and the blessed influence of children, to partake of such bounties as are usually served in Christian America on the day appointed for national Thanksgiving, and that special attention be given that Mary shall be bountifully supplied with that portion of the national bird and such other delicacies as may be most congenial to her. Leslie M. Shaw, Governor of Iowa. Signed at Des Moines this sixth day of De cember, 190 1. Next week came the reply from Mary to the governor, closing the incident. Dear Governor: I thank you for your kind letter, and for letting me have a Thanksgiving Day of my own, and for the nice turkey that you sent me. I shall always keep your letter. It came too late for me to send you an invita tion. I wish you could have been here. You are a nice, good man, and I wrote Santa Clans to bring you something nice for Christmas. Your friend, Marv Zigrand.