The lawyers reluctantly consented. "Wy, jedge," said he, I'm a pore man. I've got a big fambly at hum, includin' a wife an' four girl children. They needs my help. They 'se jest erblige ter hev hit, or they'll suffer. 1 ain't no criminal, jedge; w'y, I was in your regiment in ther rebel army, an' you never heerd o' me committin' any crime. It's jes' 'bout crop time now, an' I'm needed at hum more'n any other season o' ther year. I couldn't raise that thousan' dollars ef'n my life deq)encled on it. jedge; an' as fer gohv ter the 'tentiary, w'y, that's simply out'» ther question." The judge's eyes did not comport them selves quite judicially as the man sat down. His voice was not so stern as it should have been when he asked the prisoner: "Can you secure a fine of two hundred and fifty dollars?" "I reckon I possible mought." "Mr. Clerk," said the judge, "enter an or der reducing that fine to one hundred dollars, and setting aside the sentence of imprison ment." JUDGE C. A. BISHOP, who was recently elected to the Iowa Supreme Court, was for years on the county bench. When presiding over the criminal court he achieved a repu tation for sternness almost as severe as that of the Hanging Judge of Hermiston created by Robert Louis Stevenson. There is still a legend in the county jail regarding a pecu liarity of the judge. It is a fad of his to wear 3. red carnation in his buttonhole. On the days when the red flower adorned his coat lapel the prisoners believed that he inflicted heavier sentences than he did on other occa sions. "Has he got it on to-day?" was invariably the first question asked the jailer when he went to take a man up for sentence. "Got what on?" was the invariable reply. "It—the blood-red hoodoo"; and to this day Judge Bishop's name is always associated with the "blood-red hoodoo." IN a western state, whose laws provide for a jury of six in suits before justices of the
peace, a German was elected to that high and honorable office. The old gentleman was naturally smart, and, being prosperous, was something of an oracle in the neighborhood; but law was a thing he knew as little about as the most of his predecessors and succes sors of the J. P. genus. When his first case came on he listened with reasonable attention to the evidence, but with wrapt interest to the arguments of coun sel for both plaintiff and defendant. When the arguments were closed he ap peared very ill at ease, and not until reminded that it was his duty to charge the jury did he offer any suggestion touching the case in hand. But he came up to the situation that confronted him like a man and a judge. "Gentlemens of der tschury," he said, "as dis ist mein first oxberience in tschargin' a tschury, I hartly knows vat do say do you. But as eet ist mein tuty to tscharge you somedings I vill do der pest vat I knows how. "Eff you peleeves all vat der lawyer for der blaintiff haf said, den I tscharge you dot eet is your tuty to find your ferdict for de blain tiff, und assess hees tamages as you dink righdt, not do oxzeet five huntret tollars und der cosdts, vich you must nod vorgecl. "But eef, on der odder haut, you peleeves all vat der tefendant's lawyer haf saidt, den eet ees your tuty to fint for der tefendant. In dot case you vill tschust do id, und say nodings apoud it, oxcepding der costs, vich you moost nod vorged. "But, tschendlemens, if on der odder hant, you are ligke me apout dis maddter. unt dondt peleeve a tarn t vort vat eider one off dem haf saidt, den I doan' know vot in der hell you are goin' ter to." AT the funeral of a lawyer of state reputa tion, who lived and practised in a town not far from Philadelphia, and who was known among his friends thereabouts as an unbe liever, an eminent gentleman reached the house after the minister began his address. Not knowing how far the service had pro gressed, he accosted a well-known Quaker who was noted for his great sense of humor, and, leaning over his shoulder, asked in a
