Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/343

This page needs to be proofread.

THE GREEN BAG "We thought nothing in those days of ris ing for the Long Vacation with eight hundred or nine hundred witness cases undisposed of. Those were days when there was work, heaps of work; people seemed fonder of law then. And yet, though there were three 'sittings' in each year, as well as four 'terms', we got more holiday. Why, one year, I remember, I had no less than six months and two days' holiday. Yet no; I do not believe that we kept parties waiting so long, and kept cases •dangling on- so long as has been made out. Cases did accumulate a bit, perhaps. But those were great days. The judges would listen to every word. In the whole of my forty years I never knew a judge fall asleep •during a case. But I often thought they were wonderful men to be able to resist the temptation so well." "What was the oddest scene you remem ber?" ' ' I think it was the occasion when a disap pointed suitor threw an egg at the judge's head. It was the funniest sight imaginable, his Honour took it so gravely. You will find it fully reported in the newspapers at the time, March, 1877. The suitor was an American named Robert Cosgrave. At the close of the court, just as his Honour was rising, Cosgrave, who was standing beside me, moved suddenly, and — splash went the egg all over the judge's head and neck. At the moment, a counsel happened to have risen to make an application, and so the Vice-Chancellor had resumed his seat. But for that he would have received the egg full in his face, so well •was it aimed. It broke on the top of the back of the judge's chair. I had seized hold of Cosgrave; but his Honour was hardly in a punning mood, meting out punishment was more in his humour. 'What did you throw that egg at me for?' he asked, when I took Cosgrave forward. 'Because I do not agree with your ruling in my case,' Cosgrave re plied. 'Well, now, I will give you another, and you will see how that will agree with you. You will go to prison for contempt of court." 'For how long?" asked Cosgrave. 'Until I choose to let you out," the judge retorted. "When we searched him at Holloway, we found a loaded revolver on him."— The Law Journal.

"!T is pretty hard," said the Czar, suddenly arousing himself from a brown study. "What does your Majesty mean?" asked the courtier. "It's pretty hard to think of suing for peace, when you feel as if you ought to be suing for damages." — Washington Star. IN connection with lawyers trying to con fuse experts in the witness box in murder trials, a case is recalled where the lawyer looked quizzically at the doctor who was testifying, and said: "Doctors sometimes make mistakes, don't they?" "The same as lawyers," was the reply. "But doctors' mistakes are buried six feet under ground," said the lawyer. "Yes," said the doctor, "and lawyers' mis takes sometimes swing in the air." — Boston Record. A SUBSCRIBER sends us the following sample of the elaborate testimonium clause common in English documents: "IN WITNESS WHEREOF these presents typewritten on this and the preceding page by Mary Jane Eliza Jones, Clerk to Bishop & Abbott, Writers, Glasgow, are subscribed by us as follows, viz. : — By me the said Archibald Bishop at Glasgow on the gth day of February, 1904, before these witnesses John Alexander McArthur and Walter George Robinson, both Clerks to the said Bishop & Abbott; and by me the said Andrew Abbott at Dumbarton on the date last mentioned before these witnesses Angus Ferguson, Engineer, Lee Foundry, Alexandria, and the said Walter George Rob inson." THIS, it is needless to say, is from the sol idly Republican State of Pennsylvania: The Democrats of Berks County, Pa., in the old days held their annual county meeting at the Court House, on the second Monday of August, the first day of Court of Quarter Sessions, which would bring the constables, grand and petit jurors, as well as the prose cuted and prosecutors and their witnesses, to court, and assure a large audience. These meetings were called at one o'clock promptly in the afternoon, and were expected