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THE GREEN BAG
THE LIGHTER SIDE An Open-air Court. — For holding a court under the canopy of heaven there are prece dents entitled to respect. Did not Deborah, as we read in the Book of Judges, sit under a palm tree, when the children of Israel came to her for judgment? In comparatively, modern times Prynne tells us that the Admirals "held their Courts upon the keyes of sea ports, close by the flux and reflux of the sea;" and we know that at the beginning of the fifteenth century the Admiralty Court used to sit upon a quay in Southwark near to London Bridge, though we suppose that some shelter was provided for the judge and those who had business in his 'Court. From the North of England there now conies a story of a Revising Barrister who did hold a Court in the open. It was in a secluded village, where the school-house, in which the Court was usually held, happened not to be available. The vicarage was courteously placed at the barrister's disposal by the incumbent, but the overseers attending the Court were a arge company, who would have taxed the capacity of any ordinary room, and the day was warm. Consequently the barrister took his seat under a tree in the old-world vicarage garden, while the overseers settled themselves upon a grassy bank facing him. We are told that no untimely shower fell to mar the proceedings. Nevertheless, if only for climatic reasons, open-air Courts are not likely to become the fashion in this country. — Law Journal. Anecdotes of Choate. — Russell Sage will always remember the occasion when he was on the witness stand, answering questions in his familiar half-whisper, and Choate prodded with: "Now, then, speak up, Mr. Sage, so that the jury can hear you. Speak as loud as you would, for instance, if you were driving a first-rate bargain on the stock exchange!" Again, when he had on the rack a wellknown manipulator of bankrupt railway prop erties, he suddenly asked: " Were you inter ested in the trial of Dr. Briggs for heresy?" "No! " was the answer. Choate passed to .other subjects; but the witness, as he left the stand, paused at Choate's seat and remarked in an indignant tone:
"I fail to see, Mr. Choate, the purpose of your question about the Briggs' heresy trial." "Oh," answered Choate, carelessly, but loud enough for the jury to hear, " I thought perhaps you were trying to break up the Presbyterian church so as to get a chance to reorganize it." One of Choate's witticisms which has been most frequently repeated was uttered in the Feauardent-Cesnola libel case, which turned upon the authenticity of some alleged antique statues. It was charged among other things, that a certain figure of Venus had been worked over and made into a Hope. A witness had sworn that the statue as it then appeared was different from the way it looked when first taken out of the packing box. "Lost flesh in the hot weather, I suppose?" suggested Choate. "My learned brother is so fond of making jests that he overlooks some of the serious points in the testimony," interposed the counsel for the other side. " Now, if my learned brother " "Pray don't drag me in all the time, "inter rupted Choate, rather tartly. " I'm not on trial here. Please go on with the business in hand, and leave me out." "Leave my learned brother out!" exclaimed the opposing counsel with mock alarm. " Why, we might as well leave out Venus herself." "Oh, very well," returned Choate, "leave me out with Venus and I won't object." In the suit of Hunt, the great architect, against Mrs. Paran Stevens, he dwelt upon her humble origin and her successive rises in the social world, concluding with, " At last the arm of royalty was bent to receive her gloved hand, and how, gentlemen of the jury, did &e reach this imposing eminence (pause.) Upon a mountain of unpaid bills." A well known clergyman once invoked Mf' Choate's services in the settlement of a tn"ch involved and heavy estate. In due time he received his bill. The client appeared ifl a few days with a smile of deprecation. "I always understood Mr. Choate," ^e objected, " that you gentlemen of the Bar were not in the habit of charging clergyfflen for your services."
