THE LIGHTER SIDE
573
THE LIGHTER SIDE Damnum Absque Injuria? — A few years ago a man residing in Boston obtained a situa tion in New York City. While seeking a home for his family he visited an apartment house on the Upper East Side. Two apartments were vacant on the third floor, one on each side of the hallway. There appeared to be no dif ference between them and he selected the one on the right. As his household goods were to be shipped by boat and he was not certain when they would arrive he engaged the apart ment from the first of the following month, a few days off. His arrangements for renting the apartment were made with the janitor. The day following his visit a plumber was engaged to make some repairs both in the apartment engaged and also in the one across the hallway. About the third day after the order was given him the plumber and his helper came and did the repairs in the latter apartment first. When the end of the day came, as they were about to quit, the plumber concealed his tools in the cupboard in this apartment and told his helper to carry their gasoline torch back to the shop as he did not care to risk its being stolen. He left before the helper did. The latter not wanting to return to the shop, it being not where he would pass it going home, concealed the torch in the oven of the kitchen range, expecting he would be first on the job in the morning, and his boss would be none the wiser. The furniture ar rived that evening after they had left. So did the tenant's wife. Because of the fitting of the carpets she chose, with the janitor's consent, to occupy the apartment wherein the plumbers had been at work. The janitor knew nothing about the tools being left in the apartment. As it was late in the evening when the furniture arrived, and the tenant and his family had already eaten dinner at a restaurant, no fire was lighted in the range that evening. The next morning the family lay late in bed. A little before 8 o'clock on the said morning the plumber, who had no knowl edge the night before that any tenant was expected so soon, came and found the apart ment occupied and asked permission to get his tools. The helper had not yet arrived.
He was granted permission, as the tools had been noticed in the cupboard. He went with his tools to the other apartment. Later on, the helper came and also asked permission to get tools. He was informed that the tools had already been obtained by another man. During the conversation with the person at the door he observed that a woman was just in the act of starting a fire in the kitchen range. Greatly excited he tried .to force his way past the person whom he was addressing to get to the range. So wrought up was he, he could not make himself understood to that person and he was forced back into the hall way and the door shut in his face. The ten ants were foreigners with an imperfect knowl edge of the English language. A few moments later there was an explosion and the woman who made the fire was badly burned. Suit was subsequently brought against both the landlord and the plumber. As it has been finally settled and disposed of without a trial the writer would like to know who was legally responsible for the accident. —• H. W. Dilg. "J'Accuse." — Many so-called lawyers en tertain strong prejudices against the reading of court reports for the mere entertainment which they may afford. It is even asserted that law books are nothing more than the lawyer's tools, to be displayed conspicuously, in splendid cases, about his office, for the edi fication of clients, and to be taken out of their repository only when an examination of them — which must always be hasty and superficial — will aid Mr. Attorney to ensnare a few pal try dollars into his poverty-stricken exchequer. If we would indulge in profitable mental recre ation, there are the newspapers and magazines and reviews and periodicals, having as the very reason of existence our enlightenment and con sequent amusement, but who, possessed of his right mind, would ever contemplate trying to while away an idle hour poring over a dusty, musty law report? The idea seems to prevail, more generally among laymen, nowadays, I confess, that all legal treatises are exceedingly technical and dry; that they expound deep, abstruse legal
