Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/496

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Communications in regard to the contents, of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, Horace W. Fuller, 151 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. The Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of interest to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities or curiosities, facetia, anecdotes, etc. THE GREEN BAG. IN our November number we shall publish an article on " The Highest Court of Law in New Hampshire, Provincial, Colonial, and State," written by Hon. Charles R. Corning, of Concord, N. H. The paper is one of unusual interest, and will be profusely illustrated with portraits of emi nent New Hampshire judges. From Pennsylvania comes the following: — Editor of the " Green Bag" : Dear Sir, — Your " Disgusted Layman" finds an apt illustration of the "Original Package " decision in the pages of Porte Crayon. The said explorer found a typical Tar Heel down in North Carolina, and solemnly read to him an account of men existing on the shores of Albemarle Sound at an early date with mouths eight inches wide. Mr. Tar Heel did n't swallow that, and replied, " I call that a Gatesville story;" and "Porte" impressively replied: "My friend, you should not be so sceptical. I can demon strate the correctness of this by induction beyond cavil. We know that the oyster is to be eaten whole. We know that there are oysters eight inches across. Now, we must either admit that there are men with mouths large enough to take in such oysters whole, or we establish a breach in the beautiful harmony of nature, a weak link in the chain of the complete har mony and eternal fitness of creation." " Stronger," said Tar Heel, "you 's from the North." "Why so, my friend? " " Kase they 's so bookish and lamed up there that they 'll believe anything." The Supreme Court is so bookish and larned that they 'll decide that Tom Jones's selling a rag baby to Pete Smith, both fitting on a fence in Kansas, is an act of "inter state commerce," if said rag baby was shipped Tom from' Illinois! Did you ever meet that story of how Roaring Ralph Stackpole escaped conviction for horse-stealing in the early days of Kentucky? It was just after the long and bloody Indian wars, and

Ralph's attorney thus addressed the jury: "Gentle men of the jury, my client there, Ralph Stackpole. ' Roaring Ralph Stackpole,' is charged with stealing a hoss; and, gentlemen of the jury, I want to say that they have putty well proved it on him too. But, gen tlemen of the jury, what 's that got to do with the case? Why, gentlemen of the jury, did n't that air Ralph Stackpole, on the river Raisin, in the year 1798, attack, kill, and sculp three buck Injins all by himself? Did n't he? Don't you all know it? And furder, gentlemen, did n't that same Roaring Ralph, in the year 1802, on Green River, attack and kill a buck Injin, — that air Ralph, with his hands tied and without gun, scalper, or tomahawk; did n't he beat that air Injin to death with his bare fists in the nateral way, — in the nateral way, gentlemen? Why, gentlemen of this here jury, is that air Ralph Stackpole guilty or not guilty? " " Not guilty! not guilty!! " roared the jury, with a heartiness and una nimity that shook the court-house. Your " Disgusted Layman." Referring to the articles in the "Green Bag" on animadversions of judges on one another and on counsel, a Rhode Island correspondent sends the following censure on a statute law, delivered by Mr. Justice Mitchell of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in the case of Fritz v. Hathaway : "The Act of 1887 provides that the plaintiff shall make a concise statement of his demand, accompa nied, in actions of assumpsit, by copies of all notes, contracts, etc., upon which the claim is founded. The spirit of this act plainly requires that every con tract or agreement upon which the claim in any manner depends, even if in parol, shall be averred in the statement. The act is unwise, and is founded on the erroneous and superficial view that, by abolish ing technical forms, it can get rid of distinctions in herent in the nature of the subject; but it would be doing injustice to the purpose of its framers to hold that it was meant to sanction mere looseness of plead ing. Accuracy and technical precision have no terrors except for the careless and the incompetent, and the Act of 1887 was not intended to do away with them. As to all matters of substance, com pleteness, accuracy, and precision are as necessary to a statement now as they were before to a declara tion in the settled and time-honored forms."