Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/370

 PUBLISHED MONTHLY, AT $4.00 PER ANNUM.

SINGLE NUMBERS, 50 CENTS.

Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, HORACE W. FULLER, 15^ Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. The Editor will be ciad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of interest to the profession j also anything in the way of legal antiquities or curiosities, facetiœ, anecdotes, etc.

THE GREEN BAG. "PHE question as to whether there is " punishment after death" seems to have been settled beyond all controversy by the legal Solons of Indiana. The following communication clearly demonstrates this : — INDIANAPOLIS, June 3, 1893.

To the Editor of the " Green Bag " : Without wishing to exalt my own State at the expense of others, I wish to draw attention to a recent penal enactment to show that in the matter of advanced thought Indiana is fully abreast of the times. The learned commissioners who prepared the crimi nal code, recognizing that the practice of being killed or injured at railroad crossings was a reprehensible one which should be discouraged, and fully realizing that there is a hereafter, and that the sins of the dead should be punished, incorporated in the code a pro vision which is very properly entitled " Untimely Crossing of Railroad Tracks,'1 and wisely distributes punishment to both railway employee and the miser able offender who violates the law by being run over by the cars. The section, after fining the engineer all the way from $100 to $i,oco, and imprisoning him from three months to a year, proceeds: " And if any person shall be injured or killed by reason of such crossing, he shall be imprisoned in the State prison not more than fourteen years nor less than two fears." R. S., 1881, section 2174. That there are at present no corpses incarcerated at the penitentia ries is doubtless due to the fact that this apparentlysevere law has discouraged persons who might other wise offend from sacrificing their lives at railroadcrossings. For what it has accomplished, I commend it to all philanthropists and thoughtful men. Sincerely, M. M.

WE are indebted to a Kansas reader for the following : —

OTTAWA, KANSAS, May 26, 1893. Editor of the " Green Bag " : The following is a true transcript from the docket of a worthy justice of the peace of Williamsburg Township in this county : — The charge is that " one John Smiley, on or about loth day of ... did then and there unlawfully break the peace by getting drunk and breaking glass out of door, &c. The prisoner being brought into court, and having kicked everything down in the office, and kept the air blue with profanity, and proved by three wit nesses that he is drunk : Therefore it is adjudged that for his drunken disorderly conduct and destruction of property he is fined the sum of 525, pay $10 for the destruction of property, the cost of this action, and be confined in the County jail of Franklin County for sixty days, or as County atty. shall amend." This form is submitted for the consideration of justices who may have difficulty in formulating docket entries in cases of misdemeanor. Very truly yours,

LEGAL ANTIQUITIES.

THE Blue Laws of Connecticut were so called because they were printed on blue-tinged paper. These were some of them : — "No one shall be a freeman or have a vote, un less he is converted and a member of one of the churches allowed in the Dominion." "No dissenter from the essential worship of this Dominion shall be allowed to give a vote for elect ing magistrates or any officer." "No food or lodging shall be offered to a heretic." "No one shall cross the river on the Sabbath but an authorized clergyman." "No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep houses, cut hair or shave on the Sabbath day." "No one shall kiss his or her children on the Sabbath or feasting days." "The Sabbath day shall begin at sunset Sat urday."