Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/70

 Rh premises had been occupied for the full term for which the rent was claimed. Consequently he urged that the suit, having been brought before the end of the month, should be dismissed. Drawing himself up to his full length, and stroking an elegant pair of side-whiskers of which he is justly proud, the judge replied in the elegant brogue so natural to one of his race : — "Gintlemen, this seams to me to be a very sim ple question. On the one part, the diffindent has gone into persession under the terms of a lace which contains two clauses, — one, that she shall pay rint in advance; the other, that if she dies before the ind of the term, the lace is to ind. "By dalivering the persession of the primeses and demanding the rint in advance, the landlord has complied with his portion of the contract. On the other hand, the lady who is the lessee has not complied with her portion of it at all." Attorney for defendant : "In what respect, your honor, has she not complied with her portion of the lease?" The Court : " Why, be dying, av course! . Judg ment for the plaintiff for the full amount and cost"

NOTES.

THE remark of the Supreme Court of Minnesota in Steffenson v. Chicago. Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railway Company, 51 N. W. Rep. 610, that '' the practice of reading from the law-books is an exceedingly dangerous one, and should not be indulged in," was perhaps not intended to be humorous. But unless read closely, with the suhject-matter before the court, it has that sound. We know from experience that law-books are often dangerous, for many a practitioner has been hoisted by his own petard. Even Lord Coke did not think everything in the " books " was law; for to his treatise on (Littleton's) Laws of England he appends the following : — "Epilogus — And know, my son, that I would not have thee beleeve that all which I have said in these booltes is law, for I will not presume to take this upon me. But of those things that are not law, inquire and learne of my wise masters learned in the

ONE of the peculiar products of Washington is the colored lawyer who hangs around the police court. A big majority of the people who are brought to the bar of that tribunal are colored, says a correspondent of the St. Louis " Republic." The colored lawyer promptly offers t- > go to the res cue of the colored person upon whom the hand of the law has been laid. He will do so for a sum ranging in amount from ten cents to ten dollars. His note of exchange depends upon the state of the unfortunate one's exchequer. Sometimes the colored lawyers have quarrels among themselves about the possession of clients. Then it is likely that they will make charges against each other. To-day, for instance, John Young, who has figured not infrequently as an advocate, was on trial him self. He was up for vagrancy. Two other colored lawyers were the witnesses against him. They gave him a very picturesque reputation, and said that he knew nothing of law whatever. They said he was a " voudoo " doctor. His legal lore, accord ing to their testimony, consisted of a coon-foot and a rabbit-foot. These " authorities " he carried in his pocket. He claims that by rubbing one or the other on a prisoner's neck, he can generally secure acquittal. If, however, the offence is a pretty serious one, he calls to his aid his whole law " library." He then rubs the neck of his client with both the rabbit-foot and the coon-foot. He says that it must be murder in the first degree to withstand the potency of the argument of the combined rabbit-foot and coon-foot. He has been enjoying a very lucrative practice. He was or dered to keep away from the court.

WIVES in England can hardly be said to be "worth their weight in gold," judging from the following transactions in that kind of property reported in " All the Year Round " : — "In 1877 a wife was sold for ¿40; and what is more remarkable, the articles of sale were drawn up and signed at a solicitor's office, the money paid, and the chattel handed over with all the gravity of law. "In the course of a county court case at Sheffield, in May, 1881, a man named Moore stated that he was living with the wife of one of his friends, and that he had purchased her for a quart of beer. This trans action was brought under the notice of the Govern ment by Mr. A. M. Sullivan, who requested the Home Secretary to take measures for preventing such reprehensible transactions. This had no effect,