Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/476

 Rh himself into boxing attitudes and fairly boxed the other to the door. On another occasion he said, "If every man were to take advantage of every tempting occasion ' to have the law ' of his neighbor, life would not be long enough for the litigations which would result, for all flesh and blood would be turned into plaintiffs and defen dants." Ex-Justice William Strong died on August 19th. He was born in Somers, Conn., May 6, 1 808, and was the eldest of eleven children of Rev. W. L. Strong. The son was graduated at Yale in 1828, and engaged in the study of law, teach ing at the same time. He finished his legal studies by a six months' course in Yale Law School, and decided to prac tice in Pennsylvania, where he was admitted to the bar in 1832, and settled at Reading. In 1846 he was a candidate for Congress, and was twice elected on the Democratic ticket, serv ing from 1847 until 1851. In his second term he was appointed chairman of the committee on elections. He declined a third election and re tired from active politics, but when the Civil War began he gave up a high judicial post, which he was occupying, and gave all his support and in fluence in aid of the government. In 1857 he was elected a justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and he served eleven years, attaining a high reputation as a jurist. In 1868 he resigned his seat on the bench and opened an office in Philadelphia, at once obtaining a large and lu crative practice. In February, 1870, he was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and served until December, 1880, when he resigned.

The following extract from a pleading on file in the Supreme Court of North Carolina, is taken from 112 N.C. 476 : The plaintiff says, "Every such allegation is unjust to her credulity, manifests a lamentable want of the gallantry and courtesy to a lady which usually guides the strong arm of the draughtsman of pleadings in courts of justice, and she respectfully and kindly submits that such harsh and cruel accusations are not in keeping with that elegant, lofty and polished sentiment which is the crowning glory of the American law."

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Two prison romances were simultaneously en acted during the first week of June. Two men were discharged from the penitentiary of New York City within a week of their statutory release in conse quence of discovery by the authorities that they were innocent of their alleged crime of burglary — the real culprits having been tardily discovered. Informed of this, the innocent men, then hard at work in a stone-quarry, wept — the warden join ing in their tears. For said one, " my innocence will add years of life to my heart-broken mother." The second romance culminated at New Buffalo, Michigan, in the marriage of a recently discharged convict to a woman who had remained faithful to him during his twenty years of confinement. Jealousy of his rival incited his killing the latter for undue attentions to the woman. But he was convicted only of manslaughter committed in the heat of passion. The bridegroom came out of prison silver-haired and bowed with physical weakness, and the bride's face was furrowed with the lines of sorrowful remembrances. During his long confinement she regularly visited him and had devoted herself to earning and saving a competence that should support them when united. Thus the wonderful annals of legal romance receive two additional chapters.

LITERARY NOTES. For seven years Scribner's Magazine has had the habit of publishing a midsummer Fiction Num ber, in which have appeared some of the most not able short stories that have been written by Ameri can authors. The August issue is no exception to this remarkably successful record. Any number of the magazine would be notable with an array of contributors which includes Anthony Hope, H. C. Bunner, Hopkinson Smith, Richard Harding Davis, Octave Thanet, Noah Brooks, George Meredith, George I. Putnam and Theodore Roosevelt. The number contains seven short stories, six of them il lustrated by artists of the first rank, including W. H. Hyde, Reinhart, C. Y. Turner, Orson Lowell and others. Mr. Henry Dwight Sedgwick of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, contributes to the Midsummer Holi day (August) Century a delightful series of " Rem iniscences of Literary Berkshire." Mr. Sedgwick is a nephew of Catherine Sedgwick, and has enjoyed the acquaintance of nearly every one of the many not