Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/314

 Ctje #rem Bag. Publ1shed Monthly, at $4.00 per Annum.

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Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, Horace W. Fuller, 344 Tremont Building, Boston, Mass. The Editor will be glad to reeeive eontributions of artieles of moderate length upon subjeets of inter est to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities or euriosities, faeetia, anee dotes, ete. FACETIÆ.

W1th1n a very short space of time, Justice Hawkins in one case sentenced two women and two men to death, and in another case two men. One woman was released by order of the Home Secretary the same week. The sentence of the other three was commuted to penal servitude for life. The two men in the other case were also reprieved. One was liberated in a few weeks, but the innocence of the other was not proved until over a year had elapsed. Long after the cases had ceased to be publicly discussed the judge found himself in a big Northern town. His valet, who usually shaved him, was taken ill, so the judge went into a barber's in a street near his lodgings. The assistant lathered him and be gan to shave him. " Fine morning, my lord," said he. "Ah," said his lordship, "you recog nize me, then?" "Well, I ought to, my lord," replied the man, waggling the razor scientifically under the judge's chin. " Don't you remember me? Why it's only a year or two ago that you sentenced me to death!" The judge was glad when that shave was over. He told a friend that it was about the most un comfortable five minutes he ever passed in his life. A few days later he was in another town, and took a cab. When he paid his fare the cab man smiled at him. " Don't remember me, my lord, do you? " " No; I cannot say I do. Have you ever been before me? " " Oh, yes, my lord, and a jolly bad time I had of it. You sentenced me to death! " The judge blushed and pre sented the cabman with half a crown over his fare. He felt that it was the lfeast he could do under the circumstances. His next extraordinary adventure was in Lon don. He was a sporting judge, and had been to the Derby. When he got back to Victoria from

the Downs he walked part of the way from the station, and feeling uncomfortable from the dust in his throat, he turned into the private bar of a big public house and asked for a brandy and soda. A showy-looking barmaid served him, and her features seemed familiar to him. " Where have I seen you before? " he said. " Oh, at the Old Bailey, my lord. I'm Al—". The judge didn't wait to finish his refreshment or to let the bar maid finish her speech. He fled. The barmaid was the young woman he had sentenced to death, and who had been almost immediately released by order of the Home Secretary.

Recently a Milwaukee judge was called upon to hear the testimony in an equity case in a law office down town. When he arrived he found the rooms packed full of witnesses. "I have no time to hear all these witnesses, gentlemen," he said. "You must confine your selves to six liars to the side, and I will try and decide which lot has the biggest liars." The case was proceeded with on that basis, and the judge had little difficulty in reaching his conclusions.

NOTES.

A sun for libel against a newspaper is a com mon occurrence, but it is quite unusual that a novelist should be called to account in the same way. An action of this sort, however, is at pres ent causing the noted French writer, Gyp, a great deal of trouble, and, according to " Literature," she is in extremely hot water because of a certain passage in one of her latest books, " Le Journal d'un Grinchu." This passage is only a dozen words in length, and it states : " M. Trarieux be came a Protestant for the sake of making an ad vantageous marriage." That might not seem at first sight a very dangerous statement, but the fact that M. Trarieux is a senator alters the case. For each copy of the book sold Trarieux de2S7