Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/132

 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

THE LIGHTER SIDE THERE is an inexhaustible fund of rich humor in the reports and in the biographies of lawyers, and that branch of legal literature should not be neglected. Even " googoo eyes" have come up for judicial definition, and their Lordships were equal to the occasion, crystal lizing them for air time as " attentions with in tentions contrary to conventions." The Brit ish Columbia student who amended the old form of writ, "Victoria, by the Grace of God," etc., to "Vancouver, by the Grace of God," etc., deserves honorable mention. A widow (though derived from vidua, not always an aching void), was forbidden by the civil law to marry again infra annum luctus — within the year of mourning — which appears strangely inconsistent with only forty days of quarantine. A widow's second marriage has been judicially denned as "the triumph of hope over experience." No doubt any of your Toronto readers could write a rattling article on widows alone, seasoned with attic salt, and full of legal lore in aida eccksiae et aula amoris. Lawyer's epitaphs, too, might be collected. Not all would be so doubtfully complimentary as the ancient one of Brittany, Ci git St. Evona, — un Breton, Avocat, — non larron! Hallelujah! — WILLIAM N. PONTON in the Canadian Law Times. THE scholarly librarian of a large Bar Li brary, finding this "merry story" in an old text-book entitled "A Treatise of Trover and Conversion. London: 1696" Chapter 6, Page 76, is kind enough to send it to THE GREEN BAG. "But I will end this with a merry Story of a Clerk, who was drawing a Declaration in Trover for several Goods, amongst the rest he meets with an instrument for which he could not find a proper Latin word, but briskly goes on; and de utto Tweedledum, Tweedleton, Tweedledum twea (Anglice) a pair of Bagpipes. And of another who could not readily tell what was Latin for a Stick. But he very logically concludes thus: Candela is a Candle.

Candelabrum, a Candlestick, Ergo brum is Lotin for a Stick; but he that rendered the word Ladder by adolescent-tor was wonderfully cunning, because he knew adokscens signified a Ladd." THE longest complaint on record has just been filed in an action brought by the Brook lyn Teachers' Association and the Class Teach ers' Organization of Brooklyn, as plaintiffs, against the Board of Education of New York City. The complaint covers 3,414 pages bound in two volumes, each the size of a Standard Dictionary. 3,413 causes of action are speci fied in the complaint, each representing the assignment to the plaintiffs of a claim of a teacher for salary under certain schedules of salaries. It took four accountants two months to prepare the schedules showing the balance of salary due to each teacher and then seven months were completely taken in drawing the complaint. If technical objections are raised to the claims, it will be necessary to bring to court all of the 3,413 teachers and the schools of Brooklyn will be practically closed during the trial. EVEN in the days when he was a struggling young lawyer Chauncey Depew was gifted with a considerable deal of the self-confidence which in later years came to be known by many men. One of the first cases he had in court involved a somewhat complicated ques tion of inheritance. But Chauncey gaily tackled it and prepared what he regarded as an unanswerable argument. He had pro ceeded for some time when he noticed that the judge seemed to lose interest. Lawyer Depew hesitated and said, "I beg pardon, but I hope your honor follows me." The judge shifted in his chair as he replied, "I have so far, but I'll say frankly that if I thought I could find my way out I'd quit right here." — The Law Register. THE attorney on the stand is usually a cautious witness, but the limit was recently reached in Boston when a distinguished au