Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/198

 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT took the land, so I tank a mortgage bin besser as a deet." A LAWYER had stepped into the court room while a trial was going on, and had forgotten to take off his hat. Judge Gary as soon as he saw the lawyer with his hat on, turned to the lawyers trying the case and said in his emphatic way: "Gentlemen, stop the trial of the case and let there be silence in the court room," then turn ing to the bailiff : "Mr. Bailiff close the win dows and shut the door," (and pointing to the lawyer with his hat on,) " that poor gentleman may take cold." THE late Judge John P. Rea, at one time National Commander of the G. A. R., was one of the judges of the district court of Minnesota, and was presiding at the trial of an important case in Minneapolis, in which the late Judge Shaw was counsel for one of the litigants. Judge Shaw had been a judge of the same court several years before. Judge Shaw was arguing a question of law and read authority after authority, com menting at great length upon each one when Judge Rea stopped him, saying: "Judge, the law you are reading and arguing is undoubtedly good law, in fact it is elemental, and it seems to me you might assume that the Court knows elementary law." "Well," says Judge Shaw, "I was a judge of this court once myself and my experience while on the bench taught me that it was not safe for a lawyer in the forum to assume that a Court knows anything." IT has been said that by searching one can find decision of Courts upon almost any proposition but it is submitted that seldom has it been judicially determined that a court will not consider an assignment of error be cause they have not before them a particular brand of liquor; and further that its absence is liable to lead the court to a wrong conclusion, but such is the holding in the case of Hans V. State, 50 Neb. 150. It is stated in the above case, on page 158, by the court: "It is disclosed on page 97 of the bill of exceptions that the state, in making out its case in chief, introduced in evidence

the half barrel of 'Raspberry Cordial' and two cases of ' Eggine' indentified and referred to by the witness as having been found secreted on defendant's premises, and that two samples of the last named liquid were marked by the official reporter for identification as exhibits 'B' and 'C,' respectively, and that he likewise marked a sample of the ' Raspberry Cordial ' exhibit 'D.' It is also recited that those ex hibits are made part of the bill of exceptions; but we are unable to discover as part of the record either the half barrel of 'Cordial* or 'Eggine' introduced in evidence, much less samples of either of them." And on page 163; "We decline to consider the assignment that the verdict is not sustained by sufficient evidence, because the ' Raspberry Cordial ' and 'Eggine,' or 'Tom and Jerry," introduced in evidence in the lower court are not before us. To consider the remainder of the evidence without them might lead us to a wrong conclusion." IT is easier to cope with a hold-up man in a dark alley than to wrestle with the intricacies of the English language in a civil service test. Such is the opinion of a large percentage of the 800 broad-shouldered men who took ex amination for the Chicago police force. Here are a few responses that indicate what legal terms mean to some laymen: Quash—A garden vegetable. Abet—The money they put up in a poolroom. Panel—The lock on a door. To call a jury. Waiver—A meschanic who makes cloth on a loam. Statute—To write a statute is a pitcher. A picter or form of anything. A picter in marbel. Defendant—A defendant is the man arrested. Accessory—A man before the facts and after the facts. Arrest—To make a pinch. Homicide—To burn down your house to get the insurance. Subpoena—To hit a prisner with the club. To serve papers. Culprit—The culprit is hanged. — Chicago Record-Herald.

Law and Lawyers have long stood the brunt of many sharp attacks from the wits and dramatists, and have been much misunderstood