Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/742

 THE LIGHTER SIDE contact the sleeper's body on a hot day wak ened him up, and he arose with all the dignity of a judge, dressed in a Prince Albert coat, a white shirt, a standing up collar of the old kind, with timothy seed sticking to him closer than bees to a bungle hole in the fall of the year, and he said with all his power of speech as though he was addressing a jury in a crim inal case, " Sir, I came into this place a gentle man, I am a gentleman, and now I go out of here like a blamed old raggety fool." "I shall most certainly bring an action for damages against this establishment for such an ill treatment of the first gentleman in this county." The hostler when he saw the straight, welldressed gentleman covered from head to foot with straw and chaff, and listening to the irate speech of the sobered jurist, took to his heels and never returned to the establishment again, believing in his heart that by the use of a hose on a well dressed gentleman, he had ruined the establishment, and bankrupted his employer. — B. L. Wick. Common Law Marriage. — In one of the first cases on record in English courts, the question arose whether or not the child of a deceased Quaker could inherit property, the father having been married according to the order of Quakers then in force. The case was brought in the Court of Assizes in Nottingham in 1 66 1, Judge Archer presiding. There being a jury, Judge Archer argued as follows: " Sum ming up the case, there was a marriage in Paradise when Adam took Eve and Eve took Adam, and it was the consent of the parties that made a marriage." And for the Quakers, he added: " he did not know their opinions, but he did not believe that they went together as brute beasts, as had been said of them, but as Christians, and therefore he did believe the marriage was lawful, and the child of such union was a lawful heir to the estate of his father and not a bastard." It is also stated further that to satisfy the jury more fully he adduced a case in point, where a marriage performed by the simple declaration of the parties before witnesses that they took each other to be husband and wife had been questioned, but its validity and law fulness had been affirmed by the Bishops as well as Judges.

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Up to this time much trouble had arisen in the Society regarding the marriage of mem bers of this denomination outside of the Church of England, and when questions arose as to property rights and as to the legal standing of the parties, these questions were decided one time for all time, for Judge Archer and a jury satisfied forever the mooted question of the methods of marriage, and that the church could not claim, that although a marriage was contrary to law in some respects, that it was no marriage or that the marriage was invalid. — See Journal of Friends Historical Society. (Vol. iii, July, 1908.) B. L. W. Anecdotes of Allison.— The late Senator Allison of Iowa was for many years in active law practice at Dubuque, Iowa, and although not an orator or a jury man, he was gener ally a very safe counsellor. He was so care ful in uttering opinions frequently that he did err on the wrong side if at all. It was told that Senator Allison would never give anyone an affirmative reply. At one time they asked him, having driven out in the country, as to the color of certain sheep he had seen on the road way, and by putting this question to him, they thought there could be no two answers. They asked the Senator on return whether the flock was white or black, and he replied by saying, " They appeared white from where I was standing." At another time Senator Alli son had helped to appoint one of his friends to be postmaster of his home town in Iowa, and a number of the friends of both were sitting in a Dubuque office awaiting the announce ment when the Senator came in, already know ing who was to have the coveted place. The friends talked about the qualifications of the would-be postmaster, and said he was a good fellow, and fully competent for the place. The Senator smiled and said, " I think the wouldbe postmaster will fully agree with you in what has been said in regard to his qualifi cations." At another time, Senator Allison was telling a number of friends about an experience he had in Germany where a dude had pulled up a window and was smoking a cigar in an apart ment of Senator Allison and his wife, who was an invalid. The wife complained about the cold draft, and still the big German sat there