Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/329

 The Points BY ALBERT B. CHANDLER OF THE ST. LOUIS BAR

EAR the lawyers with their points, Doubtful points;

What a world of litigants their wrangling disappoints! In the changing day and night,

Through whiles of grim delight, And more in sorry plight, While the scales of Justice tip, up or down, Without heed! In the courts — What a wealth of happiness their turbulence unjoints; Appealing higher, higher, higher, With a desperate desire To prevail.

New points in lieu of old Better taken, one is told,

In a clamorous appealing to the wisdom of the gown, In a mad expostulation with the conscience of the gown, When judges cannot hear and will not read; While the purse-string only knows By the hitching, And the twitching,

How the fortune ebbs and flows Without fail, From the bosom of the palpitating client,

Becoming less and less reliant In the points, points, points,

In the seeming subtle points, In the points, points, points,

In the ringing of the changes on the points.