Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/359

 The Editor’s Bag To Fenton then his tale he spun, And said, I paid you ﬁve for one. Defendant then, with honest zeal Says, Jackson, do you think I'd steal; And also said, with right good will, I'll show you that same dollar bill

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Counsel here may rave and rant, The fact they do not, shows they can't. The fact it may have happ’ed, I trow, Did not and cannot make it so. Like this the ancient poet sang, On circumstance shall no man hang; This rule of such a homely source,

What you paid me, then forth he drew, A dollar bill not very new; Commercial life and tariff fare Had won that bill that once was fair. The plaintiﬂ' then was sore amazed, A moment on that bill he gazed, Then cried there is no blood on there;

Poor soul, he saw blood everywhere. The bill you had from me just now, Was stained with blood from Jersey cow; While this one has no bloody mark; The plaintiff could not see —— 'twas dark. He testiﬁed 'twas getting late,

The time of day was nearly eight; He had that "ﬁve" ﬁxed in his mind, To all things else he was as blind. He's not to blame, by passion crazed,

Is still the law in all its force. And when man's liberty is assailed, Or to the cross he might be nailed, 'Tis then the rule must stricter be, To guard the rights of all the free. No facts by prose herein are stirred, No naked truth the court has heard From which he can with all his tact, Deduct a single wrongful act That lays the crime at Fenton's door, Converting thus the plaintiff '9 store; Nor can be from the proof infer That such an act did then occur. There is no proof, howe‘er you strain, By which the plaintiff can maintain The case which he in court has brought, Because that he has proven naught.

To reason and to logic dazed;

He ﬁercely rushes from the room, And seeks a Court to seal his doom. He begs the Court to quickly send A summons to his trusty friend, Who on that fateful yesterday, Had fought with him the bloody fray. Then in conversion laid his plaint; To thus the court with facts acquaint; How true it is in human strife, Especially so in legal life,

That shows defendant did convert, Five dollars as they do assert; But looking at its true intent, It shows defendant innocent.

And so we say from all we've heard, This Court cannot, from act or word, Find any proof by which to cheer The plaintiff by a judgment here. From proofs we scanned and nothing missed, The plaintiff's case must be dismissed,

That pictures painted with words fair, 0ft 'vaporate into the air, For want of proof the simplest cause, Are placed beyond the pale of laws. Conversion must be proved, not guessed, 50 crime is proved or else confessed, We must not slur another's name Unless our proof supports the claim.

And though he's nipped with legal frosts, He'll get thawed out while paying costs. My muse is dead, he lingered long,

Considering my doleful song; His cause was just, his mission true, And dying, left it all with you. Dated Jan. 29, 1896.

It would have been inhuman skill

Respectfully submitted,

To show that Fenton had such bill,

FRANK FENTON, Defendanl. Or in their being thus estranged, To show just where he got it changed.

E. D. Cumming, Defendaru': Attorney.