Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/643

 The Editor's Bag

603

A PIONEER COURT

whipped him, Ben, and if you stole a hog

LITTLE off the road leading from Xenia to Dayton, Ohio, was the ﬁrst court-house in that county, stand

I'd whip you, too!" This was too much for the Court, and the sheriff was ordered to go out and ﬁnd the witnesses to the affray and take them before the grand jury. The mil

ing with Owen Davis's mill on one side of it, and ablockhouse on the other bank

of the stream. It was in 1803 that this spot was selected by the court as the seat of justice, and the ﬁrst session was held to complete the county organ

ization. The court opened with a perfectly clean docket, and for a short time it looked as if it would have nothing to do. It might have proved an inglorious

ler's performance, however, had proved contagious, and when the sheriff got outside, he found a free ﬁght going on, and the grand jurors watching it. Every body who had a grievance, or thought he had, was trying to settle it in this irregular fashion.

By the middle of the afternoon nine indictments for affray and assault and battery were presented in court, and be

failure had not Owen Davis, the miller,

fore evening the court found itself in

come to its rescue.

funds to the amount of forty dollars.

Everybody took advantage of court

day to drive to mill with his grist. Among those who came from a distance was a certain Smith from Warren County, who

had the reputation of helping himself to pork wherever he found wild hogs in the woods. Davis, having turned out the grist for his friend, concluded to admin

ister a little pioneer law on his own ac count, leaving the court to proceed in a more conventional manner.

A FINGER'IIN EVERY PIE OME years ago, during the lifetime of the late Gen. A. S. Twitchell of Gorham, N. H., a little incident arose in

court at Lancaster which madea laugh for a moment. Lancaster is the shire town of Coos county, N. H., and on this

Accordingly he gave the unfortunate Smith a sound drubbing, and having

particular occasion the court was in ses sion with the late Justice Blodgett of the Supreme Court on the bench. The docket was being called on the ﬁrst day

ﬁnished it, burst into the primitive court

of the term, and it seemed to some of those

room, where the judges sat round a deal table in solemn state and awful dignity. “Well," said he, "I’m damned if I haven't done it." "Done what, sir?" demanded one of the associate justices. "I've whipped that hog-thief from down the country, Ben, and l’ve made

a good job of it! What's the damage, anyhow? What's to pay?" Whereupon he pulled out a roll of money and counted down several bills. The Court looked on

in silence, too

deeply horriﬁed for speech. "It's a fact," continued Davis, "I've

present that General Twitchell was in every case that came along.

He repre

sented either the plaintiff or the defend ant, or else he had been requested by ‘‘Brother So—and-So, who was unavoid ably detained from attendance, to ask

his Honor" that the case might be set ahead one term, or marked for trial, or entered neither party, or whatever else it happened to be. Finally they came to a case of, say

Smith v. Smith. There was a dead pause for some time after Moses Hastings, the veteran clerk of the court, called it out.

He repeated the call and gave the num