Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 24.pdf/537

 The Green Bag

496 DUCKS' IDENTITY

THE bucolic mind moves slowly, but it moves in a straight line and with considerable momentum. A Mary land lawyer, who came into collision with a farmer, did not need to apply the rule that mass miltiplied by veloc ity gives the momentum, to calculate the force of the shock. A man was on trial for stealing a farmer's ducks. The farmer swore point blank against the prisioner. "How do you know that they are your ducks?" asked the prisoner's counsel. "I should know them ducks anywhere," answered the farmer, and then he de scribed their peculiarities. "But these ducks," said the counsel, "are not a rare breed. I have some like them in my own yard." "Very likely, sir," answered the farmer; "those that feller stole are not the only ducks I have had stolen lately." "Call the next witness!" exclaimed the lawyer. THE FIRST WOMAN LAWYER IN ITALY THE council of lawyers at Rome, by a close vote, have admitted to their profession Signorina Teresa Labriola, a member of a family noted for those in it who have been distinguished in science and literature, says the Out look. While it is true that her position as the first woman in Italy to be ad mitted to practice at the bar can be rendered of no avail by the supreme court, should it so decide, such action by the court seems far less likely in this case than in a previous one, as the present applicant has doubly won her right to admission, having gained her laureate of doctor of laws at the uni versity of Rome, and having passed

every examination required of men. Signorina Labriola's motive in entering the profession should also be recorded. She says: "I shall throw myself heart and soul in to every case where the pro verbial woman is at the bottom of it." SUGGESTING A PATRIARCHAL REGIME A RATHER unusual event occurred in Australia this summer, when a case came before Chief Justice Sir Stephen Parker in the Kalgoorlie cir cuit of the Australian Supreme Court, one of his sons appearing as Crown Prose cutor and another son as counsel for the defendant. The case in which they were engaged, says the Daily News of Perth, W. A., "lasted about two hours and three-quarters, during which period His Honor was not troubled with lively exchanges between the opposing advo cates, nor called upon to decide any knotty point that one might have raised on the other. The way in which Mr. Hubert Parker pleaded the cause of his client against the array of evidence ad duced by Mr. Frank Parker, the Crown Prosecutor, won the day." ACTIVE PERSUASION AN old clergyman who formerly lived in Maine was remarkable for his eccentric ideas and sayings. At one time there had been an affray among some men in his neighborhood and one of them was hurt. A trial took place, and the old clergyman, who had seen the fight, was called as a witness.': "What was Morgan doing?" was the first inquiry. "Oh, he was slashing around," replied the old man. "Well, sir, what is that?" "He was just knocking about him here and there."