Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 24.pdf/59

 The Green Bag of that state. The plaintiff in the trial of the case had rested too soon, stopping short in his proof, and had, therefore, been non-suited. Mr. Brady told his client that he doubted whether he could get the Su preme Court even to consider the case, but that he would do his best. In argu ing the case for an appeal, he stated the facts, and concluded his account of the evidence for his own side by saying: "And hereupon the plaintiff rested." "Rested, sir!" exciaimed the Chief Justice, who saw the fatal defect, "why did he rest?" Mr. Brady, seeing that his fears were to be realized, shrugged his shoulders, and observed : "If your Honor please, that question has given me much anxiety. I have devoted nearly two weeks to a search for the reason why, at so early and in convenient a period in this case, the plaintiff rested, and I have arrived at the conclusion, the only one, in my judgment, that can be sustained on principle and authority, that he must have been very much fatigued!" The judges laughed, but they dis missed the case without hearing the other side.

WITHOUT PRECEDENT IN LAW THE humdrum grind of the average country County Court House is generally monotonous enough, but most of them are fortunately blessed with a wit of greater or less dimensions, usually among the minor officers, who takes it upon himself to let in a little genial ray of sunshine now and then to relieve the tedium. It is not surprising, then, that Essex County, Mass., the home of such legal lights as Rufus Choate, Caleb Cushing, Judge Story, Otis Lord and other notables, should produce in one

Daniel Potter, a deputy-sheriff, a wit of sizable calibre. Entering a newspaper office in Salem he leaned confidentially close to the city man and said: "Don't let this go any further, but I expect to go tomorrow where I never went before, and can never go again." While the editor knew the timbre of his caller, yet his keen nose for news led him to ask for details that he felt might give him a good local leader, and he was all attention as he asked for the full "story." "I am going," began Potter seriously, "into my fiftieth year." The other day Mr. Potter hustled half out of breath into the office of a prominent and dignified lawyer and addressing the attorney in a decidedly hurry-up tone, said : — "I want you to tell me, Mr. Lawrence, as quickly as you can, whether or- not it is legal for a man to marry his widow's sister?" "Well, I'll declare, Potter," replied the attorney, in all gravity, "that par ticular question never occurred to me before. I'll have to look it up. Sit down a moment." The lawyer arose and went to his bookcase, from which he was in the act of removing a large volume when the real drift of the question flashed through his mind and as he whirled around the big tome flew from the lawyer's hand toward the disappearing form of the deputy-sheriff as he made his escape through the open doorway. THE LAW AND FAITHLESS LOVERS ALMOST every country has appar ently come to the cold-blooded conclusion that cold cash is a fairly good remedy for a broken heart, but Great Britain is probably the best juris