Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/521

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485

The Editor's Bag self to fix a date with reference to the disappearance of the missing chattel.

sequence in those days, for the reason the law treated it as a capital crime.

“One more question," said he; “was this before or after you stole the hog

The offender was buried at the cross roads, with a stake driven through his

ah-er-I

mean

after

the

hog

was

body, and all his goods and property

The answer to the question is not re membered. An audible smile ran around

were forfeited to the Crown, to the utter ruin of his family. Hankford made good use of his wits and succeeded in accomplishing his purpose without in

stolen?"

the court room and the jury was out

only long enough to elect a foreman and

curring either unpleasant penalty.

have him fill in the word guilty and sign the verdict.

gave open and notorious instructions to his gamekeeper, who had been

On his way from the Pacific Coast, where his home has been for the last fifteen or eighteen years, to visit his

troubled with poachers in the deer preserve, to challenge all trespassers

student haunts and some of his early friends at Yale, T. called, the other day, to renew old acquaintance, and

in response to a quiet quotation of his slip of the tongue laughingly said, “Oh, well, I think the rascal was guilty any way.

He

in the future, and to shoot to kill if they would not stand and give an account. One dark night he purposely crossed the keeper's path and upon challenge made motions of resistance and escape. The faithful servant, failing to recognize his master, followed in structions to the letter as was expected

of him and Sir William fell dead in his tracks. The whole truth of the affair A PRUDENT SUICIDE

was common knowledge, but it was

UICIDES often adopt ingenious methods, but the art of the felo de se seems not to have advanced materi ally during the centuries. The modern

impossible to establish a case of suicide by legal proof. The servant was pro

case of a heavily insured broker who on a feigned hunting trip stood bare legged in a quagmire for hours and so wilfully contracted a fatal pneumonia, is matched in cleverness by one five

tected by his instructions.

Hankford

had honorable burial. and his estate passed to those whose interests as heirs he had so wisely considered. A. P. C.

ONLY A STOP-GAP hundred years old. The following facts are well vouched for, and indeed were never questioned.

Sir William Hankford, a Judge of the King’s Bench in the reigns of Edward III, Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI, and at the time of his death Chief Justice of England, was a man of melancholy temperament. He seems to have contemplated suicide the greater _part of his long life and during his later years the idea became a fixed purpose.

The act was of peculiarly serious con

WESTERN lawyer tells of an old

Irishwoman in Chicago who sent for him in great haste. She wanted him to meet her in court, and he hastened

hither with all speed.

The old woman's

son was about to be placed on trial for burglary. When the lawyer entered the court the old woman rushed up to

him, exclaiming excitedly: — “I want ye to git a continuance for me boy Jimmie!" “I will do so, if I can," said the law