join upon the human race the duty to increase and multiply. And while 'He setteth the solitary in families,' 'what is home without a mother' is a significant inquiry, since in order to have mothers, babies are necessary, and if babies are necessary why not baby-carriages? The term 'necessaries' as used in the statute can hardly be limited to things absolutely indispensable, but is used with considerable latitude, depending upon the circumstances of each case as they may present themselves.
"What might be a necessity in a given state or condition of civilization would be of no use in a primeval or semi-civilized state. Lo's loving squaw has no use for a baby-carriage for her dear papoose. The board upon her back to which the little one is strapped suits her convenience for her long and trackless journeys, and even in the early days of our fathers, when mothers were strong and fathers were not ashamed to bear their share of the burdens of parentage, the generation now passing off of the stage were very properly conveyed from place to place in loving arms. But those times are in the rear. We are soon to reach the twentieth century. If the present generation is weaker, it may be allowed that it is wiser also.
"Many improvements which have been found convenient in bearing the burdens of life have become necessities. Our reminiscent poetry which most touches the heart is of the garret, trundle-bed, and cradle. But the muse of the future is to attune her harp to the rhythm of the baby-jumper and the baby-carriage; and woe betide the antiquated judge who dare in the face of thousands of actual and prospective young American mothers to decide that they are but necessaries. What insurance company would take the risk of his periwig and ermine."
Judgment is given the plaintiff on the ground that baby-carriages are necessaries.
Judge Maddox, of Georgia, seems to be the right kind of man to preside at a trial where lawyers and witnesses are disposed to resort to personal acts of violence in the court-room to obtain revenge for insults. In a recent murder trial before him, one of the lawyers severely cross examined a woman witness, whose brothers threatened to shoot the lawyer if he should not apologize. Judge Maddox, having read the announcement in the papers, made a little speech from the bench, which was at least plain in its terms, and effective. He said that the court would have stopped the lawyer if he had gone outside of the testimony during his cross-examination, and that if any apology was to be made it would have to be made to the court. He then added: "There are some other things I want to say. If any man is detected in this court-room with a weapon on his person, either concealed or exposed, it will cost him just $1000, twelve months in the penitentiary, and six months in the chain gang. If any man in this court-room knows of any one who has a weapon, he can now step forward and make affidavit to that effect, and we will suspend this case right here and try the man who has the pistol the first thing we do. I want to say, further, that if any member of this bar is interfered with in any other way, it will cost the person who interferes with him $200 and costs and twenty days in the chain gang. That's all I have to say, and now let anybody who wants to interfere with this court begin right now." Nobody wanted to interfere, and the trial proceeded in peace.
Recent Deaths.
Elias Merwin, a prominent member of the Suffolk Bar and resident of Boston, died on March 27. He was born in New Haven, the son of a Methodist clergyman, and received his collegiate education at the Wesleyan University at Middletown. He studied law with Judge Tucker of Lenox and afterward at the Harvard Law School, and on his admission to the bar established himself in Pittsfield, Mass., for the practice of the law. So quickly did he manifest his fine professional capacity, that when he had been not more than two or three years at the bar, he was invited by Hon. Benjamin R. Curtis, then in full practice, to become his partner, and removed to Boston for that purpose. But in the same year Mr. Curtis was appointed and took his seat as justice of the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Merwin determined nevertheless to remain in Boston, and here he continued the practice of law until less than a year ago, when the illness set in, which, after long and wearisome confinement and much suffering, borne with rare fortitude and patience, terminated his life. Among his brethren of the bar he was from the
