Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/120

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Editorial Department.

99

General Grimes, and in his appeal to the jury laid "Well," said Winston, looking intently at the full stress on the character and record of his client, diagram, " no reason at all, except this fellow and dwelt eloquently on the " last charge at Appo- out here, a miserable sinner, might say, ' Why mattox." Coming out of the court, he said to the don't you bend in and get your poleage?'" opposing counsel (now Judge Fuller of the U. S. "Ah! " said Jones, in a passion; " that is pre Land Claims Court), " Fuller, that last charge at posterous, sir, —perfectly preposterous!" Appomattox has got me the jury." " Yes," said Fuller, very quietly; " and that last charge of Judge Bond has got me the verdict." And so it proved. NOTES.

SOME years ago Hon. George E. Badger was called to Halifax, N. C, by B. F. Moore, Esq., as asso ciate in a desperate murder case he was defending. After the jury was empanelled, court took a recess for dinner; and as they were going to the hotel, some one walking behind them overheard the following conversation : — "Moore," said Badger, " this is a bad case. I hope you have got a good jury. As you live here, I have trusted its selection to you." "Yes, sir," said Moore; " we have a tolerably good jury." Badger became excited. "A tolerably good jury, Mr. Moore, in such a case as this 1" "Well," coolly replied his friend, " the two leading men on the jury are sureties for our fee of a thousand dollars; and if the man hangs they will have it to pay." "Ah! " said Badger, slapping him on the back; "I call that a d d good jury."

WHEN the late Hon. P. H. Winston first attended court in Tyrrell County, North Carolina, after be ginning practice, he stopped on his way thither to spend the night with a brother lawyer, then in full practice, who in Reconstruction days obtained a judgeship and the title of " Jaybird " Jones. To entertain his young friend, Jones on said occasion discoursed largely of law, and among other inquiries put this question to young Winston : — "I have," said he, marking the lines on the floor as he proceeded, " this land case. Beginning at A and running to B. my course and poleage [dis tance] is all right, and the same from В to С and from С to D; but in running from D to the begin ning at A, my course is all right, but my poleage overruns. Now, why can't I bend out and get my poleage?"

ONE day, upon removing some books at the chambers of Sir William Jones, a large spider dropped upon the floor, upon which Sir William, with some warmth, said, " Kill that spider, Day! Kill that spider! " " No," said Mr. Day, with that coolness for which he was so conspicuous, " I will not kill that spider, Jones; I do not know that I have a right to do so. Suppose, when you are going in your carriage to Westminster Hall, a superior being, who may perhaps have as much power over you as you have over this insect, should say to his companion, ' Kill that lawyer! Kill that lawyer! ' How should you like that? I am sure to most people a lawyer is a more noxious insect than a spider." — Slater on Book Collecting. No matter how learned, grave, and dignified the court, it seems impossible entirely to bar out the occasional occurrence in its presence of things amusing or ridiculous. On one occasion, when Hon. John. F. Dillon was judge of the Federal Court for the Eighth Circuit, he was holding court at Leavenworth, Kan.; and a referee having been appointed in an important and complicated case, the question of the amount of his fee as such referee came up on the hearing of the report. The fee taxed was five hundred dollars; but G., an enthusiastic attorney on all occasions, and especially so on this, — as he was for the winning party under the report, and could afford to be generous, — moved that, in view of the time required and the skill and ability dis played in making the report, the referee's fee be fixed at eight hundred dollars. To this proposition Judge Dillon gravely shook his head and said : " I am myself compelled to do so much work of a similar nature, for so much less a compensation than even the fee fixed in this