Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/169

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
The Green Bag.


146

of black crape around one arm, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty shillings for every day he shall put on and wear or appear in the same. AND no female, of whatsoever degree, shall put on, wear or ap pear at any funeral in this town, in any other mourn ing or new black clothes whatever, other than a black hat or bonnet, black gloves, black ribbons and a black fan, on pain to forfeit and pay the sum of twenty shillings j and also forfeit and pay a like sum of twenty shillings for every day she shall at any time at, or after such funeral, put on wear or appear in such new black clothes, as or for mourning, other than black hat. bonnet, black gloves, black ribbons and a black fan as aforesaid.

FACETIÆ. THE following is a true copy of an affidavit to obtain a warrant before a justice of the peace in a certain county in western North Carolina. The names alone are changed. STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, I Justices Court, COUNTY. ( Before John Smith being duly sworn deposes and says that at and in said county and in Town ship Tom Jones and Will Brown did feloniously and willfully gether my Sund Jack and toted him to the River and throde him in and cursed him and told him dam him to waid contrary to law and against the peace and dignity of the State. Sworn to & (Signed) subscribed before me, &c., JOHN SMITH. G. W. H.. J. P.

A warrant was issued, the parties were arraigned before the magistrate and bound over. It is needless to say that the prosecuting official was puzzled as to how to draw his bill; but finally he decided upon a bill for an assault. The grand jury failed to find a true bill, and the parties were discharged. THE lawyer and the tailor are alike in one re spect, — they both spend a great deal of time in pressing suits. A COLORED attorney practising in a court not a thousand miles from Richmond, Va., animadvert ing very strongly upon the testimony of an adverse witness, used the following somewhat remarkable language • —

"Gentermens ob de Jury, yo dun heard all dat bal-haded conterband dun said. But, gentermenx he didn' tell de trufe. Ef he had er been swore lak he would er ben swore thirty yeahs ago, ef he had er ben tole that unless'n he tole de trufe his ears would er ben cut off smack up ter his hade, he would er toi de trufe. But stidder doin' dat he kirn heah an fregerdis dis Jury gin de prisner at de bah, dat po' ignunt, discomposed, and eluded

SOME years ago, says a Milwaukee paper. Ephraim Mariner tried a case in the Circuit Court for an old Irishman. The. suit was against the brother of Mr. Mariner's client. It was fought bitterly, and there was a great deal of feeling dis played during the course of the trial, as there al ways is when relatives get to fighting each other. Mr. Mariner won the case. His client was in a state of exultation. He thanked the lawyer again and again. When he reached the south door of the court-house, he paused before going down the steps, and, slapping his lawyer a vigorous blow on the back, he said, — •' We bate them, didn't we, Mister Mariner?" "Yes, Andrew, it came out as I said it would." said Mr. Mariner, quietly. "Mister Mariner," said the old man, his voice trembling with emotion, " you 're a gentleman — in disguise." THE late Judge Thomas J. Devine, of San An tonio, Texas, was defending a case brought by a noted money-lender, whom we will call Paul Steiner, against a Texas cowboy, whom we will call Bill Brown. Col. Mac. Anderson was for the plaintiff. The note bore interest at' the usual rate in those days of five per cent per month, and provided for ten per cent attorney's fees. In the course of his remarks to the jury, Judge Devine grew eloquent, and said, — "Gentlemen of the jury, Paul Steiner, like his great prototype, Shylock, demands his 'pound of flesh,' etc., etc. In reply, Mac. Anderson, who knew more about the cattle-trade than he did about Shakspeare, became quite sarcastic and in eloquent tones said to the jury, — "Gentlemen of the jury, Judge Devine says that my client -vants a pound of flesh, but what does Bill Brown want? He wants meat, blood.