Counsel for defendant was cross-examining the plaintiff. Counsel : " Do you consider the oath that you have just taken to be binding on your con science?" Plaintiff : " I don't know vat you mean." Counsel : " You know what ' conscience ' is, don't you?" Plaintiff : " No, sir." Counsel for defendant concluded that the jury had been impressed and passed to other matters on his cross-examination. At the re-examination of the witness his counsel determined to efface the bad impression made on the jury by his cli ent's ignorance of the meaning of " conscience." He proceeded as follows : — "Now, Mr. —, you were asked what ' con science ' means; you know that, surely?" "No, sir." "Well, now, you know the difference between right and wrong?" "Yes, sir." "Well, then, you must know what conscience means." "Veil, I don't know. I know vat awconscience means; dat's a kind 'o sickness." Judge Hugh L. Bond, of the U. S. Circuit Court, for the Fourth Circuit, had a very prominent nose. He related the following incident of him self which he said was strictly and literally true. While judge of the Criminal Court of Baltimore, he had frequently to commit to jail for drunkenness, one Higginbotham, who was a fine performer on the trombone. On occasions of balls or dances the jailer, unknown to the judge, would turn him out, and "after the ball was over" he would return to jail. On one occasion, while he was serving one of these " tours of duty " in jail, there was a big masquerade ball in the city which Judge Bond and his wife attended in full mask. Promenading with her around the room, and passing near the music-stand he was surprised to to see Higginbotham there. Halting he said to him, " Why, Higginbotham, how is this? Are you here?" "Yes, I am here," giving a loud blast with his horn. " Why, I thought Judge Bond put you in jail the other day for thirty days." " Yes, he did, and the d —d old hook-nosed scoundrel thinks I am there now," giving another long blast with his horn. The Judge said, " My wife and I passed on without question or parley."
Chief-Justice Charles P. Daly has many in teresting anecdotes to tell of a witty member of the Bar named William Muloch. One of these relates to a repartee of the latter to a fellow lawyer. Another attorney passing in the City Hall, on his way to the court-room, was asked by the other as to his health. The one addressed was well-known for stupidity. He answered dolefully, " Ill. I have a headache, and my head is like an oven." "Aye," said Muioch to the other, " his head may be like an oven, but he'll never make much bread by it."
NOTES,
Martin Grover, who for over a quarter century was a judge both of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals of New York State, wrote in the album of a lady resident in Albany, who was the wife of an eminent lawyer, the following maxims, which she says were written by him currente i alamo and evidently from memory or as impromptu. "An ill man in office is a public calamity." "Be one ever so high the law is above him." "Good laws often proceed from bad manners." " He who puts on a public gown must put off the private person." " He that buys magistracy must sell justice." "It is often the clerk of the Justice who makes justice." "Laws catch flies, but often suffer hornets to go free." " A law maker should never become a law breaker." "While law governs man, it is reason that first governs the law." "The greater the man the greater the proven crime." "Wise and good men invented the laws, but the action of fools and the wicked put them up to it." In the same album the late James T. Brady — who often wrote vers de societe — had composed and also written the following versified maxims :" — Kadem ratio ibidem lex. Whate'er should be, the law doth prove. On paths of right the law doth move. Falsus in uno,falsus in omnibus. One whiff of falsehood taints a proof That witness aims to make. Both judge and jury hold aloof When lying forms the stake. Katione cessante lex ipsa eessat. Law's voice must instant cease When Reason yields the ghost : And Sophistry must hold her peace When Logic leaves his post.
