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The Green Bag
the United States District Court for the eastern district of that state, President Taft is not soaring to the stars on the back of a Democratic Pegasus—he is only discharging a matter-of-fact duty to the best traditions of the bench and of his own great office. CONGRESSIONAL DECORUM JUDGE SMITH McPHERSON and Judge John F. Phillips of the United States District Court have been subjected to harsh and undeserved criti cism in a resolution introduced in Con gress which accused them of improper conduct in the Missouri railroad litiga tion. The mere introduction of such a resolution in Congress, even though its sponsor abstain from ranting vilifica tion on the floor of the House, is neces sarily attended with wide publicity, and is prevented only by the privileges of Congress from being contempt of court. As under the Constitution the Senate alone shall have power to try impeach ments, it is difficult to see why resolu tions or motions for impeachment should not be required to originate solely in the upper house.
ties and insufficiencies of the answer of the defendant," etc. The critic of legal methods and forms might find a good deal for argument and not a little amusement to be deduced from Mr. Dereemer's answer. REX v. SCIENTIST A case reported in Punch is of interest to the less responsible word-slinging mem bers of the legal profession. The trial of Rex v. Scientist occurred before Mr. Justice J. A. H. Murray. A memorial from the Royal Society was read by the Public Prosecutor, calling attention to the baleful activities of this person, who was, it is said, an American adventurer with a bad record in his own country. The Judge: "Can one have a bad record in America?" (Laughter.) Evidence was also given to the prisoner's disadvantage by a deputation from the Athenaeum Club. In his defense a long speech was made by a learned doctor who said that without the valuable and expert assistance of "Scientist" there would be no means whatever of rapidly describing a certain type of savant who had taken all learning for his province. The Court pronounced a sentence of three years' imprisonment. While Punch does not make it easy to ascertain the legal grounds upon which this decision was based, we applaud the action of the Court, except that a death sentence would seemingly have been more appropriate.
AN EXAMPLE OF PLEADING A government attorney sends us this curi ous bit of information from a far Western state. A bill in equity was brought to abate an illegal fence, under the provisions of the act of Congress of February 25, 1885. The bill was many pages long and wound up with the usual paragraph, "Forasmuch therefore as your orator is remediless in the premises," etc. The defendant filed his answer in these words: "I have my fence all pulled. Chas. A. Dereemer, Defendant." The government, to make the issue, filed its replication in the usual approved form, quite a page in length: "This replicant, saving and reserving to itself all and all manner of advantages of exception which may be had and taken to the manifold errors, uncertain
THEY WERE IN IT Some years ago Morrison R. Waite, who was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1874, and a number of other prominent lawyers were attending court in southern Illinois. One extremely cold night they were all sitting in a circle about the fireplace, at the hotel where they were stopping, telling yarns and enjoying themselves hugely. A stranger rode up to the hotel on horse back, dismounted, stripped off his overcoat, leather overshoes, and was escorted, before he had a chance to get fairly warm, into the cold dining-room for supper. After eating his supper, the stranger, who had the appearance of being a well-to-do
