Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/159

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140
The Green Bag.

In support of the well-established rule that a justice of the peace always finds for the plaintiff, may be given the following case, which was tried some years ago in Maryland. An action had been brought against a railroad company for the killing of a cow, which was on the company's track. • The testimony was all in favor of the company, tending overwhelmingly to show that the cow had " no business" on the track. After the hearing, the justice promptly decided in favor of the plaintiff. The company's attorney was very much surprised, and asked the justice upon what grounds he could arrive at any such decision. He said, in reply, that the company was negligent in not putting up a signboard with " Look out for locomotive " on it. To which the attorney remonstrated, " But the cow couldn't read." "That's very true," said the justice; " but it would have been much worse for the company if a person had been killed, and under all the circumstances the company is getting off easy. Judgment for plaintiff."

NOTES. The One Hundredth Anniversary of the found ing of the Supreme Court of the United States was celebrated in New York City, on February 4. The literary exercises at the Metropolitan Opera House were appropriate and impressive, and were presided over by ex-President Grover Cleveland. The invited guests were seated upon the vast stage, and the house itself was filled with an audience of hardly less distinguished persons. The programme of the exercises was as follows : — Music — March, " Coronation," Meyerbeer; Over ture, " Zampa," Herold; American Fantasie, Victor HerbertIntroductory address by the chairman, Grover Cleveland. Invocation by the Rev. Morgan Dix, S.T.D., D.D., rector of Trinity Church. Address of welcome to the Court, William H. Arnoux, chairman of the Judiciary Centennial Commit tee of the New York State Bar Association Address, "The Origin of the Supreme Court of the United States, and its Place in the Constitution." William Allen Butler. Music — Selection, " Aida," Verdi. Address, " The Supreme Court and the Constitu tion," Henry Hitchcock of Missouri.

Address, " Personal Characters of the Chief-Jus tices," Thomas J. Semmes of Louisiana. Music — Entr'acte, " La Colombe,-' Gounod. Address, " The Supreme Court and the Sovereignty of the People," Edward J. Phelps of Vermont. Address by Chief-Justice Fuller. Response by the Court, through Mr. Justice Field. Music — " Lion de Bal," Gillett. Ave Maria, German Liederkranz Society. National Hymn, " My Country, 't is of Thee," all present participating. Doxology. Benediction, the Rev. Dr. Talbot W. Chambers, of the Collegiate Reformed Church. Music — Fackeltanz (B minor), Meyerbeer. Music by Grand Symphony Orchestra and German Liederkranz Society. Conductors, S. Bernstein and Victor Herbert. Space forbids even a passing comment upon the addresses, all of which were admirable and emi nently appropriate to the occasion. They will undoubtedly be published in a commemorative volume, and will prove a most valuable addition to our legal literature. In the evening the grand banquet was given at the Lenox Lyceum on Madison Avenue, and nearly nine hundred hungry lawyers sat down to a most sumptuous repast. The list of toasts and those re sponding to them was as follows : — "The President," "The Supreme Court," Mr. Justice Harlan; " The Congress," William M. Evarts, of New York; " The Judiciary of the States," ChiefJustice Edward M. Paxson, of Pennsylvania; "The Common Law," Walter B. Hill, of Georgia; "The Bar," Joseph H. Choate; " The Clergy," Rev. Dr. William R. Huntington; "The Univers'ty," Presi dent Seth Low, of Columbia College; " Our Clients," Chauncey M. Depew. It is to be regretted that owing to the poor acous tic properties of the " Lyceum," and also to the fact that the banquet had apparently the effect of loosening the tongues of a large number of those assembled at the tables, the undoubtedly admirable responses to these toasts reached the ears of but few of those present. It was impossible to hear a word unless one were directly under the speaker's lips. The noise and confusion which prevailed was discourteous in the extreme, and the speakers would have been fully justified in declining to con tinue. They, however, bore themselves in a most gentlemanly manner, and said their " little say" with as much earnestness as if they were receiving the attention they deserved.