The record makes no note, but anyhow Her " dog was dead " ), and she sued Preston straight, And speedily recovered damages Twenty-five dollars, for the court did hold He had no privilege the beast to slay. But on appeal this doctrine was reversed, And 'twas adjudged a question for the twelve To pronounce the act or necessary Or unreasonable; other courts have held "'T were mockery the party to refer To remedy by action, impotent And dilatory far beyond the press Of such an exigency."1 I suppose That Preston was not reasonably bound To catch the dogs and give them chloroform, But their quietus might with bullet make, Or throw them bread spread o'er with arsenic, Or any other mode adopt to rid His house effectually of such a pest. In dealing with such things the courts should not Stick in the bark.
HUMOR OF THE BENCH. . By Clark Bell, Esq., of the New York Bar. JUDGE GEO. THACHER, of the Supreme Bench of Massachusetts, had a high reputation for humor; and Mr. Willis, author of "Law Courts and Lawyers of Maine," relates this anecdote of him : — "I recollect being in court when Judge Thacher interrupted a lawyer who was earn estly pressing a point : ' You need not argue that point, sir; for to my mind it has no more weight than the lightest feather upon a bumble-bee's wing.'" The same author, describing Judge Thacher's peculiar manner of charging the jury
on trials, says : " He would dissect and analyze the case, and so mix up the facts that the jury were perplexed to know the views of the court concerning them; " and adds that Mr. Orr thus characterized this judge's pecu liarity : " Thacher would take his fish and make it chowder, and then turn the chowder back again into a fish." A good story is told by the same writer of the venerable Judge Strong, who presided at a trial where Mr. Thacher, then at the bar, was pitted against the Attorney-General. There was considerable excitement; and
i Brill v. Flagler, 23 Wend. 354.
