glanced at the bystanders, and sniffed ominously at the nasal organ.) "Gentlemen of the jury, you are common men and not supposed to know or understand much of anything, especially about the ponderous and weighty duties of grand jurors, and it therefore becomes my duty, sitting here as the honorable judge of this court, to instruct and inform you. "There are two ways for you to proceed. In all cases where it is made to appear certain that a crime has been committed, and the name of the offender is known to you, it would be decidedly the most proper and advisable course to proceed by indictment. But should you find, from the evidence, that a crime has not been committed, but that one is about to be, and you do not ascer tain the name of the intender, or embryo depre dator, then, and in such cases, you will proceed by presentment. "Gentlemen of the jury, the crimes known to our laws, sometimes spoken of as the code, are three in number, viz. : larceny, perjury, and bigamy. "There are some other crimes known as com mon law crimes, but as these are common and ordinary, I shall not refer to them. "Larceny is often, from its nature, called theftery. These are technical terms, understood by the court only. "Bigamy is nothing more or less than double mating, double marrying, or bigamating, which terms are also technical, and will be explained later on. "Perjury is defined by our ancient law writers to be false swearing without cause and with intent to cheat or defraud. "I shall now proceed to be more specific in defining these code crimes. "Firstly : The crime of larceny or theftery con sists in unlawfully taking property, personal or real, without authority of law, and detaining the same without justification or probable cause, and against the earnest and repeated protestations of the owner. For instance, the taking of another's well, and using it as a miners' shaft, or the unlaw ful taking possession of town lots, would be real larceny, or larceny in the real estate aspect of the case. So, also, the pulling of the wool from the back of your neighbor's sheep or swine, would be the clearest sort of personal larceny or indi vidual theftery.
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"From these copious illustrations, gentlemen of the jury, I think you (although but common men) will be able to know and understand what theft ery really is, and I pass on to : "Secondly : The crime of bigamy means just what the word seems to indicate, and what I told you before it did mean. If any persons in this county have been committing this gross and hein ous crime, you will present them to the court. "This brings me to third and lastly: Perjury, or giving false information. This is the most subservient to the public interests of any crime set forth in the code; and if any persons are guilty of the same, and you so find them, you will hand them over to me, and, by the authority invested in me as judge of this court, they will hear something drop. "Gentlemen of the jury, in ancient times there was such a crime as sodomy; but no such crime exists now, it having been rendered obsolete by an ancient decree, and the Sodomites have not been known to exist since the ' great disposer of public events ' so effectually cleaned them out and soused them in the Dead Sea. "Gentlemen of the jury, judges, sitting as the court as I now do, are not usually as explicit and definite and certain in their instructions to grand juries as I have been; but this being the first term of court in your county since the peo ple elected me to this august and honorable sta tion, I have deemed it proper to be a little more clear than I otherwise would be. "The Clerk will swear the attendant, and may the Lord have mercy on this county." LITERARY NOTES. The Mid-Continent Magazine (new series of the Southern) for May shows a distinct advance over any previous issue of this publication, and contains a great variety of good reading matter. Henry Watterson forms the subject of an excellent article by Morton M. Casseday. Mr. Watterson is certainly the most picturesque figure in American journalism, and has exerted an influence on social and political questions second to that of no publicist of the day. Perhaps the most beautiful series of pictures ever presented of the Rocky Mountains will be found in a collection of fourteen original paintings, executed by Thomas Moran for the May Cosmopolitan. To those who have been in the Rockies, this issue of the Cosmopolitan will be a souvenir worthy of
