Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/632

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Editorial Department.

code came before him, in which for various suitors the eloquent Sergeant S. Prentiss, the poetlawyer Richard H. Wilde, Judah P. Benjamin, and John Slidell were engaged. Facts were adadmitted, but each argued questions of legal conconstruction. On the fifth day of arguments one of the counsel paused a moment and said, " And now I ask your Honor's particular attention to my next part." Judge Strawbridge looked wearily at him and said in a disconsolate voice, " Oh, don't appeal to me yet, for all of you have been out of my depth ever since the first day." " Then our filed briefs can become diving-bells for your com prehension," returned the witty Prentiss.

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by one set of musicians speaking of themselves as violin players, when another set called themselves musicianers. He therefore asked the Attorney — the father of the present eminent solicitor, Sir George Lewis — " What, if any, difference is there between a fiddler and a musicianer? " " Precisely that," answered Lewis, "which exists between bagpipes and ' the Dorian Mood,' referred to by Milton in his Paradise Lost, ' of flutes and soft re corders.' " Recorder Kerr smiled at the punning compliment and remained unusually " soft " during the remainder of the case.

LITERARY NOTES. The New Orleans incident may recall an anec dote furnished by Lord Brougham about Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough. Several conveyancers were making tedious technical arguments before him, when, late in the day, one, referring to an in terlocutory remark of the Judge, said, " Is it your lordship's pleasure to hear us on that point? " and the latter answered, " Pardon me, but we have no pleasure whatever in the argument."

The complete novel in the November issue of Lippincott*s, "In Sight of the Goddess," by Harriet Riddle Davis, deals with life at the Capital. The principal characters are a member of the cabinet, his daughter, and his private secretary, who might also be called society manager for the family; the action is chiefly between the two last. The tale is written with abundant local knowledge and striking ability.

The following extracts from a petition for the foreclosure of a mortgage recently filed in a Ne braska court deserves a place in the Green Bag's collection of legal curiosities : "The defendants and , nor any other person, has not paid the amount secured by said mortgage, as required by the conditions thereof, whereby said mortgage deed has become obsolete." "Thus the plaintiff therefore prays that the plaintiff may foreclose the following, and collect the remaining of their interest in said mortgaged premises, and that said premises may be sold ac cording to law and out of the proceedings thereof this cross-petitioner may be paid the amount ad judged to be due him on said note and mort gage." "That the defendants and be ad judged to pay in deficiency the amount which may remain after paying of said debt, and such other relief as may be just and equitable."

The leading article in The Bostonian for No vember is on " Football at Harvard College, '* written by R. Robert Dundee, of whom it may be said that he "knows whereof he writes." Other features of interest are, " Recollections of Ex-Governor Alex ander H. Rice," " Memories of the Past," " The Old Salt House," " Indian Summer," one or two remark ably good stories, etc., etc.

Mr. Kerr, whose annotations of Blackstone in bracketed additions to the text are so convenient and valuable, while Recorder of London hearing a contest of band performers for wages, was bothered

With the November number The Arena closes its sixth year, and for the coming year announces a reduction from five dollars to three dollars in its sub scription prices. The magazine has come to be a great power in the cause of progress and reform, and no thinking man can fail to appreciate its merits. Among the important contributions of this issue is a very suggestive paper by Prof. George D. Herron on "The Sociality of the Religion of Jesus"; Senator J. T. Morgan, who is recognized as one of the ablest thinkers in our Senate on international questions and constitutional problems, discusses the Silver Ques tion; Ex-Governor James M. Ashley, an old-time Republican, congressman and governor, writes on ' ' The Impending Political Advance "; Prof. Frank Parsons, of the Boston University School of Law, contributes a masterly paper on Municipal Lighting.