Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/427

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394
The Green Bag.

furnish him with food and all the necessa ries of this life; and so he sued the Oblats Fathers. Mr. Justice Taschereau

tried the case and, alas and alack for poor Brother Bidegarde, dismissed his action with costs.

(SUG-) JESTIVE CASES. No. I. Mack v. Railroad Co., South Carolina, 29 S. E. 905; April 19, 1898.

When you're frightened by wagon or car, And, in consequence, pains in your back And other ills follow, how far Can you sue just as if by a whack Of a club, or like physical jar, Your nerves had been put on the rack? The cases, though few, are quite far From accord; but among the star Is the singular case of one Mack, Who suffered a nervous concussion While engaged in a heated discussion With an obstinate mule on the track.

It happened in this way : Mack's rustical father SentMackto bringjack from the field for the night, And told his young hopeful, in case he would rather Ride home on the back of the mule, that he might.

The pasture was distant; the night fell apace; The road crossed a railroad-track half-way to home; And, just as they came to this ticklish place, The mule took a notion he'd there cease to roam.

Between the two rails he stood firm as a rock, His legs planted wide, and his ears slanted back; And just at this moment, on time by the clock, A train hove in sight, on the very same track.

The boy was so phased by this pig in a poke, That the train's rapid onset he failed to observe; The mule may have seen it, and thought what a joke To paralyze traffic, while showing his nerve.