Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/492

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
The Green Bag.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT $4.00 PER ANNUM. SINGLE NUMBERS 50 CENTS. Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, THOS. TILESTON BALDWIN, 1038 Exchange Building, Boston, Mass.

The Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of interest to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities or curiosi ties, facetiœ, anecdotes, etc. NOTES.

MANY a girl who insists on a five-hundred dollar wedding is soon satisfied with a fiftydollar divorce. JUDGE—"Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing bn^ the truth." Witness—"I do." Judge—"What is your occupation?" Witness—I am employed in the weatheibureau." Judge—"You are excused." DEBTORS in Siam, when three months in ar rears, can be seized by the creditors and com pelled to work out their indebtedness. Should a debtor run away his father, his wife or his child may be held in slavery until the debt is concclled. IN a recent New York murder trial the de fendant had been found guilty and was sen tenced to death. Two Irishmen were dis cussing the trial and the result. "Begorra, it's tough on Pat," said one; "he'll have to hang for it now." "No, no," replied the other Irishman, "they don't hang the Oirish for killin' any more." "What do they do to 'em?" inquired his friend. "They've got an easier death now. They put 'em to death by elocution."

SOME judges profess that they have no knowledge of slang words and phrases. For instance, when a witness in a New York court used the expression, "I tumbled to it," the learned judge asked what he meant. At an examination before Lord Mansfield, a witness exclaimed, "I was up to him." "Up to him," repeated the judge, "what do you mean by being 'up to him?'" "Mean, my lord? Why, I was down upon him." "Up to him and down upon him," said Mansfield. "What does this fellow mean?" "Why, my lord, I mean, that as deep as he thought himself, I stogged him." When the judge persisted that he did not understand what was meant, the witness ex claimed: "Lor", what a flat you must be!" With a merry twinkle in his eye, the judge quietly remarked to a brother judge who sat beside him: "If he had only said 'on to him,' I should have 'tumbled to him' at once." Lord Brampton, better known as Sir Henry Hawkins, would never allow a witness to use slang. In every case the witness had to express his meaning in old-fashioned Eng lish, even though many valuable minutes were wasted in trying to make him so ex press himself. WOULD you call stealing a kiss larceny?" queried the inexperienced young man. "I suppose so," replied the married man, who was hustling from dawn to dusk to sup port his family. "What is the penalty?" "Why, I stole a kiss one time and was sentenced to hard labor for life."