Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 16.pdf/499

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448
The Green Bag.

Was sorely aggrieved at the treatment received, So he sued the receiver—Fink. Grave, serious, difficult questions of law Rose before the honorable courts; Fierce the battle was waged by the counsel engaged, As we gather from Pickle's Reports. One very vexed question arose in the case. Whether, under the Tennessee laws, Considering his acts and all of the facts, The fox was the proximate cause. For it may be admitted that, if as a fact, The fox had not gone on the track Those valuable curs, it surely appears, Would not have been lost from the pack. Then another difficult question arose In the struggle to get redress, In which of them lay the clear right of way, The dogs or the fast express. The cars had the right to the railroad track, This point was perfectly plain, But the right of the pack on the fox's track Clearly clashed with the right of the train. If a track's on a trackj and a train and a pack Have both of them rights of way, Then the question of right becomes one of might, So all the authorities say. But what was the value of the dogs deceased? A question pf dire import. And one that was vexing and very perplexing, And that worried the honorable court. The proof of the plaintiff established the fact, That the dogs were young and fleet, And that while ev'ry hound was good "all round," For the possum they couldn't be beat. The plaintiff himself when he got on the stand, Told the twelve as they sat in the box, That a hound, as a rule, was worth more than a muleThat is—for the chase of the fox. The defendant made light of the proof thus adduced, As foolish, absurd and thin, And he proved without doubt that hounds were without Any value in old McMinn. But the court, considering all of the facts, Held the hounds did not exercise