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The Green Bag
more remarkable for his imprudence than for his jurisprudence. He will certainly lose his reputation for wit and original ity if all his intended jokes at the ex pense of the courts turn out to be only a commonplace plea for justice. THE OLD DARKEY AND HIS BIBLE FRIENDLY subscriber in the Philippines is good enough to send us an anecdote:— Judge James C. Jenkins tells of a case he had while a member of the Georgia bar. His client was not one of the patriarchs of old, but his name was Abraham Farrow, an old darkey bom and reared in ante-bellum slavery days. His mistress had taught him to read a little and to read the Bible mainly. So Abraham appeared rather well up on Holy Writ, though he could scarcely or rarely ever tried to read anything else. Abraham owned the house and lot where he lived, but borrowed several hundred dollars and gave an absolute deed to it, as he contended to secure the loan. The grantee in the deed was a white woman who strenuously insisted that the deed was what it purported to be, an absolute deed of sale. The judge says he brought suit for Abraham against the woman to redeem the old negro's home, and the woman employed able counsel, and the case was pending in court and vigor ously contested for five years. There had been successive trials in which numerous witnesses were introduced by both parties; but the court set aside the several verdicts of the jury for one legal reason or another; so that there was a fourth and final trial. On this last trial there were two witnesses introduced who swore strongly for the de fendant woman and against Abraham, neither of whom had testified in either of the three former trials. When the evidence was all in, and the argument was about to begin, old Abraham approached to his attorney and said: "Mister Jinkins, when you goes to argue dis case, I wants you to read to dat jedge de fifty-ninth and sixtieth vuses of de twenty-six chapter of Matthew, whar it says like dis: 'At de las' came two false witnesses.'"
The judge says that the court at this point adjourned for dinner, and in the meantime he provided himself with a copy of the New Testament, and when the court convened again in the afternoon he carried it with him and complied with the old darkey's request, without making further argument. The case on the fourth and last trial was decided in favor of Abraham. The judge advises all young limbs of the law to read their Bibles.
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TWO "FUNNY ONES" WE have received this communica tion from a New York corre spondent :— Publishers the Green Bag, Brookline, Boston, Mass. Gentlemen:—Below you will find a couple of "funny ones"—if they may be called such, which, if deemed worthy, might fit into the next issue of the Green Bag. They were picked up around New York, in fact were told to the writer by the persons who claimed to have been present when the incidents occurred, and I have every reason to believe that the incidents really happened. (1) Judge of the New York City Court (a tall, stout gentleman, of German descent and accent) was calling the calendar in his court one morning, and after he had called a certain case the lawyers engaged in the case arose and entered into an argument—one asking for an adjournment of a few days, and the other insisting that he was prepared to go on with the trial that morning. The attorney who wanted the adjournment then launched forth and started in by saying, "It seems to me—," when Judge sud denly brought his gavel down with a thump and looking at the attorney who had com menced to speak, almost yelled at him, "It seems to you! It seems to you! It seems to me that to me the 'seeming' should belong— I'm de Judge." (2) A little Hebrew lawyer was trying a case before a Justice in one of the Municipal Courts of New York, when in the course of examining a witness the opposing attorney put in an objection on the usual grounds, which was allowed by the court; whereupon the little lawyer blurted out, "Vill your Honor please give me an exceptance?" J. T.
