Editorial Department.
that he transgressed two sections of the law against crime, instead of one. ... If the defendant were held to be innocent of rape be cause guilty of seduction, he might, according to the argument of his counsel, when prosecuted for the latter offense, secure an acquittal by showing that he was a married man, and there fore guilty of adultery. And, by the same logic, a person charged with a murderous assault would be entitled to an acquittal, if it should appear that the person assaulted were an officer engaged in the execution of his office, or a min ister of the gospel preaching to his congrega tion. It would also entitle a licensed vender of intoxicating liquors, charged with making sales on Sunday or election day, to an acquittal if he could show that the person to whom the sales were made were minors, Indians, lunatics, or habitual drunkards. The true rule undoubtedly is that a statute which denounces an act as criminal does not cease to be effective because another statute declares the same act to be a crime when done at a particular place or under special circumstances. . . . The wage of sin is certainly due to Mr. Chapman, and the hour of liquidation is at hand. The judgment is affirmed." Yours very truly, JAMES M. KERR. OMAHA, NEB., Nov. 2, 1901. NOTES. THE advertisement of the Missouri lawyer, a copy of which was printed in the August number, and the letter-head of the Iowa legal light, set forth in the September issue, arc rivalled by the following self-addressed envelope used by a colored member of the West Virginia bar. The esteemed correspondent to whom we are in debted for this gem expresses the belief that as a piece of professional advertising it has no equal. MR. J. K. SMITH,
LAWYER AND JAIL ROBBER, KEYSTONE, W. VA. ONE of the earliest judges in what is now Illinois was Judge Dumoulin, appointed in 1790, or shortly after, to the bench in St. Clair County. The judge, says Mr. J. N. Perrin, in an address on " Primitive Justice in Illinois," recently de
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livered before the Illinois Bar Association, " had occasion to deal with a case of contempt in his courtroom. He dealt with the matter so vigor ously that he left the bench to enforce the de cree by pummeling the obstreperous individual whom he had adjudged guilty of the contempt. The result was that the judge soon found him self before the court to answer a charge of assault and battery. The case, however, was dismissed, and the informant had to pay the costs, thus coming out of the legal contest with two defeats, a bruised anatomy and a less plethoric pocket-book." WHILE feeling was running high in England over the " Home Rule " question, John Morley, chancing to meet the late Lord Morris, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, expressed surprise at the cordiality with which the latter, who was above all, an Irishman, greeted him. "Ah, come now," said the Chief Justice, " sure I've known many worse — in the dock." In his earlier years, Lord Morris was Recorder of Galway. On one occasion the last case on the list — a dispute over a few shillings — was argued before him at great length and with much warmth. Lord Morris was anxious to get back to Dublin, where the courts were in full swing and he held important briefs. Within a few minutes the Dublin train was timed to start. The Recorder looked at his watch, but the wrangle did not seem to be approaching an end. At last he said to the opposing solicitors : "See here, gentlemen, I must catch the train. Here is the sum in dispute "; and throwing down the silver, he vanished from the court. JUDGE WILDE, formerly on the Supreme Bench in Massachusetts, while at the bar was quite famous for his apt repartee. He was once trying a case, and labored very hard to obtain a certain answer from a reluctant witness. The opposing counsel interrupted him with the side remark : " Ah, it is no use, Brother Wilde, to pump the witness further — you are only on a wild goose chase." "Just so," said Mr. W., "Wild(e) on one side, and a goose on the other." A GOOD story is being told concerning Judge S. F. Prouty, of the Polk County (Iowa) district