228

THE GREEN BAG

"Looks like they didn't mean you and me should know what this law meant, no how." "Because," continued Ebenezer, "this act lets you keep an English bloodhound and a Cuban or Siberian bloodhound, but you can't keep any other kind. It says you can't keep any bloodhound except an Eng lish, Cuban, or Siberian bloodhound, but it lets you keep your Cuban and Siberian blood hounds, don't it, Jonas?" "Waal," said Jonas, reading the act again, "I hadn't read it that way, but perhaps it does. What d'ye think, Hiram?" "Mebbe," was all the answer the dis gusted Hiram would vouchsafe. By that time the mail was sorted and among those who dropped in for letters was the lawyer of the neighborhood. He had represented the district for several years in the lower branch of the legislature. As- he appeared in the doorway, Uncle Ebenezer hailed him. "Come here, John," he said, "and straighten us out. We're all snarled up over the meanin' of some of your handiwork." John saw the blue book and smiled. "What's the trouble?" he said. "Has Baxter any right to keep his Great Dane?" said Jonas. "Here's yer law." "Why, certainly," said John; "we changed the law last year so as to allow persons to keep Great Danes. I was on the committee myself that reported the bill." "Can't say yer did a pertickerlerly tidy job," remarked Hiram. John looked at the statute and his face took on a puzzled expression. " This isn't the same bill we reported," he said. "Wait a minute, till I get my papers," and he went over to his office, soon returning with a copy of the House Journal and the bill (House 361) reported by the committee.

"I thought so," he said, as he brought from the inner store a volume of the Re vised Laws, and opened to the provisions about dogs. "See here, Uncle. Section 138 of chapter 102 of the Revised Laws says that a person shan't keep 'any blood hound, or any dog classed by dog fanciers or breeders as Cuban bloodhound, Siberian bloodhound, German mastiff or Great Dane, boarhound or Ulmer dog.' Our bill pro vided for amending this section by striking out the words 'German mastiff or Great Dane, boarhound or Ulmer dog,' so as to leave a person free to keep dogs of that kind." "Now ye'r talkin'," broke in Hiram, "that's language all of us kin understand, without goin' to dog fanciers. Why didn't they leave it that way?" "Our bill went along all right," said John, "till it fell into the clutches of the Com mittee on Bills in the Third Reading, who are supposed to correct the language of a bill, if it is necessary. They in their sub lime wisdom substituted the present con glomeration and sent it to the Senate. I wonder," he added, with a laugh, "how many of the Senators knew whether they were voting to permit or to prohibit Great Danes. Of course, if they looked at the sections of the Revised Laws which this new act repeals, they would see what the new act was trying to accomplish; but I must say that, on the face of it, it is pretty blind." It was Jonas who spoke up. "As I un derstand it, then," he said, "this act is about Great Danes because it don't men tion 'em." "Well, yes," assented the legislator. BOSTON, MASS., March, 1905.