COURTS


One day when old Thaddeus Stevens was practicing in the courts he didn't

like the ruling of the presiding Judge. A second time when the Judge

ruled against "old Thad," the old man got up with scarlet face and

quivering lips and commenced tying up his papers as if to quit the

courtroom.



"Do I understand, Mr. Stevens," asked the Judge, eying "old Thad"

indignantly, "that you wish to show your contempt for t
is court?"



"No, sir; no, sir," replied "old Thad." "I don't want to show my

contempt, sir; I'm trying to conceal it."





"It's all right to fine me, Judge," laughed Barrowdale, after the

proceedings were over, "but just the same you were ahead of me in your

car, and if I was guilty you were too."



"Ya'as, I know," said the judge with a chuckle, "I found myself guilty

and hev jest paid my fine into the treasury same ez you."



"Bully for you!" said Barrowdale. "By the way, do you put these fines

back into the roads?"



"No," said the judge. "They go to the trial jestice in loo o' sal'ry."





A stranger came into an Augusta bank the other day and presented a check

for which he wanted the equivalent in cash.



"Have to be identified," said the clerk.



The stranger took a bunch of letters from his pocket all addressed to

the same name as that on the check.



The clerk shook his head.



The man thought a minute and pulled out his watch, which bore the name

on its inside cover.



Clerk hardly glanced at it.



The man dug into his pockets and found one of those

"If-I-should-die-tonight-please-notify-my-wife" cards, and called the

clerk's attention to the description, which fitted to a T.



But the clerk was still obdurate.



"Those things don't prove anything," he said. "We've got to have the

word of a man that we know."



"But, man, I've given you an identification that would convict me of

murder in any court in the land."



"That's probably very true," responded the clerk, patiently, "but in

matters connected with the bank we have to be more careful."





_See also_ Jury; Witnesses.



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