Press enter after choosing selection

A Painstaking Judge

A Painstaking Judge image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
May
Year
1881
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A biographer of Judga Blackford writing in the Southern Law Review shows that the judge did not believe il de minimis. In preparing hia opijiions and the matter for his reports, he stuided the art of punctuation; he rat the best books for style; searched the latest reports for law, and as far as possible remodelled the opinions of his associates until, it is said, they became like his own, "clear, compact and complete, carrying no weight ot' immaterial discussion and losing no weight through grammatical cracks." "lie was equally exactingi b the spelling of words." It is stated that while his eighth volume was in press; he delayed the entire establishment three days in order to determine the orthography of the word '-Jenny," a female ass. He had writtcn it with a "g," but finding it spelled differently, he was not content to pass it until every book in hia llbrary had been searched, paying $125 for the delay occasioned to the press and printers. The word "muley," a cow without horns, gave him great tnmble. He traced it to the Irisli 'molleu," the name of a breed of cattle in Ireland, spelling it m-u-1-e-y, althougli he never feit satisfled with having suffered the use of the word, especially as it had been ignored by lexicngraphers. It is stated that Mr. Judah, a prominent lawyer of the state, boasted that he secured the delay of a decisiĆ³n for three years by simply suggesting to his honor, who luid the case in hand, that Chancelor Kent and Judge Story differed in their manner of spelling the word "eleemosynary." Governor Porter, when a practising lawyer, on one occasion discovered the word "optionary" in one of Judge Smith's opinjons. ITe noted it, as requested, indicating that there was no such word. He was surprised several months thereafter at the announcement, of his appointinent as supreme court reporter. He souglit the gorernor, who had made the appointment, to tender his aeknowledgement, but he referred him to Judge ljlackford, who liad urged his appointment on the ground of his discovering the error aforesaid. But in eating and drinking he enforced the maxim de aainimis, for he lived for days on crackers and cheese, and banqueted five political friends on a bottle of champagne, a few crackers, and t wo pounds of hard-shelld almonds, cracking the shells with his boot heel on the Hoor. [Ie died worth a quaiter if a mlllion. - Albany Law Journal. A'i engnged yonng man is late in paying his regular vLsic in thedwelling of his rnusically inclined betrothed. Tlisyoung lady i anxions. Thefamily sympathizss with her anxiety. Ruddenly the bell rings and the calm blue sky nt peace reappears in the young girl's eyes as she exclaims, rapturously, luit uiigraininatically: "That 8 hiin! How nxquisitc his tccliniue js on tke l'fll iuII, and - oh, the breadth of hls ring!" - Fmirft N-w$jhij r. A Philadelphiaclorgyman assisUd a woman to tle on her bonnet, and the verdict of the council wbioh tried kim for it was:"It was a brotherly act, bnt he'd better let 'em tieon thr vu 1 nets after this."

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat