CUPID’S COURT.
An Adverse Decision, an Appeal and an Oral Argument.
The judge’s daughter was perturbed.
“Papa,” she said, knitting her pretty brow, “I am in doubt as to whether I have kept to the proper form of procedure. In law one can err in so many little technicalities that I am ever fearful. Now, last evening George”— The judge looked at her so sharply over his glasses that she involuntarily paused.
“I thought you had sent him about his business,” he said.
“I did hand down an adverse decision,” she answered, “and he declared that he would appeal. However, I convinced him that I was the court of last resort in a case like that and that no appeal would lie from my decision.”
“Possibly the court was assuming a little more power than rightfully belongs to it,” said the judge thoughtfully, “but let that pass. What did he do then?”
“He filed a petition for a rehearing.”
“The usual course,” said the judge, “but it is usually nothing but a mere formality.”
“So I thought,” returned the girl, “and I was prepared to deny it without argument, but the facts set forth in his petition were sufficient to make me hesitate and wonder whether his case had really been properly presented at the first trial.”
“Upon what grounds did he make the application?” asked the judge, scowling.
“Well,” she replied, blushing a little, “you see, he proposed by letter, and his contention was that the case cannot be properly presented by briefs, but demands oral arguments. The fact that the latter had been omitted, he held, should be held an error, and the point was such a novel one that I consented to let him argue it. Then his argument was so forceful that I granted his petition and consented to hear the whole case again. Do you think”—
“I think,” said the judge, “that the court favors the plaintiff.”—Chicago Post.
The Worthington [MN] Advance 23 August 1907: p. 3
Mrs Daffodil’s Aide-memoire: One shudders to think of young George (after being issued a writ of habeas corpus) approaching the bench to plead his case with the judge, although his legal manoeuvres in re the judge’s daughter suggest a man not easily intimidated, and one with Blackstone at his very fingertips. Mrs Daffodil imagines that the judge put the gentleman under oath for a full deposition, then subjected him to a stiff cross-examination. But if the defendant has withdrawn her objections, what can a judge do but rule in the plaintiff’s favour?
Mrs Daffodil invites you to join her on the curiously named “Face-book,” where you will find a feast of fashion hints, fads and fancies, and historical anecdotes
You may read about a sentimental succubus, a vengeful seamstress’s ghost, Victorian mourning gone horribly wrong, and, of course, Mrs Daffodil’s efficient tidying up after a distasteful decapitation in A Spot of Bother: Four Macabre Tales.
Mrs Daffodil Digresses 