Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1914 — Witty Retort. [ARTICLE]

Witty Retort.

Curran was on terms of intense enmity with Lord Clare, the Irish lord chancellor, with whom when a member of the bar he fought a duel, and whose hostility to him on the bench he always said caused him losses in his prosessional income which he could not estimate at less than £30,000. The incidents attendant on this disagreement were at times ludicrous in the extreme. One day, when it was known that Curran was to make an elaborate statement in chancery, Lord Clare brought a large Newfoundland dog upon the bench with him, and during the progress of th» argument he lent'his ear much more to the dog than to the barrister. This was observed at length by the entire profession. In time the lord chancellor lost all regard for decency. He turned himself quite aside in the most material part of the case, and began in full court to fondle the animal. Curran stopped at once. “Go on, go on, Mr. Curran,” said Lord Clare. “Oh, I beg a thousand pardons, my lord; I really took it for granted that your lordship was employed in consultation.”