Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1895 — The Court Ought to Know. [ARTICLE]

The Court Ought to Know.

‘‘l call to mind an amusing scene kv-hieh ,is said—to have occurred in a courtroom iu a small country town in one of tho middle .States some years ago. The magistrate, a high, pompous official, with a voice like a trombone, took it upon himself to examine a witness—a little, withered old mai>, whose face was as red and wrinkled as- a smoked herring. ‘What is your name'/’ asked the .justice. " ‘Why, squire,’ said the astonished witness, ‘you know my name as well as I know yourn.’ ‘Never mind .wliat I know,- or what I doiiT know,’ was the caution given with magisterial severity. .‘I asaed the question in my official capacity, and you'are bound to answer it under oath.’ With a contemptuous snort the witness gave his name, and file questioning proceeded. ‘Where do you live?” ‘Well, f declare!’ ejaculated the old man. ‘Why,’ lie continued, ‘l’ve lived in this town all my life> and so’s he,’ pointing to the justice, an’ to hear him go on, you'dthink ; ’ 'Silence!’ thundered ' the irate, magistrate. ‘Answer my question, or I'll fine you for contempt of court.’ Alarmed by this threat, the witness named hjs place of residence, and the examination went on. ‘What is your occupation?’ .Hull?’ ‘Wliat do you do for a living?' ‘Hull?’ ‘Whitt do you do for a living?’ ‘Oh, git out, squire, .lust as if you don’t know that I tend gardens in the summer season and sell coal in winters.’ ‘As a private citizen I do know it, but as thjs court I knew not,li'ingfabout you,’ exclaimed the perspiring justice. ‘Well, squire,’ remarked the puzzled witness, ‘if you know something outside the courtroom, aii’ don’t know uotliin’ in it, you'd better git out and let somebody try this case that’s got some sense.’ This advice was no doubt well meant, but it cost the witness Sic."—Boston Herald. 9 ' The most remarkable creature in the world is the hydra. It does not amount to much physically, for It is nothing but a sack, open at one end and fastened by the other to a stone,Amt it is almost impossible to kill it. Turn a hydra inside out and it will get along just as well as hjpforo. Trombley, the French naturalist, cut hydras in slices, and each, in a few days, became a fullgrown aniuial. He grafted them, and produced monsters with six mouths and only one body. lie divided them longitudinally, and produced a cluster of hydras. He found tills creature; is superior even to decomposition, for when a part of a hydra's body decays it simply throws it off and replaces it, as a matter of course. We should enjoy what we possess; .otherwise, what we call ours is but a bondage; we are under it.