Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1902 — When Justice Was Jocund. [ARTICLE]

When Justice Was Jocund.

The judge of one joke is as rare as the poet of one poem, yet the Washington Tost states that there is only one Instance of jocularity recorded against Justice Gray, of the United States Supreme Court. One day when Judson Harmon, then Attorney General, was making an argument before the court, he had occasion to display a map showing the locality in which the land in dispute was situated. It was a tiny map and difficult to see from the bench, and as he held.it up Mr. Harmon referred to It as “a bird’s-eye view!” , Justice Gray squinted his eyes In the effort to discern the map. “Mr. Attorney General.” he said, at length, “I regret to tell you that I am not a bird.” As the Attorney General folded up the tiny map, the grave and dignified Justice was seen to chuckle. . -