Yours truly,

    J. SNIPPEN.”

The follower of Blackstone immediately replied: 

“Dear Sir:  I have your request for advice of a recent date, and beg leave to say that not having received any retainer from you I cannot act in the premises.  Upon receipt of your check for $250 I shall be very glad to look the matter up for you and to acquaint you with the results of my investigations.

    I am, sir, with great respect, your most obedient servant,

    BARCLAY B. COKE.”

A prisoner was brought before the bar in the criminal court, but was not represented by a lawyer.

“Where is your lawyer?” asked the judge who presided.

“I have none, sir,” replied the prisoner.

“Why not?” queried the judge.

“Because I have no money to pay one.”

“Do you want a lawyer?” asked the judge.

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, there are Mr. Thomas W. Wilson, Mr. Henry Eddy, and Mr. George Rogers,” said the judge, pointing to several young attorneys who were sitting in the room, waiting for something to turn up, “and Mr. Allen is out in the hall.”

The prisoner looked at the attorneys, and, after a critical survey, he turned to the judge and said: 

“If I can take my choice, sir, I guess I’ll take Mr. Allen.”—­A.S.  Hitchcock.

“What is that little boy crying about?” asked the benevolent old lady of the ragged boy.

“Dat other kid swiped his candy,” was the response.

“But how is it that you have the candy now?”

“Sure I got de candy now.  I’m de little kid’s lawyer.”

A man walking along the street of a village stepped into a hole in the sidewalk and broke his leg.  He engaged a famous lawyer, brought suit against the village for one thousand dollars and won the case.  The city appealed to the Supreme Court, but again the great lawyer won.

After the claim was settled the lawyer sent for his client and handed him one dollar.

“What’s this?” asked the man.

“That’s your damages, after taking out my fee, the cost of appeal and other expenses,” replied the counsel.

The man looked at the dollar, turned it over and carefully scanned the other side.  Then looked up at the lawyer and said:  “What’s the matter with this dollar?  Is it counterfeit?”

Deceive not thy Physician, Confessor nor Lawyer.

A Sergeant of the Lawe, war and wys
Ther was also, ful riche of excellence. 
Discreet he was, and of greet reverence: 
He seemed swich, his wordes weren so wyse.
* * *
No-wher so bisy a man as he ther nas,
And yet he seemed bisier than he was.

—­Chaucer.

LAZINESS

A tourist in the mountains of Tennessee once had dinner with a querulous old mountaineer who yarned about hard times for fifteen minutes at a stretch.