A SHARP TRICK.

Southland Times, Issue 2676, 6 February 1877, Page 4

A SHARP TRICK.

The 2aw sometimes has strange freaks. A case lately tried in a JJublin Court brought out one of the strangest of them. The plaintiff sued for damages for injuries sustained by falling into a cellar, the grating of which had been left open by defendant. The plaintiff, in his fall, broke the grating, and for this damage to his property the defendant claimed £5. Plaintiff's counsel said that the audacity of this demand had never been paralleled in his experience, except in one instance , and this exceptional case he proceeded to relate ior the benefit of the jury. There lived, he said, at onetime, in the fashionable quarter of that city, an eminent lawyer, who afterwards came to occupy a position on the judicial bench. He was a man of high professional attainments, but of testy and irritable temper. His Best door neighbor was a retired major, noted for the eccentricity of his habits. Between the two there was anything but friendly feeling, and they did all in their power to annoy and harass each other. One night, memorable in Ireland as ' the night of the great storm,' the major's chimneys were blown down. Crash they went through the roof of the lawyer's house, and thence down through floor after floor, carrying havoc in their course. TLe man of law was in no good humor as he contemplated the destruction ; and what made matters worse was that it was the major's chimney that had occasioned the wreck. His wind was actively engaged in devising some process by which he could get satisfaction from his archenemy> when a missive arrived from the latter couched as follows : — ' Send me back my bricks immediately, or I'll put the matter into the hands of an attorney.'