The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1855-08-03
READ THE FOLLOWING
From the Nashville True Whig-better
than Dickens in his palmIest days:
CLARKsvILLE. April 2l. IShh.

and enigmaiical old wheel-within-a. wbee
Chancery Court met here on last Monday
and after FIVE or six DAYS of costs and con.
tinuances, very solomnly and composedlv ad
jOurned. or course, no one knows anything
in particular what was DONE. | went into
Chancery-voluntarily entered the shades, to
see or to hear, the ghosts of the dead that
still Iinger on earth, in the dusty records OF
the court. The angry litignnts who filed
many of those "blls" and answers" have
long since gone to answer the bill filed bv the
Recording Angel in that high chancery where
no er parte hearings are had, and where the
wrongs of earth are righted by the DEGREES OF
that chancellor from whose judgement there
is no appeal. Yet they wrangle here!
thought of these dead men, of their bitter
disputes in life, and their dreamless sleep in
death; of their antagonism on earth, and OF
their community in the grave, and when i'm.
agination carried me from the halls of chan.
Gerry to the graves Of the ltigants, could no,
but smile at the emptiness of human strife
and the hollow mockeries of chancery
court.
As have already said, Iwent into chance
ry TO see and to hear, but no one there SEEM
ed to know much more abOut what was going
on than did Now and then case was
called, about which some lawyer seemed
honestly to think he kneO something, and
would get up to tell it, but in a short time Il
conviction that he wasn't the fellow he took
himself to be would steal over him, and the
case would be continued in order, | suppose,
TO render by the lapse of time, any knowledge
OF it yet more hopeless. Again, another case
would be called, and the two old lawyers
would mutually agree that they knew enough
about it to try il, and after the astonishment
and disorder consequent upon this announce
ment, these two old gentlemen begin to look
fierce at each other, and the clerk brings in
basket full of papers tied up with red strings.
The hancellor-the iron bound hub Of the
wheel-within.a. wheel-takes off his specs,
and shutting his eyes devoutly, appears to be
engaged in prayer for the two old spokes,
who say they know enough about n suit in
chancery to try it. He then opens his eyes
and looks at them seemingly to satisfy him.
self that it is flesh and blood before him, and
that it was not dream, that two old men
had risen up before him and agreed to try n
case in chancery The reality of the thing
being established, the decks are cleared for
action. The chancellor gets up from his deep
arm chair, and accomplishes a disruption of
flesh from breeches, at point where Marcy
wore his heraldic quarerings and then feeling
the seat of his chair TO see ii there hadn't
been gravel in it, he lets himself down with n
look into it that betokens utter ihfdelity in
the doctrine of resurrection. The attaches of
the court betake themselves to their custo-
mary pursuits. The clerk and master, with
his characteristic zeal '"for the diffusion of
useful knowledge" "cals young man around
the bar to tell him about the snakes in Will
son. The old lawyers, except the two at war,
90 to sleep, and the young ones dispose of
themselves dd Hbitum. One takes an appren-
tce store clerk off to explain the point OF his
last pun; another undertakes to convince q
refractory Wing that Gentry was Scott man
in 1852; Il third surprises the early flies in
their adventurous amours, with savage race;
while the others are engaged in smuggling
apples, cheese, and other edibles, contraband
of chancery, over the bar, and in levyng con-
tributions, Of tobacco from the bystanders.-
Meanwhile the two beligerent old spokes
grew tiercer towards each Other and contin-
ued their preparation for war, by dividing the
papers ndiscrimina,ely between them, and af-
Ter notifying the Hub that they are ready TO
proceed in the case, they 90 TO reading the
papers. These papers seemed to be biograph-
ical aud genealogical sketches of man and
woman who lived hundred years ago, with
here and there a detailed account of "begining
at dogwood and running west to stake"
and, then, after running five or six other
ways, unaccountaby getting back to the dog
wood. These revelations seemed to interest
no one but the readers, but still the readers
read. Piles of paper were read, but still the
readers tired not in their work. Bills, nn-
swers, rejoinders, repications, petitions, de.
crees, conveyances and deeds were all ready,
and these seemed to be no end
But suddenly in the midst of certain reve-
|ation the reader stopped, and the monotonous
poring of n dirt dobber in the window and the
sporihc notes of diScordant accordion alone
were heard. The attention of the Hub was
;nlled to the fact tha. the readers had stop
ped, and he aroused himself by shaking MS
much of his body as he could at one time,
and began to make decree in the case. The |
readers nterp0sed, however, and told HIM that !
The papers they had been reading were not |
The ones they thought they were, but belong.
I'd to a case which had been dismissed some
.wenty years ago! The case they thought
hey had been trying was thereupon continued,
1t the cost of somebody that the sheriff went
)ut and got This man unfortunately made
lflidavit that he was personally acquainted
With another, who married the widow Of n
grandson of the defendant in the cause, and
ipon his testimony continuance was granted
II defendants cost.
Such seemed to me to be fair sample Of
Chancery proceedings. Indeed it appears that
whenever suit at law becomes so hopclessly
anged and confused, that no twelve men in
he country cat understand it, it is forthwith
brown into Chancery, to outlve, undecided,
III the Chancellors, plaintiffs, defendants,
heirs, wards, minors, guardians, re-
eivers and commissioners, that were ever in
t. Chancery is an insolvnble riddle. Men
nay solve the other mysteries of heaven aud
,arth, but Chancery stands uncomprehended
nd incomprrhensible The deep and bewil-
|erinr prophecies of Daniel, under the arith.
netic of Armegeddon, are rendered to sim
lie prediction Of the taking of Greytown, and
he row in the Crimea, but no prophet, seer,
r preacher, was ever known to cxpound the
idden things of Chancery. Pearl divers
weep the floors Of old ocean and gather
swels there to deck the brow of beauty here,
nut no diver has ever got bottom in Chancery.
The wan and cadaverous aichymist touches
METAL and stone, and 10! they crumble in a
noment to primal ingredients, but no blow
ipe or crucbe can reduce chancery to any.
hing like simple elements, or original parts.
here it stands an unknown, unsolyed, un
mass-incomprchensble, inexpli.
able, and impenetrable Chancery, the myth
nj and mysterious city of refuge, where