The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-10
PISTOLS FOR TWO.
From the N. Y. World.

From the NJ y World.
At the trial the other day of 'breach of
promise suit in Chicago, the defendant APP
peared in court "with the butt-end of a re-
volver sticking out of his vest pocket. This
is mentioned by the local press merely as a
detail of costume, like the color of the mans
cravat or the cut of his coat. No attention
seems to have been paid to the circumstance
by any of the officers of the court, and an en-
hghtened foreigner, making up his notes
from the daily journals for an exhaustive
work on American institutions, might fairly
enough set down the wearing of revolvers in
court by the parties to suit as a curious but
Characteristic feature of American, or at least
of Western life. We cannot help thinking,
however, that the phenomenon should be
otherwise interpreted A number of
recent cases in the criminal jurisprudence of
this happy land seem to have established it
as a fixed principle of American social law
that any woman to whom any man ever was
engaged to be married, or who thinks that any
man ever was engaged to be married to her,
may with impunity, yea, and with applause,
shoot down and put to death the said man, if,
either through contempt or through igno-
rance of his engagement so to be married, he
shall fail to fulfil the same. The law was
thus defined by the jury for example, in the
famous case of Miss Harris, who came all the
ayfrom the setting sun to murder Treasury
clerk in Washington, because he had failed to
appreciate and return her passion for him.
Miss Harris was pronounced a much injured
but noble-spirited girl. The jury acquitted
her with tears in their eyes; and her lawyer
albeit himself married man, was so carried
away with JOY at her triumph that he fell
upon her neck and kissed her in the open
court.
Of course, the PRONUNCIATION of this short
and simple code may very we'll have weak
ened the hold of the ancient law upon the
female mind. No doubt, when the defendant
with the revolver went into court in Chicago,
he went thither penetrated with profound
uncertainty as to whether he should ever get
out of the court again alive. Nothing he
must have felt, would be more natur Il than
for the plaintiff if she should see her witnesses
failing her or her lawyer making a mess of
their testimony, or, in short, anything of an
unpron Using aspect going on, suddenly to
elect to transfer her suit from the jury-box tc
the cartridge-box.
Poss IDLY, she might do this out of mere
feminine vexation with the prosiness OF
the Proceedings, or out of a sud len loss OF
faith in the shape of the judges no Sc, or per
adventure Gf one may use such phrase Of 6
LADY, out of that strange modern disorder
| known as ''pure cusse lness." Whatever hel
motive, her act would of course be admired
and the defendant left dead without remedy
1t is quite probable, therefore, that the Chi
cago court, taking all these things into con
sideration, may have winke1 at the defen
dants revolver. If this be so, we think the
| Chicago court deserves commendation rather
| than censure 1t is but fair that Ia poor crea
| ture, even if he be a man, should be allowed
at least one chance for his life. 'Iis an il
rule that works but one way; and, if the ballo
is to be without sex, let the bullet be 50 too