Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-11-13
G LITIGATION.
A staIe-Egg suit Ian the secOnd Circuit
Court-The Nice Distinction Be-
tween Fresh and FouI Ovip-
arOus Fruit.

II is well for commoh humanity that
it never enters into q minute inquiry As
to the distinction between fresh and foul
eggs, Some areso peculiarly constituted
as to insist that all eggs are fowl, but it
is not So. The long category OF lizards
aud fishes are generated principally
from eggs, and they are not termed fowl,
though sometimes they may be met
with on dealers counters foul enough.
For some days the intelligent fury that
patiently attends to things in the Cour
Of the Second Circuit in Memphis had
their natural history requirements
brought into play in trying to decide the
relative merits Of the claims and rejoin-
der in a suit for recovery Of money-the
price of eggs that were claimed on the
one side to have been foul, and on the
other TO have been sound. 1t was most
peculiar. Mr.. Griffin, erstwhile a gene
raj dealer in produce on Poplar street,
sold two boxes of eggs to August Ber-
ton, for candy and cake purposes, prOba-
bly,. The price of eggs at the time was
| eqqs-aetly twenty scents to the dozen.
MIR. Berton contended that was too
many, and Griffin finally agreed 10 let
him have the hen-fruit for nineteen
cents, which was satisfactory, as appears
from the testimony. There were two or
three hundred dozen eggs in both boxes
which were afterward found to be, in
the opinion of Mr.. Berton, unfit for
candy and cake purposes, Hence
this litigious trouble. Several
heavy and able lawyers were
retained on both sides; and every argu-
ment that lively imagination and long
experience in legal lore could suggest,
was resOrted to to battle or aid, as the
case might be, justice. The lawyer Of
the grocer contended that the eggs were
sound, and challenged the other side to
bring up an egg expert TO prove the con-
trary. H commended that long smelling
of sweets and candies, and the ingre-
dients that confectioners use, had vitiated
the smell of BertOn and his assistants,
and their sense of nasal propriety could
not be relied on as a criterion. He de-
fled him to swear there was a chicken,
or the rudiments of a chicken, wen to
be found in those eggs, without the aid
Of a microscope. He contended that the
law was silent on the subject of eggs, and
very properly so, because, in point Of
fact, no matter how recent or successful
might have been the birth of an
egg, it was still fowl. All market
able eggs in one sense are fowl.
Who can tell that the preliminaries OF a
bird is absolutely not in An egg! Who can
walk along the line Of Front street any
day, and, stopping at the door of a
wholesale dealer, take up an egg from a
box or a barrel, and hold it in one hand
while he puts the other owe the region
Of the heart, and solemnly say, that
that egg Is barren! And If not barren,
it must be fecund, and if fecund it must
have in it the principles Of life, and if
having the principles of life is to be
pronounced here in this court in the
very hearing Of Your Honor, a rotten
ness and an iniquity, then farewell JUS
tice; and a long farewell to all progress
in natural history. He would admit
cheerfully that if a live, growing chicken
had been found in any Of the
Then who could say what was
the common belief about stale eggs?
He knew people in his own long and
chequered clearinghouse experience,
who had a slow sense of smell compared
with his own, who would never eat an
egg that was not emphatically strong
in the matter of odor. On the other
hand, he knew people who would not
touch an egg at all unless they saw it
laid. Some people like hard-boiled eggs
and some like them raw so that they can
hear the squeal of the chicken going
down their threats. If Nj. Griffin had
sold those eggs with the express stipula-
ton that there was no yelk in them, and
that they would make excellent pastry
for wedding cakes, and that they failed
10 do it, he would agree to a verdict
the grocer. But he did
not sell them for hen eggs, o duck
eggs, nor geese eggs, no sparrow eggs,
nor pigeon eggs; he simply sold them
for eggs, and if BeTtOn was mistaken in
the sort of eggs he wanted he had him
self to blame. 1t is not every egg that
Ike stick of candy; it is not every
egg { will do for that excellent drink
Tom and Jerry" nor is il every
egg that will varnish china cups, nor
every egg that succeeds in bringing forth
rooster. Eggs have their uses and
their destinies. If it was not the des-
.iny of those eggs to be mixed into cake
IT frosted on the top of cinnamon pie,
who was to blame? Did his client make
he eggs? He contended that Berton
sue the fowls from which those
eggs had proceeded il he wanted redress
n this case, and in giving orders in fu-
.ure for eggs of q peculiar quality he
suggested that he go to the fountain
head aud have an arrangement with the
thief # the barnyard.
The case created much laughter and
interest. The arguments were rich on both
tides, and the jury being puzzled, after
among themselves three hours, !
'eturned to court and said they could !
lot agree. So the trial will have to be
'epeated. :