The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-10-11
WESTERN ELOQUENCE.

The following is the report of a speech
made by Judge Eli Gilbert, of Larned,
Kansas, formerly register of the o. s.
land Office there, before J. w. Adams,
justice of the peace, in reply to speeches
made by Brigham, Adams and Waters,
in railroad case where the plaintiff sued
to recover the value of lot of second
hand tools lost by the railroad in trans
portation.
He said: MAY it please the court, 1
agree with my erudite and learned ad-
versaries that Redfieid is the best author
ity, in mixed or complicated railroad
matters, on this green universe of ours.
But when the gentlemen with rigidity
of ear, that might become the chaste
icicle that hung in Diana's temple, in
mOmentuous remarks unparalleled in
this court, asserts that my client has I'M
equivOcated on the matter of four chisels,
he does me, perhaps pardOnably, an in
territorial paroxism of injustice that
would better become a sleuth hound of
antiquity or an angle worm of a feted
and semi-barbarious civilization, so to
speak With a proboscis that is too ele-
waited to discern the common things of
plebean life, on the frontiers of the con-
fines of the great American desert, these
hired myrmidons of broad gauge road
to finite hell have seen proper to as
severate in an unctuous and dispaSSion-
ate way that my client has lied. Am I
| only lamp-post of perdition that my
| client should be thus maligned. Coagu-
lated be the blood in my veins before
such an act Of turpitude shall be impos-
ed on Kansas court. And this, too,
from the paid and toOthless representa-
tives of an effete and deliberate railroad
monopoly Only four chiselsI Great
God Almighty -Four! -Four poor, puny
second-hand chisels, that have erst now,
assisted the horny handed yeoman have
the honor to represent in this case to
eventuate a livelihood for himself and
| family! Has not the evidence of the
plaintiff shown as clear as the effulgence
of the noon day sun when the miasms of
early morn have slunken back to their
various and respective sinks of the most
damnable ingenuity? Redfeld may be
good authority, but l apprehend that
here in the high noon of the nineteenth
century, a bald-headed and bifurcated
railroad that has with outstretched arms
sought the destruction of all our boosted
| prerogatIveS, it is too late for it to say
that they were not worth the price set by
my client! Scatter it broad cast or drill
i it IN, If you want to, my client stands
here pure and chaste as the icicle on
| (ahem) firm as the green and verduous
hills, or the. adamantine mountains, rock
ribbed and ancient as the sun. A kick
4 ing up all this fuss over four chiseIs
My God! What will be the agony and
tribulation of this giant corporation
when it shall be brought to limerick for
the loss of a whole consignment of hard
ware? Yes, there he stands as imper-
turbable as the unconscious fortress that
bulwarks the aegis of mundane liberty
in the dark and peradventurous slopes
that lie beyond infinitude, can be discern
ed the angel of truth, eternal truth at
that. May it please the court, with wide
spread opinions, fiuttering and a flop
| ping his approval of my client, and
still beyond him is the Great Almighty
He is unimpeachGdI He is unimpeacha-
bic, and I apprehend that beyond the
hallucination of a respectable doubt be
tween the neither confines of heavens
high court of chancery, down to the
deep and damnable mud sills of HELPS
deepest depths win not be found cher
ubim or angel with nickel-p plated wings,
| getting down on all four, and going
scooping round to Islander and viliify
my client as the opposing counsel have
seen fit to engage in, in this actioni But
as this is an argument of a demurrer to
the evidence, l suppose l viii have to
stick to the record, or I would extenu-
ate my remarks to the animadversions
of my opponents, even although all the
huckleberries of hell should point the
sneering, sReering finger of scorn at me
and were to greet me with vertebrated
chorus around my auricular appendagei
Is this cause TO jog along In this single
gated trot or evanescent way until ouI
rights, as proud and aboriginous Ameri
cans, is elevated at an altitude in the at
mosperic circumambient, ethereal air
may It pleasy the court, beyond-I dc
not wish to be interrupted, Mr.. Adams
beyond the visual organs of our eve
sights And I say, in conclusion, beyond
the peradventure of q hallucination of {
doubt, that you might just as well try r.
stop Mount Vesuvius from vomiting
when she has one of her spells Of sum
mer complaint On, by the administers
ton of dose of three cross-eyed canary
bird seed, as to deny and refute ali o.
singular the fundamental maxims o
law have enunciated / am doue.n
Mr.. Gi1bert's client obtained judgmenl
for s1S1.15.