Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-02-22
Tommy or Jimmy.

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any tribunal in this great republic has
been taxing for a week the judicial abil-
tiles of the Supreme Court of this State.
To the careless observer the learned
Justices have appeared much as usual !;
but to the keen and profound student of
human nature it has been evident that
matter of the gravest import has been
pressing on the minds of those pure and
able men. There was noticed painful
slowness of gait as they passed to and
To from the bench, an unmerited silence
at meals, and their calm, austere coun-
tenances, s'sicklied DER with the pale
cast of thought" all showing the almost
fathomless cogitation going on within
the mystic chambers of their great in
tellects. Those near and dear to them
have also been struck with the at
mosphere of intellectual preoccupation
which, night after night, has hung
about them, as in the solitude of their
respective chambers they have been OBJ
served to bend their sternly-knitted
brows over musty tones for hours at a
time, in the absorbing search for some
gem, tangled as it were, among the very
weeds which shoot up from the lost bot
tom of the vast ocean of legal truth.
The simplest statement of the case OF
Manning against N1itcherson staggers
the most astute mind. On the Island of
Doboy, near the City of Savannah, live
two most estimable ladies, refined, Gull
tured and comfortable--one Mrs.
Manning, the other Mrs. Mitcherson.
These excellent ladies and next-door
neighbors were the happy owners of a
canary bird each, whose CHEEKY chirp
and warbling song made the daily lives
OF their owners flow along as sweetly
and as smoothly as flows the lovely
Savannah, which softly kisses the smil-
ing shores near the mansions wherein
the cages gently swung. The names of
the precious warblers are not given, out
of consideration for the family prob
ably, but for Identification one may be
called Tommy and the other Tmmy.
The reader, fancying he hears Tommy
singing in the porch of Mrs. Manning
and evoking strains responsive from
Jimmy in the porch of Mrs. Mitcherson,
may form faint idea of the ineffable
bliss filling the heart of each lady as she
reflected how utterly harsh and dis
cordant were the notes of the bird she
did not have the misfortune to possess.
The birds were both of the top-knot
species, and were so much alike in size,
color and ensemble that it was impossi-
BILE to distinguish one from the other.
Indeed, as the worthy minister of the
two families remarked: stThey were SO
much apart that you couldn't tell 'em
alike" However, in the month of DC.
tober, 1881, Tommy got lost, and
shadow hung over the Manning man.
sion. In the December following Tim
my got lost, and cloud hung over the
Mitcherson piazza. But on the joyous
new year morning of 1882 a male in
habitant, name not given, of the Island
of Doboy, while strolling ON the strand
under the overhanging magnoias, cap
tured a canary bird which he at once
recognized as the long-lost Tommy, and
turned it over to Mrs. Manning. Learn
ing of this important happening, Mrs.
gazed upon the little captive
and was convinced that it was none
other than her own dear little lost Tim
my. This Mrs. Manning denied, and
when Mrs. Mitcherson demanded the
bird Mrs Manning refused to surrender
it, claiming it as her property, where
upon Mrs. Mitcherson had recourse to
the majesty of the law and forthwith
sued out possessory warrant to recover
the alleged Jimmy. = O. 7"
The case was brought before justice
of the peace and many witnesses were
introduced on both sides. The question
was one purely of identity, and the tes-
timony was wonderfully conflicting, a
score swearing to the best of their belief
that Tommy was Jimmy, and an equal
attesting that Jimmy was Tom.
Pr,f hoI tor 0t
parted exactly in the middle" triumph
antly asserted Mrs. Mitcherson, and the
Mitcherson wing of the litigation was
about to take possession Of the bird
when the Manning faction came to the
that Tommy also parted his hair exactly
in the middle: The justice, after
night of mental agony. gave his decis-
Mrs. Mitcherson. Mrs. Manning's law
yer at once resorted to a certiorari, and
the case was appealed to the Superior
Court, in which, after an exciting con-
test, the decision of the Justices court
ton that it was Tommy and not Jimmy,
and in the belief that justice had been
the representatives of Mrs.
dPPCdiCu W q StIII VII
bunal, and the case of Manning against
Mitcherson-Tommy and Timmy-
found its way to the Supreme Court,
the controlling question in the argument
being whether the bird was fera ,aatura
(wild by nature). The case had al
ready cost over $500. Mrs. Mitcherson,
it is true, had Jimmy, or Tommy, but
she was obliged to give a bond for
double the value of Tommy, or Jimmy,
to relinquish him if he was not hers.
The case was to have been decided on
last, as appears from the stem
ographic report of its analysis by the
learned judge, who said:
''ln this cause it appears that two
ladies of Savannah, Mrs. Mannerson and
Mrs. Mitching, had two canary birds,
that belonging to Mrs. Nanny being
named Tommering, and the one belong
ing to Mrs. Timmering being named
Mrs. Tommerson loses her
bird Mitching, and a short time after
Mrs. Timmerton loses her bird Man.
nington. AS understand it, Mrs. Tom
ming and Mrs. Huntington entered the
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