Connecticut western news., 1884-01-16
LAWSUITS FOR EVERYBODY.
The Manner in which a Western Editor
 Settled one Most Amicably.

"Lawing it" is one of the most ridicu- lous parts of the experience of Amer cans. It seems to be considered cheap luxury to have lawsuit, and yet it IS very expensive. It has got so half of the people seem to have O chip on their shoulder all the time, ready for some body to knock it off, and the first thing they do when they think they have been injured is to go for lawyer or justice of the peace, and lawsuit IS the result; men who are not interested are taken from their business to act as jurors, and ill feeling is created that lasts forever. The fact that the poorest person in the world can indulge in a lawsuit, and be encouraged by lawyers, and pointed at as ''the one who had the lawsuit" causes many cases in courts. Instead of using every other device for a settlement of differences before resorting to the courts, lawsuit is the first thing thought of If man slips down on the sidewalk, he looks up to see who owns the building in front of which he fell, with view of suing him for damages, even before he feels of himself to find if he is hurt. He does not stop to think that perhaps his boots are to blame, being run over at the heel, md it does not enter his head that he is liable to be beaten ill the law suit and have bill of costs saddled onto him. Two men are driving in opposite directions and run into each other, and, without stopping to reason together to see if the damage cannot be amicably settled, they shake their fists at each other, call names, and one drives of after policeman and the other goes to justice of the peace to complain, and lawsuit is the result, in which both are damaged more than by the accident, but each always believes that the other is pirate, and their children quit speaking to each other. If men who have differ ences would go to some neighbor and state their case and abide by his deci- sion, shake hands and be friends after ward, the country would be better of. Not many months ago man felt ag- grieved at something that appeared in the Sun, and after blowing around for day or two he came to the office to inter- view the editor. He explained his grievance, and wound up by saying that his lawyer had told him that the article was hbelous, and that he could recover damages. The editor never had law suit and never wanted one, and he said to the man:
 Farther, lawsuit is a foolish way to enjoy religion. Now, I'll tell you what to do. You go to the President of the Merchants Association, of which you are member and I am not. Have the President appoint 8 committee of five men from the association to hear your statement. You take the paper contain jug the obnoxious article to them, and state your case, just as strong as you can. I will not make any defense. Whatever amount they say you have been damaged I will give check for, and we will shake hands and be friends, and go to the same church as usual, and listen to the same minister preach the gospel. If l have damaged you, you must have your money; but we don't want to spend the balance of our lives in 8 lawsuit"
 The man stopped and thought a mo- ment, and said:
 "That is the fairest proposition I ever heard. and you don't owe me cent, and the matter shall drop from this mo- ment."
 If people would never go into a law suit until they couldn't go into anything else, there would be fewer men with ene- mics all around, and while lawyers might get tired sitting around, it would do them good in the end.--Peck's Sun.