Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-08-10
HIS FIRST CASE.
He Won 1t, But Was Very Sorry
for 1t Afterward.

Judge Robbins and / were riding
over the trail from Boise City to Banner,
enjoying the glorious climate Of
Southern Idaho in early autumn, when
the bluff judge halted his wiry little
mustang with more than ordinary
abruptness, and bent a penetrating gaze
across the divide toward long since
deserted camp, now overgrown with
brush, and with scarce a roof remain
ing upon the decaying cabins.
"What's the matter, judge ?" I
asked, fearing that the jurist had spied
a lurking foe among the ruins of one
of the cabins.
For a moment the judge made no an
swer, but gradually smile broke over
his weather-beaten features, and some
thing very like a chuckle came from
beneath the mass of gray whiskers
that hid his mouth.
''Do you see that little cabin with a
nagpole planted before the doorP" he
asked, in return.
Certainly"
There's where tried the most ex-
citing case I ever had in my life, and
where, although l cleared my client, l
was myself sentenced to about the
worst punishment short of banging,
that can be afflicted upon free man. :"
My curiosity was at once aroused,
sor 1 knew that the judge had passed
through many unique experiences dur
ing the early days of the Territory,
when wild beasts and wilder men
fought each other and when law and
order were unknown.
Therefore | pressed him to tell me
the story OF his adventure in the old
log cabin.
"It was back in '62," began the judge,
"twenty years ago now, and twenty
years work great change in a mining
camp. l had just arrived from my
home in Massachusetts, and was the
most pronounced sort of 'tenderfoot'
that you could scare up in a hundred
miles Of Banner Camp. But attend
cd strictly to tho claim was work.
ing, with more faith than success, and
managed to steer clear of any rough
experiences.
Although I had been admitted to
the bar in my native State, and had put
In some time waiting for the practice
that never came, | was entirely igno-
rant OF the laws aud rules that the min
ers had adopted for tho purpose OF
mutual protection; and that was the
source of my trouble.
Among my acquaintances was a
good-natured, hullSing Yankee, named
Japhet Smith, who was always in a
scrape; but there was not a mite Of
harm in him.
Il was not surprised, when ] came
into camp one evening, to hear that
Japhet was in the hands of the Vigil
lantes, and that he was going to be
tried for some misdoing or other.
'1t'was just his luck TO get into
trouble for some other fellows crime.
So Iwalked overto that cabin there,
and dropped into hear what the
trouble was. It seems that miner
had missed fine rifle from his cabin,
and that the gun had been found in
Japhets cabin. It looked like a clear
case Of gone up for Japhet.
''He was scared to death, and asked
permission to speak TO me. The pres
ident OF the Vigilantes saw no reason
why he should not be accorded that
privilege, and we were allowed to step
outside the door for q moment. while
twoof the committee kept US covered
with their six-shooters
s..For the good Lords sake got me
out Of this scrape. Robbinslp pleaded
the poor fellow. for I am as innocent
as the babe unborn. I left the cabin
with old man Bunker last night and
haven't been back since.
Il went to find old man Bunker, in
srder TO establish an alibi for the poor