The sun., 1896-02-03

A correspondent writes from Schenevus,
Otsego county, to inquire why it is that
Senator RAINEs of Canandaigua Is OCCASION
ally spoken of as Jurisprudence JOHN"
This correspondent declares that some years
ago, when a resident of the town of Una
dilla, he had a controversy with farmer of
the neighborhood over three barnyard fowls,
two hens and rooster Being without ex-
pert legal knowledge he sought the profess
sonal counsel of a trained and erudite jurist,
and was referred by a friend in the neighbor
ing town of Butternuts to the Hon. JOHN
RAINEs of OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. Our
correspondent says he communicated the
facts Of the case to Mr.. RAINEs and forth
with he received from Canandaigua an
opinion in the handwriting Of RAINRs, the
concluding portion of which, divested of
legal verbiage, was as follows: If the
fowls cannot be recovered alive, I admonish
you not to sue to get them back. In such
case, sue for the value of the fowls in the
court Of competent jurisdiction.
Our correspondent says he followed the
advice of Mr.. RAINEs and recovered in the
Cooperstown County Court Judgment for
the full value of his loss, but the defendant
having meanwhile moved to Kansas and be-
come a Populist the Judgment recovered
against him was worthless. But, adds our
correspondent: ~ insist that no lawyer in
the land could have given me better advice
than JOHN RAINEs did, and no man or men
can make me believe that in his knowledge
Of Jurisprudence RAINEs is not we'll worlhy
to rank with the greatest"
The popular objection to JOHN RAINEs as
lawmaker for the six million or more peo-
pie of New York. arises from an exploit or
escapade of his In the field of jurisprudence,
which was one Of the diverting features Of
| the political contest of 1895. 1t was RAINEs
| who was intrusted by his Republican asso-
| ciates in the Legislature with the construc-
| ton of the Ballot law of 1895. 1t was called
the RAINEs bill, and it proved. when put to
a practical test, to be, in the expressive
phraseology of the east side of this city,
full of pipes" That is, it was full of
errors, the errors of ignorance, the errors of
foolishness, and the errors of inexperience.
Such was the ambiguity of the RAINEs
law that some $4,000 voters of the State
were totally deprived of their rights of
franchise. In this city, the sections
regulating party nominations were so in
definite and uncertain that the people of
| New York, at an expense of many thousands
Of dollars, were compelled to pay for the
| printing of two complete sets OF tickets
and, finally, the opinion of the General
Term of the Supreme Court was necessary
to explain what RAINEs meant by his pro
visions. In Brooklyn there were similar
troubles; several cases arising from the
| ambiguity OF the RAINEs bill and the indefi.
niteness of the provisions. engaged the at
| tention Of the courts. In the Chautauqua
| county Senate district no Democratic caHdi-
date could be nominated under the terms OF
this extraordinary bill. When in the city
of New York, in the PAGE-O'SULLIvAN con,
test, Judge ISGRAHAM was appealed to to cor,
rect some manifest errors In the canvass
the alarming and surprising discovery was
made that RAINEs, through error or mad
vertence, had failed to provide any remedy
for the technical blunders, however fragrant
of the election officers; and the former
power of the county canvassers had becI
taken away from them, 30 that they could
make no corrections. Even the courts could
furnish no relief. These were but few OF
the errors and blunders of RAINEs. though
the bill he devised for the regulation of the
balloting in New York takes up seventy
four pages of printed matter and includes
about $4,000 words.
With this experience still fresh in the
public mind. Mr. RAISEs reappears from
the borders of the Lake of Canandaigua Il
devise and prepare for the citizens o.
New York an Excise bill. Our correspond
eht at Schenevus. II diligent newspaper