The record-union., 1897-07-05
A DANGEROUS WEAPON.
How a Long Island Justice Defined
the Folding Bed.

The recent casualties which led the
Tribune to comment on the fact that
the folding bed is a dangerous weapon
recalls the famous decision of Justice
Terry of Hauphaug, Long Island,
which fixed forever the legal status
of that modern contrivance, which is
said to have been invented by some
man to wreak revenge on life inSur-
ance companies. This decision is not
so we'll knewn as it deserves to be,
for, owing to the primitive methods
that prevail in Justice Terry's court, it
has never been properly spread upon
the records.
Hauphaug pronounced hophog) is
quiet little country village enjoying in
the present day most of the convenien-
ces of last century Four-ffths of the
inhabitants bear the patronymic Ter
ry a fact which will become evident,
as the story proceeds, and which, it is
hoped, will not prove confusing. Roger
Terry-no relation of the Justice-had
just returned from college, and he
brought with him a folding bed. 1t
was the first ever introduced into the
village of Hauphaug, and that conser-
vative community viewed the innova-
ton with grave suspicion The fact
that few of the people had ever seen
it, and that the name conveyed only
vague notion of what it was, did not
tend to alleviate this prejudice. Roger
Terry was not popular. Going to col
lege was a step which the village did
not approve, but the bringing home ola
folding bed was too much for the in
habitants, particularly the women, to
stand
L can't understand what his mother
means" said Mrs Scudder Terry,
whose relationship to the two other
Terrys was too complicated to be rep
resented by genealogical chart. How
can one keep a decent amount Of in
sect powder in a thing which h'ists up
and lets down that way? Why. there
won't even be enough Of him left to
give a decent burial to-"
She stated the feminine prejudice ex-
actly. She was, of course, understood
to refer to the activity of the Cimex
Iectularius, one of the dramatis per-
sonae of this story, whose name was
not Terry. though he doubtless had
much of the Terry blood in him, and
who is only introduced under the de-
cent veil of a dead language"
Just as Mrs. Scudder Terry predicted,
they moved rapidly to crisis. One
night when the parents of Roger were
away there came wild screams and
yells from his house, which alarmed
the entire village. Constable Billoscar
Terry, in whose pormanteau name the
virtue of two grandparents were cele-
brated, arrived on the scene early,
IL oh
der, at least, was being done. He broke
into the house, and, as he told his story
in Justice Terry's court the next day:
Il found young Roger in that new
contrivance of his'n, his head sticking
out and his feet folded up behind the
back of his neck. It was shut up that
way. He was yelling like mad. The
minute [ got my eyes on it L knew
it was that folding bed.
Let me out says he.
whats the matter?' says I. Ain't
it folded all right"
With that he kept the recording
angel busy for five minutes putting
ditto marks under some cuss words.
1t seems they don't fold up them beds,
only when they're not in 'em. Well,
we got him out and 1 put him in the
neighborhood, which he certainly did,
Judge
Roger explained that he intended no
breach of the peace when he got into
that bed, but that he merely wished to
go to sleep. 1t had shut up on him
by chance, and there was nothing for
him to do but shout for help.
The Justice saw the force of this
statement, but he also knew that the
sentiment of the community demanded
some punishment for the introducer of
folding beds. He did not hesitate long
for a legal principle.
1.-THE prisoners plea of self-defense
excuses the yelling and swearing he
said, ''but even self defense does not
permit a man to carry whole arsenal
of deadly weapons. This here folding
bed. by all accounts, is like one of
them sword-canes. It's sham. It's
real use is hidden. It's a bed sailing
under false pretenses of being an escri-
tory. so to speak BY all accounts, too,
it is dangerous. I therefore fine the
prisoner so for having a concealed
weapon about him; for at the time of
the arrest he did have it about him, by
the testimony of the Constable and the
admission of the prisoner himself. -
New York Tribune.