The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-14

and many and many litigant beggard
himself and his family in lawyers fees.
OF this side of the case there could be no
better description than Dickens gave when
he held the controversy up to ridicule in
BLEAK House. "Jarndyce and Jarndyce
drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has,
in course of time, become so complicated
that no man alive knows what it means.
The parties to it understand it least. but
it has been observed that no two Chancery
lawyers can talk about it for five minutes
without coming to a total disagreement
to all the premises Innumerable chill
dren have been born into the cause; in
Vulnerable young persons have married
into it; innumerable old people have died
out of it. Scores of people have deliriously
found themselves made parties in Jarn-
dyce and Jarndyce without knowing how or
why; whole families have inherited legend
airy hatreds with the suit. The little
plaintiff or defendant who was promised
new rocking horse when Jarndyce and
Jarndyce should be settled has grown up,
possessed himself of a real horse and
trotted away Fair wards of court have
faded into mothers and grandmothers; a
long procession of chancellors has come in
and gone out; there are not three Jarn-
dyces left upon the earth, perhaps, since
old Tom Jarndyce in despair blew his brains
out in a coffee house in Chancery lane;
but Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its
weary length before the court, perennial
ly hopeless"
ENGAGED IN FRAUDS.
AS the suit went on the folk who were
fighting 1T grew less and less scrupulous.
Old parchment records were mutilated to
make them lie, entries were erased or in
serted in the registers Of BIRTH marriages
and deaths. One claimant was accused of
altering the original genealogical tree
of the Jennings by grating there
to an alien infant branch. others were
believed TO have changed inscriptions on
the tombstones-there was even a report
that the original name plates were removed
from collins and false ones substituted.
Earl Howe, whose position Mr.. jennings
of Montreal, is preparing to dispute, has re-
ceived letters every few days since he came
into the property from folk who believe
they should be in his place. Enough "evi-
dence" to fill wheelbarrow has been sent
to his lordship-all bearing the senders'
claims to his estate. Says the earl: "Peo-
pie all over the country seem to have an
idea that they are entitled to nibble at my
property
However, it can be said to the noble
himself as being in no fear of being ousted
pretentions as being pathetic rather than
absurd, and not only reads all the letters
sent him but keeps them.
Of
David Jennings. there were said to be about
thirty-eight Jennings claimants who not
only were devoting all their spare time and
money to tracing their descent" back to
the old ironfounder, but who meant to
have a tussle with Earl Howe in court just
as soon as possible.
These claimants are mostly common
place enough. with, perhaps. one excep
ton. He is a railway guard and is one
of those who, as Dickens says. married
into the Jennings case. His wife. in fact,
is a granddaughter of one of the chief
claimants. For nine years now this railroad
man has practically devoted his life to
proving his wife entitled to the lions share
of old Williara Jennings property, and that
he really has the shadow of case Is shown
by the fact that Earl Howe's attorneys
gave him an interview a while ago. and
after seeing his laboriously gathered proofs
admitted that his wife was "a bit of
cousin" but advised him not to trouble
the earl about IL.
An exasperating part of the railway
mans case is that the train on which he is
guard" past Earl Howe's Leices-
tershire estate-a rich slice Of the Jennings
property-which this humble claimant
ruefully says, Tin n manner of speaking
ought to belong to US"