Durango semi-weekly herald., 1907-07-22
AN OLD TIME LAW SUIT.

Among the Inscriptions of old Ni'-
pur. which had perished and been for
gotten ages before Abraham was born.
are many which, recently deciphere1 ,
throw interesting side lights on the
life Of society forty to fifty centuries
2Po. There are records of taxes paid
m wheat and barley; of contributions
made for the benefit of the temple and
of those who served therein, sacks of
grain for the priests. crooks of honey
for the temple singers, sheep, goats,
and kids for those who served at the
affairs, the names of those who con
tributed, the nature and purpose of
the contribution are all set down with
a particularly which shows not only
the exactnes of the bookkeeping of
those early days, but the honesty Of
dealing between man and man at n
time when money was scarce and near
y all business was transacted in kind
Among these venerable records.
there is one which for MS has Pc
culiar interest, containing as II does a
detailed account of n law suit over
fifty centuries ago. The story Is long,
for the case was evidently deemed i'm
portant. Perhaps 1t furnished prece-
dent for other cases of similar kind.
but divested Of its legal verblage and
leaving out the long names. of which
the men of that day were evidently
fond. II amounts to this.
al, -,
farm. After the agricultural year was
over, there was no work for the OK,
so he hired the animal to a neighbor
who wanted to haul reeds. While thus
engaged, the beast stepped into a
hole. broke its leg, was killed and the
carcass partly eaten and partly sold
by the man who hired the animal.
Spring came on and the OK owner de-
manded the return of his beast with
the remainder of the hire, and was
Informed OF the fate of the animal.
After repeated attempts to secure =
dress. he finally sued the man who
had hired the OK, demanding not only
the value OF the OK and beef but the
value of the crop he would have made
with the assistance of the OK. The
case was appealed from one priestly
court to another and finally came be-
fore the supreme court of that dag
which decided the hirer was not Liable
for the accident to the OK, for th' )
was the act of the gods. He was
partly to blame for his disposition OF
! hs As hat q
the weather was hot, the flesh would
not keep and there was no time 10
notify the owner to come and get the
meat. 1t as therefore, adjudged by the
court that he should pay for the hide,
bones and horns, also for that por'
tion of the flesh he had sold and re
imburse the owner for the last crop
As a picture Of civilization in ita
early stages. the sketch is inimitable
for 1t shows not only that human ma
ture was essentially the same then as
now, but also that the conditions ol
| society have not changed SO greatly
"A, We are prone to imagine. This law
suit between men who have beer
| buried for fiye thousand years, teaches
us that from at least that day until
the present, the small difficulties be
tween man and man have ever en-
crossed too large share of our time
and attention. that the little quarreli
about little things have filled too larg,
a share OF our thoughts. This John
son county calf case OF the olden da,
may have been as celebrated in tina
time as the historic suit has been II
the state of Missouri and In Its be
ginnings II may have been of no mor'
commemorative