The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1921-08-09
POETIC PETITION
GETS SAME REPLY

4 poetic" reply 10 the poetic pc
tition for rehearing in the case OF
w. f. Edwards against the city oil
Reno, wherein Edwards was unsuc-
cesful in his attack on the 1920 city
paving contract and his efforts to
prevent an execution through the me-
dinm of an injunction, has been filed
in the supreme court by Judge Cole
l.. Harwood, attorney for the con-
tractor. and Leroy F. Pike, city at
torney. says the Gazette. Several
months ago the supreme court dis
missed Edwards appeal and 1t is on
this action that the latter seeks re-
hearing. In the petition for the re-
hearing the suggestion is made that
the court function" and much stress
Ia laid on this in the reply. BY way
of Introduction, respondents reply
reads as follows:
THE petition for rehearing In this
case Is a very unusual document. I'm
usual in the pithiness of its language
unusual in the poetry of its phrases,
unusual in the piquency of the au-
thor's vocabulary and unusual in the
audacity of the statements made in IL
I'VE propose to apply to this I'M
usual document. rather superheated
and perfervid with the rhetoric of Its
author. the soothing remedy of logic
and fact When thus treated we be
IN Fnt nhasa q
which bristles and threatens with
sharp and dangerous thorns. will have
become harmless and may be touched
and handled without injury. After we
have done that, then perhaps We will
try our hand at a little rhetoric on
our own account"
Thus endeth the first lesson. And
| the respondents then devote few
pages TO the law and the fact In
commenting on the language used by
Attorney Tilden in the petition. the
reply sets out:
I'VE do not take too seriously the
| appellants demands that this court
| function. The court has functioned
and the only difference is that 1t has
functioned in a manner unsatisfactory
to the appellant. Counsel character
ICES the propositions which he finally
enumerates as 'esoteric' 1t is a good
word with a long history and with
various shades of meaning. II APP
| appears to have been taken directly
| from the Greek and meant primarily
| inner.
1T was applied to the philosophy
of Aristotle and pythagoras. and par
tieularly when their dogmas were dis
cussed with their nfore advanced pu-
! pills. and hence the word came to be
| applied to propositions or ideas only
understood among the initiated those
on the inside; the Inference beinp
that the common herd and those on
The outside could not and would moi
understand the fine philosophy and
the attenuated theories of the unin
itiated They were too profound. We
are willing to leave this phase where
we found II and let counsel make
what he can out of IL. except that the
whole tone of this unusual petition
| for rehearing is supercilious and Dor
ders on the contemptnous. If indeed
1t Is not actually contemptuous, OF
this court.
so that our first thought in con
nection with counsels use OF this
word was that he sought to leave the
inference that the members of this
court are not of the inner circle. not
of the initiated. not capable of under
standing esoterie or profound ques-
tons of law and not capable of under
standing the question which they at
tempt to decide. The court will draw
its own inference and govern itself
as it sees fit. Such it is to be In the
supreme court Of the state of Ne
vada."