The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1946-01-25

this week-not worth thinking
about much less writing about.
We haven't seen any interesting
dogs. chickens or other animals
either, recently. The L.. and N.
Railroad is still right there where
she always was, but nothing new
or original comes to mind to
write a column about. So we
| 1ave scraped around through the
rumpled scraps of paper in old
pockets, desk drawers, etc, etc,
which constitute u filing sys-
lem TOT this column, and il looks
as though we shall turn up this
week with an odds-and-ends pro-
| iuction.
The first annecdote we hap
pened TO dig out of a back pocket
| was noted down on a piece of
paper in a single phrase-"the
| seetle-chewer.' We put that
down there to remind us of a
conversation we had recently
with a young friend of ours who
IS now engaged in his first year
f law practice. He told us some
thing about a beetle-chewer which
seemed to us a curious footnote
On the legal profession, and worth
remembering.
Those of our readers who have
travelled in the orient or who
ave read romantic novels about
the Far East, the Malay peninsu-
Ia, the rubber plantations and
so forth, probably think We have
the native chewers of the red
dish-nut in mind. The native
beetle-nut chewers r always
turning up in such stories, old men
or old women with teeth black
ened by long years of b~eetle-nut
chewing etc. Probably nine
tenths of the authors who put
these figures in their stories
wouldn't know a beetle-nut
cheWer if they saw one
No. we are not talking about
the quaint customs of the ORR
emf. We are talking about a
native born Mississippi beetle
chewer. Sometimes he chews
mice. Or unidentified foreign
bodies" which Inadvertently
find their way into sardine
cans. sodawater bottles. res
taurant blue-plafe specials. and
the like.
We were talking to the young
lawyer about the experiences OF
the first months of law practice,
and particularly about the diff
ferences between classroom
theory and the actual problems
and cases that constitute the ma
ior part of a Mississippi law
yer's practice. Mostly he had
been doing the hum-drum work
that falls to a new man in a law
office, checking titles and the
like, and all of it was more
simple and more commonplace
then his recent case-book stud
les in the university. But finally
one ease had fallen to his lot
which put him on familiar
ground--it was to defend a cam
ming company which was being
accused by some citizen of hav-
ing negligently, earelessly, heed
lessly. specifically, illegally,
intransigently, conspiratorily,
transgressively, and in violation
of the statutes of Mississippi and
the Constitution of the United
States, placed OF caused to be
placed, put or caused to be put,
inserted or caused to be insert
ed. one foreign obstacle, to wit,
a substance unidentified, in a
can of sardines. The burden OF
the suit, we take it, is that the
foreign body did not belong there,
and that its presence constituted
a tort, a damage, and a denial
of the Four Freedoms to the
eitizen-purchaser and consumer
of the product.
AT last" our young friend
told us, Il find myself on fami-
liar ground. In the university
we learned all manner of curious
cases. actual and hypothetical,
and | thought when l came out
that | would never be able to
practice at the law unless
which was very unlikely-an un-
broken service of similar litiga-
tons would come my way, in
volving mice in soda-water bot
ties. horse-shoes in bon-bon
boxes and so forth. When l
found myself called upon in
stead to check a few titles and
write a will or two. | feared for
a while that | might not mea-
sure up to the requirements of
the practice of law in Mississippi.
But now that the suit of the
foreign obstacle in the Sardine
can has come my way, | feel
that perhaps things will be all
right in the long run
And If wor comes 10
worse" he said. Il may find
il necessary TO use the beetle
chewer."
The beetle ehewer? we
asked. How does such a char
acter figure into the practice
of law in Mississippi"