Year: 1877



 A YANKEE TYPE OF LITIGATION.

 This old town, and the places about it, in the heart of Yankee land, show us many types of men that have the obsti- nate grit that seems to come by direct de- scent from the old Puritan stock. I hap pened few days ago to drop upon such 8 one in our old county courtroom, once graced by the 'digniied presence of such pillars of the law as Gould, Reeve, Ells- worth and Church. Here there was on trial and had been pending for some time a suit at law for the sum of forty-three dollars. The defendant was well-to-do farmer, with sharp, bronzed face and hor- ny hands. He was clothed in a venera. ble blue coat garnished with the bright est of brass buttons, and his legs ended bluntly in pair of huge cowhide boots of patriarchial and infexible cast. He was the owner of a sawmill, and had agreed to sell it to poor and rather ir- responsible person, who in turn had with the owners knowledge hired a carpenter to make repairs amounting to the sum above named. For some reason the bar gain had miscarried, and the carpenter had brought suit against the farmer as the responsible defendant. In equity and jus- tice the most obtuse of laymen would have said that the owner of the mill, hav- ing received the advantage of the repairs, should foot the bill. But the defendants back was up and stiffened. and so the case, loaded with lawyers fees and costs, had come up on appeal. The much legal ado about so trivial sum gave the case a touch of rich legal burlesque. The law yers, of whom one was of state reputation, piled up their bulky statute books, hag- gled with simulated fire, poured broad cast their streems of rhetoric and sarcasm, and in the most orthodox legal fashion sneered at the motives and acts of plain tiff or defendant; and when at last the case was decided by the judge against the defendant he came forward to his lawyers with 8 grim and obstinate air that must have gladdenei their souls with the assur- once of still another appeal and redupli- cated fees. -.az -s.

 TWO EPISODES OF THE TRAMP PROBLEM,

 The tramp problem and the hard times have visited us lately with one or two of their oldest and saddest aspects. Some weeks ago. one afternoon, our chief land. lord, a rosy, round and cherublc body, with chronic inclination to daytime slumber, sat dreaming in his chair before one of the front windows of his inn, when he was rudely disturbed by the crash of glass within a few inches of his nose. Outside there was philosophic tramp who had hardened Q snowball to the con. sistency of ice and dashed it through the glass as an expedient for gaining Q few weeks lodging in our county jail-an 1n- stitution which has reputation for good fare that's goes far to soften its.constraints on life, liberty and the pursuit of hap. piness. A few days ago. also, one- armed tramp, but lately released from State Prison, visited the jail, and after asking the penalties of certaircrimes cool ly walked few rods and snatched the watch of one of our respected merchants. The malefactor made no attempt to es- cape but submitted cheerfully to impris- onment, aud is likely to visit the State Prison for two years, which understand is the lowest penalty for his offence. If incidents like these do not emphasize the hard times it will1e hard to find any. shing that does it.

 LOCAL ANNALS OF A RAILROAD. gs

 These hard times, too, have cast an ear- lY blight on local railroad enterprise, the history of which has such broad meaning in the period through which we are pass ing that it will bear repeating. About six years ago, when no speculation was too wild to command confidence, and. when our railroad system was expanding with morbid speed, Litchfield awakened to the belief that she was behind the age. Round about her were wealthy towns whose citizens were waxing prosperous on railroad facilities, while she slumbered on her hill four miles from railroad station. So our local magnates bestirred them