Creighton University

Here is a dust-jacketed copy of the second impression of the first book in this series.  It is one of four found together now in 2020.  Before its twenty-four fables, this volume offers a table of cases cited and a one-line table of statutes.  Each story has an enjoyable newspaper-like caricature.  I read the first four and enjoyed them, though much of the vocabulary, both legal and colloquial, was beyond me.  In one case, a stand-in lawyer does not hear what he is supposed to do and so is silent, but his silence somehow wins him the case.  A similar second case has a nervous, inexperienced lawyer faint, and the defendant is so shocked that he begins to confess to any number of crimes.  The next defendant is an attractive, well dressed woman.  The inexperienced lawyer's speech on her behalf is long and incoherent, but she is acquitted immediately.  The final fable has a young lawyer chatting on a train with a "nice old buffer."  They get along wonderfully, and the young lawyer offers some critical opinions of a certain judge.  When the train arrives, there is a gathering there to meet . . . this judge!  There are twenty-three pages given to an index starting on 77.  The covers are heavy boards with titles pasted on.  The dust-jacket is in good condition with a good illustration of the first fable, described above: "The Common Law Leader and the Promising Equity Junior."

Here is a dust-jacketed copy of the one original book already in the collection.  It is a member of the series of four found together now in 2020.  Before its thirty fables, this volume offers a table of cases cited and a table of statutes.  Each story has an enjoyable newspaper-like caricature.  One can get a good sense of these stories, I believe, by trying the second and third of them.  In "The Industrious Youth and the Stout Stranger" (5), a con man looking like W.C. Fields hires the industrious youth and then borrows a sum of money from him.  Of course the industrious youth never sees him again.  In "Mr. Whitewig and the Rash Question" (9), the young Mr. Whitewig has established a very strong case when he asks one question too many of the Police Inspector, i.e., why he arrested the defendant.  That question produces the records of nine previous convictions.  There are twenty-six pages given to an index starting on 107.  The covers are heavy boards with titles pasted on.  The dust-jacket is in good condition with a good illustration of "The Emeritus Professor and the Police Court Brief."

Here is a dust-jacketed copy of the third book in this series.  It is one of four found together now in 2020.  Before its twenty-six fables, this volume offers a table of cases cited and a one-line table of statutes.  Each story has an enjoyable newspaper-like caricature.  I read the first three.  In the first, two "Athletic Templars" go off on vacation, so happy to be away from everything court-related.  They climb the "Dent du Chien" in Switzerland.  What do they discuss while they do their ascending and descending of these beautiful mountains?  The usual court stuff!  In the second, a judge has a great reputation for perfect judgments.  Had he been such a good lawyer?  Not really.  He had an usher in his courtroom who showed great sense.  The judge paid him to stop sleeping and to stop in and give his opinion before the judge made his decision.  In the third, three elderly jurists get back together after distinguished careers in various areas.  Do they talk their specialties?  Yes, for ten minutes.  Then they talk about good old times in the music halls and with the ladies!  There are nineteen pages given to an index starting on 97.  The covers are heavy boards with titles pasted on.  The dust-jacket is in poor-to-fair condition with a good illustration of the first fable, described above: "The Athletic Templars Who Climbed the Dent du Chien."

Here is a dust-jacketed copy of the fourth book in this series.  It is one of four found together now in 2020.  Before its thirty fables, this volume offers a table of cases cited and a one-line table of statutes.  Each story has an enjoyable newspaper-like caricature.  I read the first three.  The first is about a judge who despises the younger generation and all their new ways.  His ward of court asks him "to be a dear" and consent to her marrying Tommy the motorcar salesman.  He is so firm that he gives her a generous allowance, buys one of Tommy's cars, and agrees to give her away "at the Hymeneal Altar."  The second is about a cleaning woman who remembers signing a will as one of its witnesses.  After her affidavit is taken, she is so taken with her writing and speaking that she embarks on a literary career.  The third tells of a kindly judge who wants to interview a ward of the court before judging her case.  He has the child in in his chambers, asks if she would like to try his wig on her closely cropped head, and chats with her.  Only then does he read the affidavit, which tells that she has ringworm and has had to have her head shaved.  There are twenty-three pages given to an index starting on 93.  The covers are heavy boards with titles pasted on.  The dust-jacket is in poor-to-fair condition with a good illustration of the first fable, described above: "Miss Snaffleton (Infant) and the Old-Fashioned Judge."

This book relates to two others in the collection.  What I write here can surely be refined by those who know the series of books better.  A series began with "Forensic Fables" in 1926.  "Further Forensic Fables" appeared in 1928, and I have a copy of that.  "Final Forensic Fables" appeared in 1929, with a second series in 1932.  Then "Fifty Forensic Fables: A Selection" appeared in 1949.  I have a copy.  Finally "Forensic Fables: Complete Edition" came out in 1961.  This is that book, but just how it derives from the earlier four I cannot say.  It is not true, as I had hoped, that I could reconstruct parts of this book from the T of C for those two books already in the collection.  This book is 456 pages long and contains 110 fables numbered in the beginning T of C.  There seems to be a full-page illustration for each fable.  As I wrote of the earliest volume I have from the series, the book does for the legal profession in England what George Ade's fables do more broadly.  These are enjoyable tales with pleasing caricatures.  All the actors are humans.  What once was "Butterworth and Company" is now Butterworths.