The Judge and the Rash Act


  A JUDGE who had for years looked in vain for an opportunity for 
infamous distinction, but whom no litigant thought worth bribing, 
sat one day upon the Bench, lamenting his hard lot, and threatening 
to put an end to his life if business did not improve.  Suddenly he 
found himself confronted by a dreadful figure clad in a shroud, 
whose pallor and stony eyes smote him with a horrible apprehension.

  "Who are you," he faltered, "and why do you come here?"

  "I am the Rash Act," was the sepulchral reply; "you may commit me."

  "No," the judge said, thoughtfully, "no, that would be quite 
irregular.  I do not sit to-day as a committing magistrate."