The circumlocution and diffuseness of law papers--the apparent
redundancy of terms, and multiplicity of synonymes, which may be found
on all judicial proceedings, are happily hit off in the following, which
we copy from _Jenk's New York Evening Journal_:--
"A LAWYER'S STORY.--Tom strikes Dick over the shoulders with a rattan as
big as your little finger. A lawyer would tell you the story something
in this way:--And that, whereas the said Thomas, at the said Providence,
in the year and day aforesaid, in and upon the body of the said Richard,
in the peace of God and the State, then and there being, did make a most
violent assault and inflicted a great many and divers blows, kicks,
cuffs, thumps, bumps, contusions, gashes, wounds, hurts, damages, and
injuries, in and upon the head, neck, breast, stomach, lips, knees,
shins, and heels of the said Richard, with divers sticks, staves, canes,
poles, clubs, logs of wood, stones, guns, dirks, swords, daggers,
pistols, cutlasses, bludgeons, blunderbusses, and boarding pikes, then
and there held in the hands, fists, claws, and clutches of him the said
Thomas."
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