MODEL-HUNTING.
Ocra law-courts furnish illustrations of manners which will amaze posterity, and may even amuse contemporaneity. Inter &list, one of the most entertaining is the finikin forbearance of the law-. It borrows the spirit of its practice from the chase in which ample "law" is given to the object of pursuit. The Chase of a debtor is to be reckoned among our manly sports. It is an unfail- ing ingredient in the drama ; and though we may think it obso- lete, still recurs in the farce of real life. A motion for a new trial in the Court of Exchequer has disclosed a ludicrous case of the sort at Liverpool. "Professor" Keller, the importer of "poses plastiques," had obtained an advance of? money, which he was to repay out of his receipts ; and it is alleged that he did not repay. He was assumed to be on the eve of leaving the country ; a writ ne exeat was obtained, a bailiff was put in requisition ; and Mr. Keller was pursued to Liverpool, where he was performing at the Zoological Gardens—the Vauxhall of Liverpool. The Professor personates divers illustrious antiques, and wears a beard. This was a distinctive mark for the plaintiff; he watched at the en- trance with the bailiff: out comes a gentleman wrapped in cloak, with a lady and a child : the lady is Mrs. Keller, the gen- tleman wears a beard : the plaintiff points him out to the officer, saying, "That is the man," and the cloaked dignitary is seized. The lady is in great emotion ; she intercedes with the inexorable bailiff; the little Astyanax is held up to the paternal beard for a farewell kiss ; the Hector is torn from his Andromache, and taken to a house; and lo 1 here it is discovered that the captive is not Mr. Keller, but only "Joe," the Professor's man, endued for the nonce with a simulated beard. The Professor had been literally bearding the law.
On another night the attempt is repeated : a bearded man, coming more secretly from the Gardens, is torn from the agonized arms of Mrs. Keller ; but again the bailiff is deluded 1
It is remarkable that Mr. Keller thus appeared before the pub- lic, braved the very eye of notoriety, and yet evaded the law. The indignant creditor proceeds against the Sheriff, and obtains damages. But the defence is, that the bailiff was justified in not attempting a seizure on the stage, because of divers credible ru- mours concerning trap-doors, dark holes, organized riots, and the like. The constitution of England does not endow the Sheriff with sufficient powers to execute the law : he cannot have a force sufficient to overawe scene-shifters; there is no penalty against man-traps for bailiffs! Even if there were no other reason for not going on the stage to seize the debtor, the law abhors any- thing so direct : if proceedings were shortened in that style, what would become of the ' expenses"? Besides, there is the fun of the thing. Mr. Keller truly vindicates his title as professor of the "poses plastiques ": the machinery of the law is plastic to his art ; the sheriff and his myrmidons are effectually posed. The most striking in his series of groupes is the last—" limn and the false Juno."
Previous page
