ile he has still the
right of appeal to a higher tribunal, and while that appeal is pending.
After months and sometimes years of punishment his case is reached in the
appellate court, his appeal found valid and a new trial granted, resulting
in his acquittal. He has been imprisoned for a crime of which he is
eventually declared not to have been properly convicted. But he has no
redress; he is simply set free to bear through all his after life the
stain of dishonor and nourish an ineffectual resentment. Imagine the storm
of popular indignation that would be evoked in America by an instance of
so foul injustice!

* * * * *

In the great public square of Itsami, the capital of Tortirra, stands a
golden statue of Estari-Kumpro, a famous judge of the Civil Court.[2] This
great man was celebrated throughout the kingdom for the wisdom and justice
of his decisions and the virtues of his private life. So profound were the
veneration in which he was held and the awe that his presence inspired,
that none of the advocates in his court ever ventured to address him
except in formal pleas: all motions, objections, and so forth, were
addressed to the clerk and by him disposed of without dissent: the silence
of the judge, who never was heard to utter a word, was understood as
sanctioning the acts of his subordinate. For thirty years, promptly at
sunrise, the great hall of justice was thrown open, disclosing the judge
seated on a loftly dais beneath a black canopy, partly in shadow, and
quite inaccessible. At sunset all proceedings for the day terminated,
everyone left the hall and the portal closed. The decisions of this august
and learned jurist were always read aloud by the clerk, and a copy
supplied to the counsel on each side. They were brief, clear and
remarkable, not only for their unimpeachable justice, but for their
conformity to the fundamental principles of law. Not one of them was ever
set aside, and during the last fifteen years of the great judge's service
no litigant ever took an appeal, although none ever ventured before that
infallible tribunal unless conscientiously persuaded that his cause was
just.

[2] Klikat um Delu Ovwi.

One day it happened during the progress of an important trial that a sharp
shock of earthquake occurred, throwing the whole assembly into confusion.
When order had been restored a cry of horror and dismay burst from the
multitude--the judge's head lay flatten