be recovered in a proper action. To raise a club over the
head of another and threaten to strike if he speaks, would be an
assault. "Absence of intent," says Burdick, "on the part of the
defendant to put the plaintiff in fear of bodily harm, is pertinent to
the defense that the injury was accidental, or due to a practical
joke."

A battery, as distinguished from an assault, is the inflicting of
actual violence on a person, though the degree of violence is
immaterial. The least touching of another in anger, or as a
trespasser, is a battery. Forcibly cutting the hair of a person
without legal authority, or injuring the clothing on a person, or
snatching an article from his hand, or cutting a rope or belt attached
to him, or striking a horse on which one is riding, or that is
attached to his carriage, or overturning a chair in which he is
seated, is a battery; likewise, if the assailant throws a stone or
missile which hits the other, or spits in his face.

There may be a justifiable assault, the law has long recognized this.
A public officer is justified in using force in performing his duty,
so is a private individual in defending himself, his family or his
property, or in enforcing lawful discipline at home, in school, on
board a ship, or other public conveyance, or in restraining one
mentally or physically incapacitated.

Another injury for which the law furnishes redress is that affecting
reputation and character. It is true that the damages one may recover,
however great, may be an inadequate redress, yet it is the best the
law can do. The party injured by a libel or slander brings his action
and wins his victory over his enemy, yet the battlefield remains and
the scar of the wound inflicted. The issue in an action for defamation
is not the character of the plaintiff, but the wrongfulness of the
particular statement. Therefore "it is not a defense to a libel or
slander that the plaintiff has been guilty of offenses other than
those imputed to him, or of offenses of a similar character; and such
facts are not competent in mitigation of damages."

As the gist of the tort consists of the injury done to one's
reputation, the defamatory statement must have been published. A
person has no cause of action against another for defamatory words
spoken to him; they must have been heard by a third person. The
plaintiff may make out a case by showing that the libel was contained
on the back of a postal card, or by other evide