“But supposing one pays his bills and goes off expecting to have his traps sent after him immediately to the station?” questioned a new interrogator.
“Mrs. Clark went to ‘The Exchange Hotel’ in Atlanta, with eight trunks; on leaving, the porter of the inn took charge of the baggage, promising to deliver it for her at the cars. He lost two of the pieces, and it was held that the liability of the hotel-keeper continued until such delivery was actually made.[140] On the same principle that when an innkeeper sends his porter to the cars to receive the baggage of intending guests, he is responsible until it is actually re-delivered into the custody of the guests. And where a man paid his bill for the whole day and went off, leaving his trunk, with twenty cents for porterage, to be sent to the boat, the innkeeper was held liable until the baggage was actually put on board.[141] The liability for baggage left with an innkeeper with his consent, continues for a reasonable time after the settlement of the bill, and even after a reasonable time he is responsible for gross negligence.[142] Where a visitor had actual notice that the landlord would not be responsible for valuables unless put under his care, and on preparing to depart gave a trunk containing precious goods into the care of the servants and it was lost, yet the innkeeper was held liable.[143] So, also, where valuables were stolen from a trunk after the guest had packed it, locked his room, and given notice of his departure, and delivered the key of his room to the clerk to have the trunk brought down.[144] What is all that row about?”
Weary of the conversation, and being attracted by some rather loud conversation in another part of the room, I walked off to see what it was all about, and soon found that it was anent a young lady’s age.
“I bet you she is—” began one of the disputants.
“Stop!” I cried, “that is not a proper wager.”
“Begad! what do you mean, sir?” was queried in tones not the mildest.
“Simply that where a wager concerns the person of another, no action can be maintained upon it. As Buller, J., once remarked, a bet on a lady’s age, or whether she has a mole on her face, is void. No person has a right to make it a subject of discussion in a court of justice, whether she passes herself in the world to be more in the bloom of youth than she really is, or whether what is apparent to every one who sees her, is a mole or a wart; although a lady cannot bring an action against a man for saying she is thirty-three when she passes for only twenty-three, nor for saying she has a wart on her face. Nor will the courts try a wager as to whether a young lady squints with her right eye or with her left.[145] And Lord Mansfield came to very much the same conclusion in discussing the law in a celebrated wager case concerning the gender of a certain individual,[146] because, as his lordship remarked, actions on such wagers would disturb the peace of individuals and society.”
“Confound it, the fellow seems to have swallowed a law library,” muttered one man; while another said,
“But surely many wagers equally as absurd have been sued on in courts of law with success.”
“There is no doubt of that,” I replied. “It was done upon a bet of ‘six to four that Bob Booby would win the plate at the New Lichfield races;’[147] also, upon a wager of a ‘rump and dozen’ whether one of the betters were older than the other.[148] In the latter case the C. J. modestly said that he did not judicially know what a ‘rump and dozen’ meant; but another judge more candidly remarked that privately he knew that it meant a good dinner and wine. And a bet as to whose father would die first was held good, although one old man was defunct at the time, the fact not being known to the parties.[149] But Lord Ellenborough refused to try an action on a wager on a cock-fight.”[150]