While I am writing to you in this strain, I may as well give you a little further information concerning what you may, and what you may not, carry as personal baggage; though doubtless you will soon forget all that I say, or if not,—at all events,—will not heed it, such is the forgetfulness and perverseness of that sex whose love, as Prince Charles Edward said, “is writ on water, whose faith is traced on sand.”
Besides what I have already mentioned, if you are a sportsman you may take a gun, if a disciple of the gentle Izaak Walton, the necessary instrumenta bella;[687] if you are a joiner—I don’t mean a parson—you may take a reasonable amount of tools with your clothes,[2] although perhaps you can’t;[3] for in Pennsylvania a carpenter was permitted to carry a reasonable amount of his tools with him,[688] while in Ontario a brother of the same craft was not;[689] the judge thinking that a blacksmith might just as reasonably expect to carry his forge, or a farmer his plough, as part of his baggage. You may take new clothing and materials for yourself and family, though not for others;[690] if you are of a nervous disposition and desire to defend yourself against thieves and robbers, you may take a pocket pistol,—don’t suppose I mean a brandy flask,—if you are a bellicose man of honor a couple of duelling pistols will be allowed,[691] or even a gun,[692] although in Maryland, one was not allowed to take a colt.[693] A theatre goer may take an opera glass;[694] a student on his way to college, manuscripts necessary for the prosecution of his studies;[695] but an artist cannot carry his pencil sketches as luggage in England;[696] although Cockburn, C. J., thought he could, and his easel as well.[697] J. Wilson, in a Canadian case, thought that one musically inclined might take a concertina, or a flute, or that instrument in the playing of which a western writer says “the resined hair of the noble horse travels merrily over the intestines of the agile cat;”[698] but fortunately for mankind in general the majority of the court held otherwise.
You cannot carry merchandise, either in England,[699] the United States,[700] or the Dominion of Canada,[701] unless, indeed, it is carried openly, or so packed that the carrier can see what it is and does not object to it; nor samples, if you belong to the confraternity of commercial travellers;[702] nor can a banker take money as such;[703] nor can one carry silver spoons, nor surgical instruments, unless he is a disciple of Galen and Hippocrates;[704] nor boxes of jewelry for sale;[705] nor silver-ware;[706] nor the regalia and jewels of a society;[707] nor a sewing-machine;[708] and it is beyond a peradventure that if a carrier accepts a trunk, or baggage, containing such tabooed articles, without knowledge of such contents, he incurs no liability.[705] If he is deceived into taking it, he is not bound to carry it safely.[709]
But really, my dear, I must draw these remarks to a close, as the parsons say in their sermons. You cannot complain that this letter is too short. There are several items of news—of babies born, brides be-wed, bodies buried,—and such like trivialities, of which I might have told you; but as you spoke about your losses I concluded that I would send you an instructive note, and let vain trifles rest quiescent until your return.
Though you may think that this epistle smacks somewhat of business, yet please reflect that you are my sleeping partner, and spend the greater portion of the profits of my office, and so ’tis becoming that you should be slightly acquainted with legal matters, especially as you are the daughter of my mother-in-law.
Adu! adu! O reservoir!
Your
Spanish Grandee.
FOOTNOTES:
[649] Stuart v. Crawley, 2 Stark, 324.
[650] Richardson v. Northeastern Rw., L. R., 7 C. P. 75, note.