A COSTLY DODGE
Reading edition
The town of M—— in Pennsylvania had just elected a new Justice of the Peace. He was, of course, a Pennsylvania German, and the first cause that came before him for adjudication was a peculiar one. A man had attempted to shoot another man in the street of the business part of the town, but the man that was shot at dodged, and the bullet smashed a plate-glass window in a store. The owner of the store sued the man with the gun for damages, but the Justice, after hearing the evidence, decided that the man that was shot at and dodged the bullet must pay, “because,” said he, “don’t you see, if that man hadn’t dodged, the window wouldn’t have been broken.”