The Wichita Daily Eagle

OVER A SMALL MATTER.
Lawyers Quibble Over the Meaning of a Word.

There was a hearing in the probate court yesterday that attracted a good deal of interest. Johanna Dwyer had put in a claim against the estate of Charles Williams for board nursing and money advanced to the amount of $200. W. G. Bainsworth, the administrator of the estate refused to allow the claims and Johanna Dwyer was trying to prove that she was entitled to that amount of money.

S. B. Amidon and J. W. Adams were doing the talking for the parties to the suit and they did it to perfection. Their eloquence resounded through the hall in front of the probate court room and the echo startled the officials in the city court up stairs. They expected a large amount of lung force to enlighten Judge Wilson as to whether 'offset and setoff' meant the same thing.

Mr. Amidon's researches in literature and his interviews with distinguished lexicographers led him to believe that the two words had the same meaning and that it made not a particle of difference whether you wrote the set before the off or the off before the set.

John Adams after rubbing his brow and expounding his lungs declared that there was a difference. The crowd was gathered from his remarks that setoff was property or money set apart for a special purpose and an offset was a counter claim rated in court and then the crowd began to file out, one or two at a time to hunt for a dictionary.

Judge Wilson decided the point at once without attempting to legally define the two words.