“Erastus, are you the defendant in this case?”
“No, Judge, I’s got a lawyer hired to do de defendin’. I’s de man dat stole de chickens.”
~ Philander Chase Johnson
“Everybody’s Magazine”, The Colyumists’ Confessional, May, 1920, p. 36
Philander Chase Johnson called it “[t]he most enduring joke [he] ever wrote”.