Straw Bail

Nominal or worthless bail. Professional sureties, so called, it is said, from an ancient custom of such persons of wearing a straw about their clothing, that they might be known to one in search of bail. Common bail {q. v.)

A nominal or worthless surety; a person who frequents the neighborhood of law courts for the purpose of becoming bail for a consideration. So called because they formerly wore straw in their shoes as a sign of their occupation.

A nominal or worthless person as a surety. A person who frequents the neighborhood of law-courts ready to be bail for any one on the payment of a fee. Formerly such persons wore straw in their shoes as a sign of their occupation.-'' " We have all h^eard of a race of men who used in former 5ays to ply about our own courts of law, and -who, from their manner of making known their occupatiW, were recognized by the name of ' straw shoes.' An advocate or lawyer who wanted a conveoient witness knew by these signs where to meet with one, and the colloquy between the parties was brief. ' Don't you remember.. ? ' said the advocate. ' To be sure I do,' was the reply. ' Then come into the court and swear it.' " < " During the process by which the English original writ of summons was gradually falling into disuse and the capias becoming in fact the first process, bail underwent a corresponding change. Originally, when the capias was a real arrest, the bail were two men of substance who bound themselves for the dfefendant's future appeai-ance and obedience. By Blackstone's time common bail had degenerated to the two legal men-of-all-work

— John Doe and Richard Roe. But there was an intermediate stage when the bail were required to be men of flesh and blood — money being of no consequence. Hence it became a regular profession to stand about the courts with straw in the shoes, signifying willingness to go any one's bail for a consideration. These were 'men of straw,' and the bail thus put in was ' straw bail.' " *