"Oh, just a little bit," responded the defendant.
"Now," said the attorney, "for the benefit of the judge and the jury, you will please step down here and, with me for the subject, ill.u.s.trate just how hard you mean."
Owing to the unmerciful badgering which the witness had just been through, the prosecutor thought that the young man would perhaps overdo the matter to get back at him, and thus incriminate himself.
The defendant descended as per schedule, and approached the waiting attorney. When he reached him the spectators were astonished to see him slap the lawyer in the face, kick him in the shins, seize him bodily, and, finally, with a supreme effort, lift him from the floor and hurl him prostrate across a table.
Turning from the bewildered prosecutor, he faced the court and explained mildly:
"Your honor and gentlemen, about one-tenth that hard!"
An aged negro was crossing-tender at a spot where an express train made quick work of a buggy and its occupants. Naturally he was the chief witness, and the entire case hinged upon the energy with which he had displayed his warning signal.
A gruelling cross-examination left Rastus unshaken in this story: The night was dark, and he had waved his lantern frantically, but the driver of the carriage paid no attention to it.
Later, the division superintendent called the flagman to his office to compliment him on the steadfastness with which he stuck to his story.
"You did wonderfully, Rastus," he said. "I was afraid at first you might waver in your testimony."
"Nossir, nossir," Rastus exclaimed, "but I done feared ev"ry minute that "ere durn lawyer was gwine ter ask me if mah lantern was lit."--_Puck_.
During a suit to recover damages following an automobile collision in the Adirondacks, the complainant"s attorney, a city lawyer, constantly hectored the defendant"s princ.i.p.al witness, a rough old guide, but was unable to shake his testimony.
During cross-examination the guide mentioned "havin" come across the trail of a Ford." The city lawyer jumped at this chance to discredit the guide"s evidence.
"Do you mean to tell this court," he demanded, "that you can determine the make of a car by studying its track? How did you know it was a Ford?"
"Well, sir," drawled the guide, "I followed its trail about a hundred yards and found a Ford at the end of it."
The magistrate looked severely at the small, red-faced man who had been summoned before him, and who returned his gaze without flinching.
"So you kicked your landlord downstairs?" queried the magistrate. "Did you imagine that was within the right of a tenant?"
"I"ll bring my lease in and show it to you," said the little man, growing redder, "and I"ll wager you"ll agree with me that anything they"ve forgotten to prohibit in that lease I had a right to do the very first chance I got."
"As a matter of fact," said the lawyer for the defendant, trying to be sarcastic, "you were scared half to death, and don"t know whether it was a motor-car or something resembling a motor-car that hit you."
"It resembled one all right," the plaintiff made answer. "I was forcibly struck by the resemblance."
A religious worker was visiting a Southern penitentiary, when one prisoner in some way took his fancy. This prisoner was a negro, who evinced a religious fervour as deep as it was gratifying to the caller.
"Of what were you accused?" the prisoner was asked.
"Dey says I took a watch," answered the negro. "I made a good fight. I had a dandy lawyer, an" he done prove an alibi wif ten witnesses. Den my lawyer he sh.o.r.e made a strong speech to de jury. But it wa"n"t no use, sah; I gets ten years."
"I don"t see why you were not acquitted," said the religious worker.
"Well, sah," explained the prisoner, "dere was sh.o.r.e one weak spot "bout my defence--dey found de watch in my pocket."
Some time ago an elderly gentleman walking along the street saw a little girl crying bitterly. Instantly his heart softened and he stopped to soothe her.
"What is the matter, little girl," he kindly asked; "are you hurt?"
"No, sir," responded the child as her sobbing increased in volume, "I lost my nickel!"
"There! There!" gently returned the kind-hearted citizen, digging into his pocket. "Don"t cry any more. Here is your nickel."
"Why, you wicked man!" exclaimed the little girl, seizing the coin and glaring at the donor with flashing eyes. "You had it all the time!"
GRAMERCY--"Why don"t you have your old car repainted?"
PARK--"Wouldn"t think of such a thing. It"s been stolen a dozen times and has the finest collection of fingerprints you ever saw."
A witness in a railroad case at Fort Worth, asked to tell in his own way how the accident happened, said:
"Well, Ole and I was walking down the track, and I heard a whistle, and I got off the track, and the train went by, and I got back on the track, and I didn"t see Ole; but I walked along, and pretty soon I seen Ole"s hat, and I walked on, and seen one of Ole"s legs, and then I seen one of Ole"s arms, and then another leg, and then over one side Ole"s head, and I says, "My G.o.d! Something muster happen to Ole!""
Facts are stubborn things.--_Smollett_.
_See also_ Witnesses.
EXAGGERATION
_A War Lexicon_
In a letter to the editor of the New York Sun an anonymous writer gives the following important interpretations of various phrases of "Desperanto," or the language indulged in by frantic telegraph editors on American newspapers:
Terrific Slaughter--Sixteen French and seventeen Germans wounded.
Hurled Back--The withdrawal of an advanced outpost.
Thousands of Prisoners--Three German farmers arrested.
Deadly Air Battle--French aeroplane seen in the distance.