The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-25

ana knAVe, ana absolutely unworthy OF /
belief under any circumstances; and, finally, 20
wind him up with suoh a complete aud perfect
annihiatiOn, that the wretohed man begins to
think that he had better hang a milestone
about his neck and forthwith cast himself
into the sea.
One Beebe, of New York, who formerly sat
upon the bench in that city, made a display Of
himself yesterday which will fill the hearts OF
these smart young men with delight. He was
conducting the examination of witnesses in
the case of the alleged defaulting tellers Of the
Tradesmens National Bank, and among those
who received the full force of his inpudenoe
was son of the President of the Bank. Beeba
oross-examined this young man with great
severity, and being utterly baflled by the
straightforward candor of the witness, he at
last broke out in the following brilliant
strain-'T wish to make your examination
as short as possible, my young friend; but il
you go on in this disingenuous way, I'll rip
you 80 high you'll never be heard of again"
At this point the Court mildly interposed, by
saying that the witness was, to all appear
ances, giving his testimony with oandor, and
that the prisoners counsel had no right to
make such remarks. 1t is not to be presumed
that this dainty rebuke will have any appre-
ciable effect upon Beebe, who is evidently lack
ing in the first elements of gentleman. If
the Court had done its whole duty in the case
it would have sent Beebe up to Backwell's
Island for contempt, and kept him there until
such time as his daily walk and conversation
showed unmistakable signs of amendment
There are a host of Beebss at the bar of
this city. Every frequenter of our criminal
court is familiar with their names and faces,
for they are never to be found at their offices
when Judge is on ths bench. They hang
around the prisoners dock as birds of prey
hover over carcass, and but few of our law
yers who are gifted with the element of self
respect will venture into the Quarter Sessions,
because of their unfailing presence. The
manner in which they manipulate the
witnesses of the opposite party is
quite up to the Beebe standard, and we re-
member instances in which the brilliant Beebe
has been cast entirely into the shade. They
take great delight in torturing woman, espe-
| cially when the case before the Court is one in
which the details are too indecent for publica-
tien. If the witness, under these circum-
stances, exhibits the least reluctance to make
use Of words which should cause the hot blood
to mount to the cheek of every woman, they
gallantly come to her relief by putting the
revolving terms in her mouth, and then
demand that she shall nod assent. In short,
they do all manner of sharp things, and utter
all sorts of brilliant sayings, and then turn
upon the helpless jury and compel them tC
listen to unmitigated abuse of the witnesses
by the hour together.
1t is an unfortunate feature of our present
jury sy stem that such pettifoggers carry great
weight in almost every case in which they are
engaged, and in consequence their services
are in constant demand, and they are enabled
to grow fat upon the good things of thi
world. Such gentlemen and scholars al
Isaac Hazlehurst, William M. Meredith
and Theodore Cuyler are never known to b.
brilliant after the fashion of Beebe, and the
services are but seldom required in our crimi
nal courts. If the trial of thieves, burglars
and villains of all sorts were conducted b.
lawyers of their standing, the whole com
munity would be much the better for it, ant
many desperate character VIM ID no" Pel
mitted to go unwhipt of justice wOulC
find his way to Cherry Hill and Moyamen
sing. The only way in which this mos
desirable result can be brought about is 70
our judges to administer to the upstairs VIII
throDg the criminal court such severe and oft
repeated rebukes that they will be driven on
of practice or obliged to study and follow tn
examples set them by the Hazlehursts, Mere
diths, and Cuylers.