New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-07-01
WnvEN WITNESSES

The word and wit combat between the lawyers
and a lady was renewed before the Potter Commit
tee ON Saturday. Mr. Potter himself tried his hand,
and well bred he is he seems little TO have lost
his temper. his only another illustra-
ton of the difficulty Of managing women
witnesses man who should put pretty
and piquant airs, be swift to impart information
unasked for, and slow to furnish it when demanded,
would soon find himself in the tightest of places.
Equiyocation and prcyarcation would not be safe
for him. pertncSs aud insolencc. nor volublity,
nor reicenoe, nor irrcsponsiye friyolity. III he in
dulged in any untimcly frisks or freaks, he would
find himself entirely disbclicyed. But women, n
Iule-when they have a mind to-got the better of
tho lawyers. The Mrs. Jenkses have their priyi-
leges 1t is only their woman's way, think the
Judges and the Jurors. They are not mpudent, only
spicy. No gentlemanly lawyer cares to give them
brush with the rough side Of his tongue. If he
should he would of course, DO brute. The partIc-
uar Mrs. jerks whose examination before the Pot
ter Committee has both amused and astonished the
whole country, appears well enough 20 have under
stood that she the cynosure Of several millions
of ewes: and all the time she has been every inch
woman, soft az the brcezes of Spring. and hard and
sharp rs steel. She has said acidulous things
with the sweetest Of voices, and has en-
phasized her evidence which was in the
nature OF a confession, with the smallest OF
hands. Like a born actress, she has compre-
heudcd the force of dramatic climax. From be-
ginning to end, she has beensupon the abort. She
neither burst into tears nor tainted. She
took in the whole situation, and was
quite equal to il. She told her story
and such a stOry!-as II she expected, In
spite of discreditabIe circumstances and previous
flsites TO be believed-and believed she was. per-
haps. by the majority. The lawyers of the commit
tee. who had triumphantly cross-examined several
generations of witnesses for found themselves
fairly matched. This clever though some
what vulgar woman. could not be made to say
what she did not please TO say; and without the
slightest sign of pentence carried off all the credit
of it. She did not tell tho whole truth about the
Sherman letter, but she satisfied most reasonable
persons that the Secretary did not write it, Her
very refusal to answer won her belief. She is re-
markable dame. But the country can well be con-
tent with such. 1t is to be hoped that she is not
a fair specimen of what the sex would become
through it's general participation in politics, unless
indeed We yearn for endless succession of inves
LEGATIONS.
In a certain celebrated case in Brooklyn, which
the reader will readily pardon MS for not naming,
there was a clever and preternaturaly sharp girl of
a witness examined-a fact of which Mrs. JenlIs's
manner Of testifying, making allowance for her
greater maturity. has reminded US. Only this
week. in the Vanderbilt will case, q Mrs. Bishop
carried off from the lawyers tho laurels Of repartee.
Her answer to OF Mr.. Clnton's questions ON the
cross-examination was, as the children say peaked
pointed. He asked her If she had ever heard of
legislative enactment permitting man TO make an
unequal division Of property among his chill
dren. "I have heard.' she said, cot great
many diabolical things done by the Legis-
lature." When she declared that her object
in coming into Court was to benefit human
ity.p Mr.. Clinton wisely closed the cross-examina-
ton then and there.
Upon the whole, the ability of some women to
take care of themselves longer stands If IL ever